Evil Hangman

Programming

Hello, this time I'll talk about programming. Those who studies math here had a full year of object-oriented programming with C++. I liked it a lot and took a module "Data structures" where we program in JAVA. Now I can choose on an assignment from various sources and I'm thinking of doing Evil Hangman.

Evil Hangman

Evil Hangman is an assignment in which students write a computer program that cheats at the classic game Hangman. Normally, when writing a computer to play Hangman, the computer picks a single word and accurately represents it as the human player tries to guess all of the letters in the word. In Evil Hangman, the computer instead maintains a list of every word in the English language, then continuously pares down the word list to try to dodge the player's guesses as much as possible. Human players tend to fare terribly against this conniving silicon foe!

I've already made a little program that fetched up all Lithuanian words from a website and I believe that if I do it right, this can be unbeatable. Especially since there are some Lithuanian words that are really tough to guess.

Tips

Since I'm not that much experienced at programming I'll appreciate all tips that might aid me at this assignment. Maybe someone has done this. Feedback in the comments would be great.

Some poker math

So I've tried playing and studying some Pot limit Omaha poker, I've quite enjoyed this format and that encouraged me to dwelve more into it. So I made some calculations on some specific hands and the results surprised me. In my given scenario KQ89 prefers to call the flop and JJ34 prefers to get it in on the flop even if he's got 45% chance to win if he does.

Here are the calculations: 

I've rounded up some values but everything else should be quite accurate.





















Player 1 has a 20 out wrap and Player 2 has a bare top set. The pot on flop is 10bb
After the flop, effective remaining stack is 40bb.
I analyzed 3 situations:1st situation: Players get it all in on flop
When Player 1 calls a pot bet on flop it breaks down into two more situations
I analyzed a few outcomes on turn:
-a) Board pairs up and player 1 is drawing dead therefore he folds.
-b) Turn bricks and Player 2 bets pot, both players are flipping.
-c) Player 1 hits and is the favorite to win, so he bets pot and Player 2 folds.
-d) Player 1 hits and is the favorite to win, so he bets pot and Player 2 calls.
so there's 2 more situations , 2nd situation = a+b+c and 3rd situation = a+b+d
Ofc there's more possible situations but those rely a lot on the players behavior so I just analyzed these.

Assuming both players are very straightforward no money gets in on the river since one player has 100% equity and will take down the pot.

EV -> the EV of the 1st situation.
EV1 -> the EV of the 2nd situation.
EV2 -> the EV of the 3rd situation.

The second example also includes a flush, So I added another situation if Player 2 folds only if the turn brings a flush.(EV3)

Of course this poker hand is only theoretical, opponents' tendencies is very important and you can never know his exact range. Using bigger stacks would change the results and it might be that against some opponents it would be better to get it in on the flop(e.g. against the very aggressive ones against which you won't know what hand you're against)

After a break

Hello everyone,

So I've just stopped blogging long time ago, I remember that exams got up to me and I just didn't have much time or interesting stuff to write about. I've had a fun summer, relaxed quite a bit and the second year of studying began.

Studies.That's one major thing in my life at the moment and I'm doing better I guess. I still can't make myself productive enough, that's what bothers me the most I guess. But on the bright side, studies don't seem to be that hard this term. My goal is to rock the grades out of it and get a scholarship, it's quite hard but I know I've got the potential to do so I just need to stop being a lazy ass.

So studies, they've gotten far more interesting and perhaps will deserve more space in this blog.

That's it for now, wait for a post on an interesting subject soon :)

Update on life I

Quick update

Hello guys, I haven‘t posted in quite a while because I’ve been a little bit busy with life. My studies are going so so… I’ve got the potential to get amazing results it’s just that I’m quite lazy. I procrastinate a lot and only get my shit together when there’s not enough time left. I end up getting mediocre results from tests and such and become disappointed. Other than that I’m really happy.

 I’ve turned 20 couple of days ago and I’ve gotten my first car, it’s Opel Astra I 1.7D. It’s quite old but It’s gonna be ok for start. I’m in a happy relationship and currently quite satisfied with myself. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before but I’ve been playing online poker for 3 years now and currently I’ve switched to ZOOM cash games at Poker Stars, grinding the micros and learning the general ABC poker. All this work and no play does not make me a dull boy. It’s really satisfying achieving something great, be it in poker, studies or even if this blog get a bigger count of views. 

I’m writing from my university since it’s a break and I don’t feel like studying at all. I’ll write more about my studies next time. Even though it’s hard I have no regrets of choosing math. 

Until next time..

Mathematical methods of data analysis

Specialties continued

As I mentioned before (Specialties) I'm studying math and I will need to choose a specialty. I will get all the regulated math units regardless of my choice, the difference is only in the additional units.

 Mathematical methods of data analysis

 I've got almost no clue about this specialty. I'm quite new to this and I  haven't got any experience with stuff like this. So I'll just write about the stuff I read on my uni's website. So it contains such units:

1. Discrete transformations  - Absorb the knowledge of  mathematical description of the one-dimensional and multidimensional discrete transformations (Fourier, Vols, cosine, wavelet,etc.) as well as their fast computing technologies, learn to apply discrete transformations in digital and signal analysis at spectral area.
2. Cryptology -Learn about cryptology and its mathematical foundations. Absorb basic mathematical techniques used in cryptographic systems used in cryptographic systems, which are the components of the IT society and used in e-government and e-service facilities.
3. Mathematical methods for digital image processing - Learn about mathematical modeling of real-world images also creating their computer analogs, how to use mathematical discrete transformations, means of regular expressions and fractal techniques in solving one-dimensional and multidimensional efficient coding of digital images, analysis and synthesis problems.
4. Risk and uncertainty analysis - Learn to analyze the risks and uncertainties through probabilistic methods.
5. Database management systems - Gain knowledge about the existing database management systems (DBMS), DBMS structure and its basic functions.Learn to create databases based on Visual FoxPro DBMS and develop effective use of their information retrieval and manipulation tools.
6. Combinatorial optimization - Be introduced to the most important combinatorial optimization problems, get the knowledge about the basic methods and algorithms for solving such problems and learn to programmatically implement and experimentally investigate specific algorithms for practical optimization problem solving.
7. Software agents for knowledge engineering  - Learn about understanding knowledge, its imaging techniques and decision-making systems in a distributed information sphere.  Learn to use alternative solutions sampling strategies and methods of argumentation. Absorb the design principles of Expert Systems, learn to work with ES shells: Jess (with Java), Instant Tea(Online). Familiarize yourself with the software module design  technology and develop the skills to apply them in practice.

That's about it. Again feedback is greatly appreciated from people in the related fields. I'd love to hear more about this stuff.

Mathematical modelling of business systems

Specialties continued

As I mentioned before (Specialties) I'm studying math and I will need to choose a specialty. I will get all the regulated math units regardless of my choice, the difference is only in the additional units.

Mathematical modelling of business systems

Today I'll talk about a specialty that would help me get into the business field later in life. It has such additional units:

1. Investment mathematics: After completing this course, the student should be able to solve problems using the methods of calculating interest,create stock evaluation models and portfolio optimization algorithms, choose the appropriate mathematical models and apply them to real problems, interpret the mathematical model study results.
2. Game theory: Teaches the student to solve optimization problems in conflict situations, operate in game theory concepts and symbols. Also to master the challenges of a two-person game with pure and mixed strategies, to deal with m x n gambling by using the iterative method, create and solve linear programming problems graphically or by the simplex method.Student should be able to create dual tasks and apply it in gambling, solve problems with the raised gain function. Introduces to heads-up challenges.
3. Risk theory in business systems:  The main objective is to learn the basic concepts of risk theory and methods, get the basics of business risk modeling.
4. Applications of Graph Theory: Learn to apply Graph Theory in solving practical problems.
5. Life insurance mathematics:  Learn to calculate the current and future value of financial flows using the mathematical models of compound interest. Calculate the probabilities of future life expectancy based on analytical principles, life tables and commutation functions. Learn to create the basic equivalency equations for insurance schemes, calculate premiums and reserves by assessing the costs.
6. The mathematical theory of property insurance: Teaches the student how to use basic statistical methods in calculating property insurance premiums by assessing the risk and using the Bonus-Malus system, as well as reinsurance premiums and reserve funds.
7. Service system models: Learn to apply the theory of service systems in solving practical problems and their qualitative research.
8. Financial performance analysis:  Acquire the knowledge of applying financial analysis methods and learn to do a company's financial analysis. Specific objectives: learn to use the basic analysis techniques and methods, know and absorb the management solutions and financial results of peer relationships, evaluate a company's financial status.
9. Risk management: Teaches the student how to calculate the stochastic current and future probabilistic values of financial flows using stochastic interest models, basic risk- sharing and reinsurance schemes as well as methods of calculating their probabilistic characteristics.
10. Business process and system modeling: Acquire knowledge of business processes and formal system modeling techniques. Learn to create business processes and systems stimulation models using the aggregate methods andsimulation modeling system ARENA. Learn to create business process and system models when the systems are described in Markov processes.

That pretty much sums it up. If you can relate to this field of work, I'd appreciate your feedback on what I could expect in the future after taking on such a specialty.

Business systems, Data analysis?

Math... again

I haven't posted in a while because I was quite busy this week. Still this won't stop me from blogging. Last time I talked about my studies and how I'll need to choose in which path I want to go. Recently I had a lecture in which the Dean explained what we should expect if we chose one thing or another. So basically we can chose whether we'd like to get a double bachelor degree or not.

Double Bachelor

If we go for the double bachelor we will then have to attend the regulated modules of Mathematics which would amount to half of our studies and the other half would consist of the other subject. For example if I decide to go for Math+Economics. I'd still go to math classes with others from my faculty and the rest of classes I'd attend with those studying economics. If I really wanted economics I would have chosen to study that. The only bonus is that I might be better than other economists because of my analytical approach to it. Anyway I've almost completely decided to refuse a double bachelor.

Specialties

If I opt to go for the main studies in mathematics, I could chose between two specialties or none. One would be "Mathematical modeling of business systems" and the other "Mathematical methods of data analysis". With the first one I'd get modules such as "Insurance", "Investment Mathematics", "Gambling theory" and "Risk theory of business systems". The second one would provide "Discrete transformations", "Cryptology", "Mathematical methods for digital image processing". I could also chose between both and get no specialty, if I wanted to go for more pure, theoretical math knowledge but I'm leaning more towards modeling of business systems.


Edit: I've updated the post with links to more specific descriptions of each specialty. Double bachelor is out of the question now.