The Kelly System For Gambling And Investing

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  1. The Kelly System For Gambling And Investing Companies
  2. The Kelly System For Gambling And Investing Money

Desert diamond casino 7350 s nogales hwy tucson az 85756. After 5000 bets, betting with the Kelly Criterion yields a total capital of between $5000 and $10000 (a percent increase of capital of over 4900%) while constant betting yields a total capital of around $2500 (a percent increase of capital of about 2400%). Sep 01, 2017 Additional uses and applications of the advanced Kelly Criterion. Example #1 - A soccer game where both a visitor win and draw outcome provide the bettor with an edge: The Kelly formula would suggest staking 2.5% of bankroll on both the visitor win and the draw, staking a total of 5% of bankroll.

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The Kelly betting system at each stage uses the myopic rule of maximizing the expected log, one stage ahead. Thus at stage k, you bet proportionπ(p k) of your fortune. The asymptotic justification of the Kelly Betting System described above has a generalization that holds in this situation also. See Breiman (1961). A General Investment Model with Log Utility. A striking fact is that this. The answer is that the formula commonly known as the Kelly Criterion is not the real Kelly Criterion - it is a simplified form that works when there is only one bet at a time. How to use the “real” or generalised Kelly Criterion. Below is an explanation of how to apply the generalised Kelly Criterion to betting.

Of Gambling The Kelly Money Management System by ruin even if you always lose, you still have something left after each bet. The Kelly system has this feature. Of course, in actu- al practice coins, bills or chips are generally used, and there is a mini- mum size bet. Therefore, with a. The Kelly betting system at each stage uses the myopic rule of maximizing the expected log, one stage ahead. Thus at stage k, you bet proportionπ(p k) of your fortune. The asymptotic justification of the Kelly Betting System described above has a generalization that holds in this situation also. See Breiman (1961). A General Investment Model. Bet Smart: The Kelly System for Gambling and Investing – elevationbook.com In 1956, a physicist named John Kelly working at Bell Labs published a paper titled A New Interpretation of Information Rate. In the paper he draws an analogy between the outcomes of a gambling game and the transmission of symbols over a communications channel.

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Introduction


The Kelly Criterion is a bet-sizing technique which balances both risk and reward for the advantage gambler. The same principle would work for any investment with an expectation of being profitable. For the gambler/investor with average luck bankroll and a fixed bet size, the expected bankroll growth after one bet is:

For example, suppose a casino ran a promotion in craps where the 2 paid 3 to 1 and the 12 paid 4 to 1. A 3, 4, 9, 10, or 11 still pay 1 to 1 and every other total loses. The probability of a 2 or 12 is 1/36 each, of any even money win is 14/36 and of a loss is 20/36. Suppose also the player bets 1% of his bankroll every bet. Then the expected bankroll growth per bet would be:

(1 + (0.01*3))^(1/36) * (1 + (0.01*1)^(14/36) * (1 + (0.01*-1))^(20/36) * (1 + (0.01*4))^(1/36)) - 1 = 0.00019661.

This product is maximized by Kelly betting. Kelly betting also minimizes the expected number of bets required to double the bankroll, when bet sizing is always in proportion to the current bankroll.

The Kelly bet amount is the optimal amount for maximizing the expected bankroll growth, for the gambler with average luck. While betting more than Kelly will produce greater expected gains on a per-bet basis, the greater volatility causes long-term bankroll growth to decline compared to exact Kelly bet sizing. Betting double Kelly results in zero expected growth. Anything greater than double Kelly results in expected bankroll decline. What is more commonly seen is betting less than the full Kelly amount. While this does lower expected growth, it also reduces bankroll volatility. Betting half the Kelly amount, for example, reduces bankroll volatility by 50%, but growth by only 25%.

For simple bets that have only two outcomes, the optimal Kelly bet is the advantage divided by what the bet pays on a 'to one' basis. For bets with more than one possible outcome, the optimal Kelly wager is that which maximizes the log of the bankroll after the wager. However, for bets with more than one outcome, that can be hard to determine. Most gamblers use advantage/variance as an approximation, which is a very good estimator. For example, if a bet had a 2% advantage, and a variance of 4, the gambler using 'full Kelly' would bet 0.02/4 = 0.5% of his bankroll on that event. Remember that variance is the square of standard deviation, which is listed for many games in my Game Comparison Guide.

Let’s look at three examples.

Example 1: A card counter perceives a 1% advantage at the given count. From my Game Comparison Guide, we see the standard deviation of blackjack is 1.15 (which can vary according to the both the rules and the count). If the standard deviation is 1.15, then the variance is 1.152 = 1.3225. The portion of bankroll to bet is 0.01 / 1.3225 = 0.76%.

Example 2: A casino in town is offering a 5X points promotion in video poker. Normally the slot club pays 2/9 of 1% in free play. So at 5X, the slot club pays 1.11%. The best game is 9/6 Jacks or Better at a return of 99.54%. After the slot club points, the return is 99.54% + 1.11% = 100.65%, or a 0.65% advantage. The Game Comparison Guide shows the standard deviation of 9/6 Jacks or Better is 4.42, so the variance is 19.5364. The portion of bankroll to bet is 0.0065 / 19.5364 = 0.033%. By the way, this exact promotion is going on at the Wynn as I write this, for September 2 and 3, 2007.

Example 3: A sports wager has a 20% chance of winning, and pays 9 to 2. The advantage is 0.2×4.5 + 0.8×-1 = 0.1. The optimal Kelly wager is 0.1/4.5 = 2.22%.

Following is the exact math of example 3. Let x be optimal Kelly bet, with a bankroll of 1 before the bet. The expected log of the bankroll after the bet is..

f(x) = 0.2 × log(1+4.5x) + 0.8 × log(1-x)

To maximize f(x), take the derivative and set equal to zero.

f'(x) = 0.2 × 4.5 / (1+4.5x) - 0.8 / (1-x) = 0

0.9 / (1+4.5x) = 0.8/(1-x)

0.9 - 0.9x = 0.8 + 3.6 x

4.5x = 0.1

The Kelly System For Gambling And Investing Companies

x = .1/4.5 = 1/45 = 2.22%

The math gets much messier when there is more than one possible outcome, such as in video poker. The method is still the same, but getting the solution for x is harder. The easiest way to solve for x in such cases, in my opinion, is experimenting with different values, using the higher and lower techniques (like the Clock Game on the 'Price is Right'), until the f'(x) gets very close to zero.

I did this for two common video poker games with greater than 100% return. For 'Full Pay Deuces Wild,' with a return of 100.76%, the optimal bet size is 0.0345% of bankroll. For ' 10/7 Double Bonus,' with a return of 100.17%, the optimal bet size is 0.0062637% of bankroll. I have heard a rule of thumb that to make it in video poker you should have a bankroll of 3 to 5 times the royal amount you play for. If playing Full Pay Deuces wild, the exact amount is 3.66 royals. For 10/7 Double Bonus it is 19.96 royals.

Simulations

To prove my statement that Kelly minimizes the number of bets to double the bankroll I assumed an even money bet with a 51% chance of winning, for a 2% advantage, and 2% Kelly bet size. Here is how many bets were required on average to double the bankroll at various bet sizes. If a winning wager would put the bettor over double the bankroll, he would only bet what was needed to exactly double the bankroll.

Average Bets to Double Bankroll

Bet SizeAverage Bets
0.5%7,901
1%4,617
2%3,496
3%4,477

Kelly Vs. Optimal Video Poker Strategy

In my Sep. 20, 2007 Ask the Wizard column I suggested the Kelly bettor should sometimes not play optimal video poker strategy. My reasons are explained there.

Links on Kelly

German translation of this page.

Fortune’s Formula by William Poundstone. Read my review.

The Kelly System For Gambling And Investing

A good source on Kelly, especially as it pertains to blackjack, is Blackjack Attack by Don Schlesinger.

SBRForum.com has good material on Kelly, including the article 'A Quantitative Introduction to the Kelly Criterion', part I and part II, and a Kelly calculator.

The Kelly Criterion at Wikipedia.


Written by: Michael Shackleford

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The Kelly Criterion is a method of betting for blackjack players who have a mathematical edge in a wager. The Kelly Criterion maximizes your profit while eliminating your risk of ruin.

The Kelly Criterion is most often used by card counters. The better a player's chances of winning based on the card count, the more the player bets. The size of this bet is determined according to the Kelly Criterion, sometimes known as the Kelly Formula. If the house has an edge in a game, then the Kelly Criterion is useless.

Calculating Risk and Applying the Kelly Criterion

The Kelly Criterion is a mathematical formula used to maximize the growth rate of serial gambling wagers that have a positive expectation. The Kelly Criterion is a model for long-term growth rate.It does not predict automatic short-term success, but the Kelly Criterion does maximize profits by setting the percentage of a player's bankroll which should be bet at each stage of play.

Basically, the Kelly Criterion can be boiled down to this: you should bet a percentage of your bankroll equal to the edge you have at the game. When you raise the size of your bet based on how good the count is in a blackjack game where you're counting, you're putting the Kelly Criterion into action.

What the Kelly Criterion Does Not Do

  • The Kelly Criterion doesn't assure you will make a profit. It maximizes your profits when you do win.
  • Conversely, the Kelly Criterion doesn't assure you won't lose money. The criterion minimizes the chance you will lose all your money.
  • The Kelly Criterion does not help gamblers defeat a house edge. It is meant to help those playing with a positive expectation. It really has no use when playing most casino games, because the house has the edge in most casino games.

The History of the Kelly Criterion

The Kelly Criterion was developed by John Larry Kelly, Jr. J.L. Kelly worked at Bell Labs in Texas, and was born in Corsicana, Texas.

Kelly began to develop investing strategies according to probability theory. These theories also applied to gambling strategies, too, and these investing strategies are part of what is now called game theory.

John Kelly's friend and colleague, Claude Shannon, made a visit to Las Vegas in the 1960's. Shannon and his wife used the Kelly Criterion to win at blackjack. Claude Shannon and another colleague eventually applied the Kelly Criterion to the stock market, eventually collecting a fortune.

By this time, John Kelly was dead of a stroke. His theory has been applied to gambling with increasing frequency over the years.

The Kelly Formula

The Kelly formula is meant to determine the fraction of your bankroll which you should bet at any given times. The idea is that you find that fraction which maximizes the amount of money you expect to win.

Here is the basic equation for the Kelly Criterion:

f = (b times p minus q) divided by b

There are several portions of the formula which need to be described:

f = The fraction of a player's bankroll which should be wagered. This is the number someone is looking for when using the Kelly formula.

b = This is the odds the player is receiving on the wager.

p = The probability the player will win the wager.

q = The probability the player will lose the wager, which is easily determined in a simple bet as 1 - p. For example, if the probability of winning (p) is 0.50%, then the probability of losing (q) would be 1 - 0.50 or 0.50%.

This would imply an even-money bet. In such an even-money bet, the Kelly Formula can be simplified to f = 2p - 1.

To use the Kelly Criterion, then, a player must be able to estimate the odds, the probability of winning and the probability of losing the bet.

Drawbacks to Using the Kelly Criterion

The Kelly Criterion cannot guarantee a win on gambling. What the Kelly Criterion does is guarantee you will not lose all of your money. It also maximizes your profits when you are winning. The Kelly Criterion is supposed to accumulate a compound interest of 9.06% when used correctly.

The problem with the Kelly Criterion is that it can lead to highly volatile results. You have a 33% chance of losing half of your bankroll before you double your payroll. There have been many attempts to modify the Kelly Criterion to make it less volatile. This led to the creation of Half-Kelly techniques.

The Half-Kelly Criterion

The Half-Kelly Criterion is often used by players who don't entirely trust the Kelly Criterion or their implementation of it. In a casino setting, it is easy to miscalculate the formula. If this leads to over-betting, the formula becomes counter-productive and the player can lose a large amount.

To safeguard against this, some people simply half the bet the Kelly Formula requires. This is called the half-kelly. This eliminates the chances of mistaken over-betting. Of course, the Half-Kelly undermines the original purpose of the Kelly Criterion, which was to maximize the amount won at a casino.

See also:

The Kelly System For Gambling And Investing Money


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