Created by:

Dr. Aamir Rashid, Associate Professor, EED UET Taxila.

Tutorial Problem 7. We draw the top 7 cards from a well-shuffled standard 52-card
deck. Find the probability that:
(a) The 7 cards include exactly 3 aces.
(b) The 7 cards include exactly 2 kings.
(c ) The probability that the 7 cards include exactly 3 aces. or exactly 2 kings, or
both.

Problem Setup

1. Define the Sample Space (Ω): The experiment consists of drawing 7 cards from a
well-shuffled 52-card deck. The order in which the cards are drawn does not
matter. Therefore, the total number of possible outcomes is the number of
combinations of 7 cards chosen from 52.

52
Total Outcomes = ( )
7
​

Since the deck is well-shuffled, we assume every combination is equally likely,

(a) Probability that the 7 cards include exactly 3 aces

Let A be the event that exactly 3 aces are drawn. To find the number of ways this can
happen, we break the selection into two stages using the basic counting principle:

1. Choose the aces: We must choose 3 aces out of the 4 available in the deck. There
are (43) ways to do this.
​

2. Choose the remaining cards: We must choose the remaining 4 cards from the 48
cards in the deck that are not aces. There are (48
4
) ways to do this.
​

Multiplying these gives the total number of favorable outcomes:

(43)(48
4
)
P (A) =
​

(52
​

7)
​
(b) Probability that the 7 cards include exactly 2 kings

Let B be the event that exactly 2 kings are drawn. We use the exact same logic as in
part (a):

1. Choose the kings: We must choose 2 kings out of the 4 available. There are (42) ​

ways to do this.

2. Choose the remaining cards: We must choose the remaining 5 cards from the 48
48
cards that are not kings. There are ( 5 ) ways to do this.
​

Multiplying these gives the total number of favorable outcomes:

(42)(48 )
P (B) = 52 5
​ ​

(7)
​

(c ) Probability of exactly 3 aces, or exactly 2 kings, or both

We are looking for the probability of the union of events A and B , denoted as P (A ∪
B). According to the properties of probability laws, we use the inclusion-exclusion
formula:

P (A ∪ B) = P (A) + P (B) − P (A ∩ B)

We already have P (A) and P (B). We just need to calculate P (A ∩ B), which is the
probability of getting exactly 3 aces AND exactly 2 kings.

4
1. Choose the aces: Choose 3 aces out of 4 → (3) ways. ​

4
2. Choose the kings: Choose 2 kings out of 4 → (2) ways. ​

3. Choose the remaining cards: We have chosen 5 cards so far. The remaining 2
cards must be chosen from the cards that are neither aces nor kings. Since there
are 4 aces and 4 kings, there are 52 − 8 = 44 such cards. There are (44
2 ) ways to
​

do this.

The probability of both events occurring is:

(43)(42)(44
2
)
P (A ∩ B) =
​ ​ ​

(52
​

7) ​
Now, substituting everything back into the union formula:

(43)(48 ) (4)(48
4 + 2
) (4)(4)(44
5 − 3 2 2
)
P (A ∪ B) =
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

(52
​

7)
​