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Compute the probability that a hand of $13$ cards contains the ace and king of at least one suit?

Approach 1
In my first approach I took all 8 cards of aces and kings aside and then made 4 group each containing ace and king of their own suit. Then for ace and king from 1 suit $\binom{4}1\binom{44}{11}$, for ace and king from 2 suits $\binom{4}2\binom{44}{9}$, for ace and king from 3 suits $\binom{4}3\binom{44}{7}$ and for ace and king from all 4 suits $\binom{4}4\binom{44}{5}$ $$E = \binom{4}1\binom{44}{11} + \binom{4}2\binom{44}{9} + \binom{4}3\binom{44}{7} + \binom{4}4\binom{44}{5}$$
But my first approach is getting me wrong answer.

Approach 2
In this approach I am using inclusion-exclusion identity

$$E = \binom{4}1\binom{50}{11} -\binom{4}2\binom{48}{9} + \binom{4}3\binom{46}{7} -\binom{4}4\binom{44}{5}$$
I am getting right answer by this approach. But I can't think of how can any cases remained to be not counted in my first approach.

My question what is difference in my both approaches.

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1 Answer 1

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The problem with your first approach is that you assume the king and the ace of a suit must both be included or excluded. You consider only $44$ cards (removing all kings and aces) for the second factor in each term. As a result, the cases where one of the two is included and the other is excluded are not counted.

Also, looks like you need to correct the addition/subtraction signs in the second approach.

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    $\begingroup$ Yes I got it I was excluding the cases in which king and ace of same suit as well as only ace or king of other suits are included. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 17 at 7:10

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