How to Win: A Mathematical Approach to Games and Puzzles

A New York Times bestselling mathematician reveals how math can take your game playing and puzzle solving to the next level. 

“A thrilling tour of all the ways you can win with math.” ―Matt Parker, author of the international bestseller Humble Pi

“A winning book by a winning personality.” ―Ben Orlin, author of Math Games with Bad Drawings

Imagine entering a bingo parlor where one thousand cards are in play. “I’ll bet that the winning card is horizontal instead of vertical,” a man says. Should you take the bet? Or suppose you’ve reached Final Jeopardy! with $7,000 to your opponents’ $8,000 and $4,000. What should you wager?

Or imagine you’re at the blackjack table. The dealer’s up card is a four, and you’ve been dealt a jack and a two. Should you hit or should you stand?

In How to Win, Art Benjamin answers these questions and many more. Breaking down the mathematics of games and puzzles, he finds winning strategies, hidden paradoxes, and profound ideas. He shows us the best opening guesses and follow-up moves in Wordle, an easy way to solve a Rubik’s Cube and almost any sudoku, and how to determine which games at the casino will let your money last the longest. And he reveals how the same math extends to everyday life, enabling us to transcend luck in whatever we do.

Now that’s a winning proposition.

Arthur Benjamin is the author of two bestsellers, The Magic of Math and Secrets of Mental Math. He holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University and is the Smallwood Family Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. He is also a backgammon grandmaster and a magician of some renown. He lives in Claremont, California.