Excel 2007 : Help Calculating Winning Outcomes for gambling against my friend on UFC fights

Hello, everyone. This is my first post on this forum, so I will do my best to make it a good one.

I often create spreadsheets to try and improve my Excel skills. The newest one I have made has stumped me a bit. For every UFC fight card my friend and I gamble a 6-pack of beer to whoever can win the most fake money on the fights. For example, I pick five fights on a certain card. I then find the odds associated with each fight on various gambling websites. My friend and I each have ￥10,000 fake yen to spread out over the fights. The only rule is that we must gamble at least ￥500 on each fight. So, we select a winner and how much money we risk on the fight. The winner of the 6-pack is whoever won the most fake money after all the fights are completed. Here are three screenshots of what my spreadsheet looks like.

The first one is of the raw fight data:
UFCSpreadsheetScreenshot1.jpg

The second one shows my picks (and outcome):
UFCSpreadsheetScreenshot2.jpg

The third one shows Andy’s picks (and outcome):
UFCSpreadsheetScreenshot3.jpg

This is what my spreadsheet looks like after all the fights have already finished.

My spreadsheet works like a charm now. I simply paste the winners name into the yellow highlighted cells and Excel makes all the calculations for me. I was wondering if there was some kind of Excel function I can use to calculate the different combinations to produce a “winning” result (me winning more money than Andy). I have no idea where to begin with this one.

If anybody can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know of anything like that. It's GAMBLING! The fighters with the lower odds are the favored to win. So bet on them.

Some hard core gamblers think that if you know enough about each side(each fighter), that it will give you a small edge for betting.

I understand the betting and the odds, that was not the question. I do not need help picking winners here. I am looking for a way to analyze the possible outcomes in which I beat my friend. For example,

Fight 1 Joe (1.30) vs Frank (2.20)
Fight 2 Sam (3.53) vs Ramon (1.26)
Fight 3 Brian (3.12) vs Vlad (1.59)

Me:
Fight 1 Frank for ￥2,000
Fight 2 Sam for ￥5,000
Fight 3 Brian for ￥3,000

My friend:
Fight 1 Frank for ￥1,500
Fight 2 Ramon for ￥6,000
Fight 3 Vlad for ￥2,500

Now, I know that if all the guys I picked win, I win the beer! What other combinations would put a 6-pack in my fridge? That is what I am wondering. Is there an Excel formula, or a combination of formulas, that could help me calculate this information?

Excel cannot predict who will win. Excel can output a list of all the possibilities. If you had your friend's picks, Excel could tell you which possibilities might result in more fake money(and beer in the end).

It would take a simple macro. Well, simple for me.

Ah, I see. I have not reached the level of macros yet. I do know the picks my friend makes. After I make mine he sends me his each time. Thank you for your help, Dennis. I will look into how to write a macro for this.

shg, I am still interested in doing it. Do you know which formulas to use? Could you show me a short example?

Wow. shg! Thank you very much. You just put a wrinkle on my brain. Thanks!

I am sorry to bother you again. What does the "Me" represent in the formula below? I plugged the information into my spreadsheet and assigned the values to the correct cells. I am not sure what to do with the "Me" though. Excel returns "#Name" when I use it. Is there something in need to add-on?

Originally Posted by shg

[code]
=MOD(INT((ROWS($B$10:Me) - 1) / 2 ^ (COLUMNS($B$10:Me) - 1)), 2)

Thanks for all your help.