The dating game for lonely hearted knaves

How do you increase your odds of picking the best partner for life? You could try picking the petals off a daisy but that is hardly Maths. Instead go on some dates and choose one to propose to. If you pick your first or last date to propose to then you minimise your odds. The following game illustrates how to do better.

• Take a pack of cards and separate out the cards ace to ten for one suit

• Shuffle and deal face down

• Choose a number to date but not marry and turn over that many cards

• Note the highest score (aces low)

• Turn over the rest of the cards until you have one that beats the high score

• Propose to that one. Note that your friends may call them a card

This game was taken from "How long is a piece of string?" by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham. A good book let down by the chapter on epidemics.