a standard deck of playing cards has 52 cards, 13 of each of four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. what is the probability of selecting two hearts from a full deck without replacement?
first pick comes from a full deck of 52, and the probability of picking a heart on the first pick is 13/52 = 1/4. now, when picking without replacement, the second card is selected from a deck that has only 51 cards, and of those 51, only 12 hearts remaining (the first heart has been selected and not replaced into the deck!) probability of picking heart on the second pick = 12/51 = 4/17, and the combined probability is (1/4)(4/17) = 1/17