Eight men, including Colonel Mustard, sit at a round table, for a modified game of Russian roulette. They are using a six chamber revolver which has been loaded with 5 bullets.

The game begins by one of the men reaching into a hat, and randomly drawing the name of the first player.

If the first player survives his turn, the gun is handed to his adjacent clockwise neighbor, and his name is immediately returned to the hat.

If the first player loses, his name is thrown away, and the men pull from the hat, and choose the name of the next player.

The game is continued in such a way until either all five bullets have fired, OR a player survives his turn, but no longer has an adjacent clockwise neighbor to pass the gun to.

What is the probability that the Colonel will survive the game?

(Note that the chamber is spun every time a player takes his turn).

Isn't "Russian Roulette" supposed to load just one chamber??  Also does "adjacent clockwise" mean "on his left"?  Also does "adjacent" mean "in the next chair" and if so, do the chairs of the dead men remain at the table or not? Since the "game" continues until five have died (hence three remain), and the Colonel is not specified as treated separately, I would suppose he has three chances in eight of surviving?  Possibly there is some case where the provision of "no neighbor" (vague) stops the "game" earlier, in which case odds of survival would approximately double.

Posted by ed bottemiller on 2010-06-08 12:59:52