Al, Ben, and Cal played a round of card games, each game having exactly one winner.
- The player who first won three games was to be the winner of the round.
- No player won two games in succession.
- Al was the first dealer, but not the last.
- Ben was the second dealer.
- The players sat in fixed positions around a table with the player on the current dealer's left the next dealer.
- When a player was the dealer for a game he did not win that game.
Who won the round?
This is almost identical to the "Card Crack" problem that came up two weeks ago. Using pencil & paper, and stopping when one player had won three games, we have the same 8 possible sequences of winners:
This time, 4 of these had A as the last dealer, so these do not work:
Dealer: ABCABCA
Winner: BCABCAB
CABCABC
BCABCAC
BCACABC
4 sequences do work:
Dealer: ABCABC
Winner: BABCAB
BCABAB
BCABCB
BCBCAB
So B won the round, on the 6th hand
Code Cracked II (spoiler)
