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Coin Toss (Posted on 2013-06-13) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Two persons engage in a game of chance. The game is to nominate a sequence of three consecutive coin tosses [H or T].

Player one firstly nominates a sequence and then player two makes a nomination. The game finishes when the last three tosses match either one of the players' nominations.

How can player two be assured of winning most of the time?

Given the choices that can be made by player one, what are the odds of player two winning?

Oh, it doesn't matter who tosses the coin.

  Submitted by brianjn    
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Solution: (Hide)
Having seen the sequence proposed by Player One, Player Two uses the first two letters from Player One's as his second and third (bold). Player Two's remaining choice, his first letter is to be the opposite to that which is his third (underlined).

The chosen sequences and the odds of Two winning are:
   One    Two    Odds as given
HHH    THH    7:1
HHT    THH    3:1
HTH    HHT    2:1
HTT    HHT    2:1
THH    TTH    2:1
THT    TTH    2:1
TTH    HTT    3:1
TTT    HTT    7:1

This was composed from material offered by @Scam School

How the odds table was calculated I have no idea but Charlie gives values from his computer simulation, look for the highest decimal fraction in each column.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Player 2 strategyLarry2013-06-21 16:34:35
re: solutionbrianjn2013-06-14 05:15:52
Some ThoughtsA thoughtHugo2013-06-13 18:59:04
SolutionsolutionCharlie2013-06-13 17:52:15
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