The other night we were playing with a real deck of cards (imagine that!) and the subject of poker came up.
Janet said she never learned how to play poker, and asked if I could teach her. I explained the value of all the cards, and the ranking of all the different "hands," starting with the Royal Flush, all the way down to not even a pair, or a hand worth nothing. All the cards were face up on the table during this learning process.
When she thought she understood, she suggested we play a game with all the cards face up, and we would each pick a hand, and see who would win.
I said, "That's a stupid game, because I'll pick a Royal Flush, and you'll pick a Royal Flush, and neither of us would ever win."
She said, "Well, in a real game, you said we could throw away one, two, three, or all of our cards and exchange them for others. Let's do the same thing."
Again I objected, "Why would we need to exchange any cards if we both pick Royal Flushes? There would be no need to exchange anything!"
She said, "Let me go first, and I bet I can beat you."
So, I let her go first,
...and she beat me...
...every time...
How did she do it?
