n cards are dealt to two players. Each player has at least one card. How many possible hands can the first player have?
Solution
There are two choices for each card (player A or player B). So 2n possibilities. But we must exclude the two cases where one player gets all the cards, so 2n - 2.
© John Scholes
jscholes@kalva.demon.co.uk
11 Oct 2003
Last corrected/updated 11 Oct 03