Hi Marc, Glad to hear from you again, and thanks for setting the record straight. I still wonder where the claim of the result came from, but if it had nothing to do with you, I'm no longer worried that it's somehow true and I did something wrong.
I have attached what was my last word on the subject which appeared in the AMM. I recall that the final published version did credit Michael with the longest hand... to my knowledge that record still stands.
My program has been and still is running in the background of whatever computer happens to be sitting on my desk, and every year or so it seems to find a new record. The current one is 1:-J--KA----A-Q--Q-A----KJ-- 2:A------QKJ--Q-------KJ---- which terminates after 893 "tricks" (compared to 805 for the one that did indeed appear in the AMM note). --Michael Kleber
From: Marc Paulhus <paulhus@wanadoo.nl> To: Michael Kleber <michael.kleber@gmail.com> Cc: Richard Guy <rkg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 09:19:46 +0100 Subject: Re: [math-fun] Marc Paulhus and BYN?
Hello Michael and Richard,
This is a very interesting claim. Unfortunately it is not true. Or, at least, it cannot be credited to me.
I, like Michael, wrote a computer program that played many hands and never found a cycle in a standard deck.
I have attached what was my last word on the subject which appeared in the AMM. I recall that the final published version did credit Michael with the longest hand... to my knowledge that record still stands.
Marc.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Kleber" <michael.kleber@gmail.com> To: "Richard Guy" <rkg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> Cc: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com>; "Marc Paulhus" <paulhus@wanadoo.nl> Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 5:24 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Marc Paulhus and BYN?
Thanks, Richard -- glad Marc is traceable.
The paper you include looks old: I think it's from before he ran something in the Monthly unanswered questions column in February '99. In fact, that's outside the 5-year window, so on JSTOR: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9890%28199902%29106%3A2%3C162%3ABMN%3E...
In particular the "very long hand" included in that tex file is the one Marc had in the Monthly piece. We first learned about each other while that was in press, and he added a note mentioning the significantly longer hand that was my record at the time -- the only time my name has appeared in that fine publication, I think. Ah, fame :-)
--Michael
On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 08:58:28 -0700 (MST), Richard Guy <rkg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> wrote:
I'm copying this to Marc, who can best answer it. There is a paper somewhere --- too lazy to put my hand on it, but I attach a 2003-09-22 version of it, in case it is of help. R.
On Wed, 2 Feb 2005, Michael Kleber wrote:
Does anyone know where Marc Paulhus is now? His email address at Calgary bounces.
Arturo Magidin just pointed out to me that in the new release of Winning Ways Vol 4 (on p.892), they claim that Marc found a non-terminating game of Beggar- Your-Neighbor. But they don't cite or present the hand.
WW also says, though, that Marc says that one out of 150,000 hands will not terminate, and I find that hard to believe -- I wrote a computer program (some ten years ago) that plays random deals, and it's played hundreds of billions of hands without finding one that cycles. So I'm hoping to find out what the story really is...
--Michael
-- It is very dark and after 2000. If you continue you are likely to be eaten by a bleen.