Imagine someone betting you a diamond-studded thumb-tip that he can beat or tie any poker hand you can draw from a pack laid face up on the table! Here are the rules: You have the first choice of 5 cards. Then he can choose any 5 cards from those remaining. After you see what he chooses, you can discard (if you wish) as many cards as you like, and then fill your hand from those remaining face up on table. Finally, it is his turn to discard and fill his hand from the cards remaining, but not, of course, from…
Solution The problem titled Poker Challenge, in Jinx #150, is solved here-with. Take the four TENS, and any other card you like. This prevents your opponent from taking any Straight Flush above the Nine, but allows you to make a Royal Flush in any suit after the discard. However, if he blocks you in this by taking four Aces, four Kings, four Queens or four Jacks, you then can discard all but one of the Tens and draw four cards to fill a Ten-high Straight Flush, which beats anything he can draw. (Since, according to the rules, he is not…
While not a magical item strictly, this party game has served me well at times when my tricks weren't being too well appreciated. It is called "My Grandmother likes ---." It has the advantage of being usable when only one other person besides yourself is present as well as being practical when a lot of guests gather close and enter into the mental arena. At such time the cumulative "build-up" becomes positively terrific. Let us call it one of those verbal mysteries for which everyone becomes more and more interested in finding the clue. You begin - "My grandmother likes…
Editor's Note: The two following items are not new puzzles, by any means, but they represent well the type that makes one keep on thinking after being shown. In both cases these problems have been seized upon by showmen and used, not as puzzles generally are used, but in a graphic manner such as to captivate the imagination of onlookers who would otherwise beget a bored look were "here's a puzzle" mentioned. The first new approach, The Odd Estate, is by Henry Christ. His use of pasteboards in the solution (?) can be a welcome interlude during any "take a…
Ten weary footsore travelers, All in a woeful plight, Sought shelter in a wayside Inn One dark and stormy night. "Nine beds - no more," the landlord said, "Have I to offer you; To each of eight a single room, But the ninth must serve two." A din arose. The troubled host Could only scratch his head; For of those tired men no two Could occupy one bed. The puzzled host was soon at ease -- He was a clever man -- And so to please his guests devised This most ingenious plan. (The performer draws or shows a design…
Gerald Lynton Kaufman18 East 41st StreetNew York CityDecember 5, 1940 Dear Ted: This is one puzzle of a series I've prepared for the King Features Syndicate, but it is so much more appropriate for you than for them, that I'm holding it out on the chance that you may like it. This puzzle has 26 squares, one for each alphabet letter. The two words already in place contain 10 letters altogether, leaving 16 missing letters to be put into the blank squares so as to spell good English dictionary words. The missing letters are B, C, D, E, F, G,…
I originated this trick, puzzle, or whatever you can call it, while serving a long spell in the hospital. It appears to be so impossible that you will hear many times that you are lying when you give the rules. Ten dimes and ten pennies (poker chips or checkers are as good) are placed side by side on a table to make four rows of five coins each. The pennies and dimes alternate with each other in both the horizontal and vertical rows. The problem : Using only the first and second fingers of one hand, a continuous move of…
Regarding last week's puzzle about "Oscar's" plane area, an inspection of the diagram below shows how his tail fits into the small of his back, and how the top of his head fits into the curve of his tail, thus making a hemicircle with a diameter of six inches. As the area of a circle is pi times the diameter, the area of a hemicircle is pi times half the diameter (which happens to be the radius). In this case, Oswald's plane area is pi times three which is somewhere in the region of 9.424777350797 square inches. So what?