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Alternating tosses race to a second head

Question

Alice and Bob alternate tossing one fair coin, with Alice going first. Heads are counted separately for each player, and the first player whose own total of heads reaches two (not necessarily in a row) wins. What is the probability that Alice wins?

Short answer

16/2716/27. Track (Alice's heads, Bob's heads) at the start of each full round of two tosses. Solving the first-step equations: from (1,1)(1,1) Alice wins with probability 23\tfrac23, from (0,1)(0,1) with 29\tfrac29, from (1,0)(1,0) with 89\tfrac89, and from (0,0)(0,0) the value is 1627\tfrac{16}{27}.

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