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Draws needed to clear a deck of ten pairs

Question

A deck has 2020 cards: two copies of each value 11 to 1010. Each turn you draw two cards at random from what is left. If they show the same value they are discarded for good; otherwise both go back. The game ends when the deck is empty. What is the expected number of turns?

Short answer

100100. With jj pairs left, a turn removes a pair with probability 12j−1\tfrac{1}{2j-1} (the second card must match the first), so that stage lasts 2j−12j-1 turns on average. Summing over j=1,…,10j=1,\dots,10 gives 1+3+⋯+19=1001+3+\dots+19=100.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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