Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford / 2003 / Calculus, probability, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, logic and proof, and models of computation / 5 / b / i

Let $W$ be the event that $H$ wins, and $F$ the event that his first toss is a tail. For a nontrivial starting state $1\le i\le n-1$, a first tail has probability $1/2$ and changes his holding to $i-1$. By the chain rule for probabilities,Since $\mathbb{P}(W)=i/n>0$, the definition of conditional probability givesIn particular, when $i=1$, losing the first coin would end the game in defeat, so the conditional answer is zero. At $i=0$ conditioning on victory is undefined, while at $i=n$ the game has already ended and no first toss occurs.