This week’s puzzle is for poker players. Unlike roulette, craps, and the lottery, poker can require  skill. It combines knowledge, probability, and reading the psychology of your opponents.

This week, we have a standard deck of 52 cards. The cards are all spread out on the table, face up. We can see the value of every single card. I get to choose any poker hand I want. Then it’s your turn. From the remaining 47 cards, you choose any poker hand that you want. After you choose your hand I can discard as many cards in my hand as I want and replace them with any of the cards remaining on the table.

I can always get a better hand than you.

So this week’s question is: How?

Solution to Monday Microsofty 99:  Fan belt cutting technology

Here’s the solution to last week’s puzzle about Möbius strip fan belts. The Möbius strip belt has only one side. Therefore, in theory, it will last twice as long as a regular fan belt.

The question was, can numerous Möbius strips be made from one belt using a very thick strip? Such a strip is shown in the upper left in Figure 1. So can we slice off a bunch of thinner Möbius strip fan belts, like carving slices off a loaf of bread?

The answer is no. Here’s why:

If the Möbius strip is cut lengthwise, the result is shown on the upper right in Figure 1. The result is not two Möbius strips, but one larger twisted loop. So slicing off a number of Möbius strip fan belts from one larger, thicker fan belt, as if we were cutting slices off a loaf of bread, doesn’t work.

For fun, let’s go one step further.  If the Möbius strip is cut twice lengthwise, the figure shown in the bottom of Figure 1 is the result. There are now two loops, but the two loops are curiously knotted together. This is weird.

What would happen if we went one step further and cut each of these two loops down the middle? What would happen?

I don’t know, but suspect the result would even be weirder.

The Monday Microsofty is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Microsofty 99: Fan belt cutting technology. The world of geometry features some strange elements, even in everyday things. The answer to last week’s puzzle lies in determining how many sides a belt must have. You can find links and answers to Microsofties 92 through 93 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 92: When the nerd enters a room… Shaking hands is expected. Here’s a math question about the custom, to delight the true nerds among us. A hint for Microsofty 91: Where might Jimmy the Mooch have found some spare energy? You can find links and answers to Microsofties 91 through 87 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 87: Are you as good a detective as you think? Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking To solve last week’s puzzle, look up the definition of “calorie.” Are we using the word to mean the same thing? You can find links and answers to Microsofties 77 through 86 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find links and answers to Microsofties 55 through 75 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 51 through 54 as well.

Monday Microsofty 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 46 through 49 as well.

Monday Microsofty 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You can find links and answers here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Microsofty 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You can find links and answers here to Micro Softies 30 through 39 as well.

Monday Microsofty 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 22 through 29 as well.

Monday Microsofty 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Microsofty 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? You can find links and answers here to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!