On a dart game of Niedermaier

Abstract

We analyze a game introduced by Andy Niedermaier, where $p$ players take turns throwing a dart at a dartboard. A player is eliminated unless his dart lands closer to the center than all previously thrown darts, in which case he goes to the back of the line, until only one player remains. Using generating functions, we determine the distribution of the number of throws in the game, and we obtain a recursive formula to compute the probability that each player wins.