To have the ball back to 甲 after n passes, the ball must be at some one else's hand after n-1 passes. Let P(n) be the number, then we have in general P(1) = 0 and P(n) = 2^(n-1) - P(n-1). SO it is easy to calculate that P(5) = 10. The general format is P(n) = (2^n + 2(-1)^n) / 3. (Never can get rid of induction! )