
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
A game is played with 16 cards laid out in a row. Each card has a black side and a red side, and initially the face-up sides of the cards alternate black and red with the leftmost card black-side-up. A move consists of taking a consecutive sequence of cards (possibly only containing 1 card) with leftmost card black-side-up and the rest of the cards red-side-up, and flipping all of these cards over. The game ends when a move can no longer be made. What is the maximum possible number of moves that can be made before the game ends? 

*Ray Li.*

<span style="font-size:85%">*See a close variant [here](http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=810&t=500913).*</span>

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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