Alice and Bob are playing a word game. They start with a list of words, and they alternate turns. Alice goes first; she chooses a starting word from the list. On each subsequent turn, the current player must choose a word from the list that starts with the same letter that ends the word chosen by the other player in the previous turn. No word can be used more than once. At some point one of them will not be able to choose a word; that player loses.
Assume Alice and Bob both play optimally. How many words from the list, when chosen as the first word by Alice, lead to a win for her?