  The problem of the malicious ma\^{i}tre d' is introduced and solved by Peter
Winkler in his book Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur's Collection [1]. This
problem is about a ma\^{i}tre d' seating diners around a table, trying to
maximize the number of diners who don't get napkins. Along with this problem,
Winkler introduces a variation called the adaptive ma\^{i}tre d' and presents a
strategy. This problem was later investigated and a better strategy was
discovered by Acton et al. [2]. We describe an even better strategy which we
call ``long trap setting" and prove that it is optimal. We also derive a
formula for the expected number of napkinless diners under our optimal
strategy.
