Puzzle

OK, I saw this on one of those ridculous late-night "phone-us-and-if-you-
can-guess-the-rules-we-invented-to-this-game-you-win-a-couple-of-
grand-but-the-odds-of-you-getting-through-are-very-slim-and-it-costs-
lots-of-money-to-call" TV shows a month or so ago.

Now this may be a major faux pas, as I don't actually know the answer. Well I do know the answer, but I don't know the method. Basically on-screen there was a grid displaying:

AAAAA
ABB A
A B A
A B A
A BBA
AAAAA


(That's a 5x6 grid, the spaces are ment to be there)

They asked you "How many times can you see the word ABBA". The answer was 106, but I can't figure out why. Any ideas?

my guess would that you take all the A's and B's and string them together like that as many times as you can

Yeah I thought that, but then I thought that I had other things to do in life other than test that theory. I was hoping an ultra-competitive member would do the legwork for me. Cheeky, no?

maybe so but who knows
perhaps some "ultra competitive player" as you put it, will post but you'll have to keep posting on this thread to keep it on the first page
most people don't read any pages pst the first one on here.

I don't want to be a forum pest and attempt to prolong the life of a thread that people arn't interested in, although I appreciate that in saying that I have margionally expanded its life.

We have thes kinds of puzzles from the same type of late night show too.

I would suggest that all these puzzles are simple but designed to take alot of time to find the answer.

So sofar55's post is the correct answer. As for the legwork; I would just as happily watch grass grow or paint dry. Sure thre would be shortcuts but it doesn't test the intelligence to find them.