checking a tic tac toe game on python - if-statement

Question

I'm working on this project where I check a finished tic tac toe game. The user inputs a combination of x's and o's and periods (max of 3) in each row (there are 3 rows). I have to check if either x or o took too many turns. This is what I have:
if ttt.count(x) > 5:
print("x took too many turns")
This is just for x. When I run the program and I test to see if this statement comes up for x, and nothing comes up. What am i doing wrong?
Here is a sample run:
0 - check a finished tic-tac-toe
1 - check a finished sudoku
2 - check a game of connect four
3 - quit
choose an option: 0
option 0
For each row, start with x. Enter a combination of x'sand o's up to three characters. For a blank space,enter a period '.'.
top row:xox
middle row:xox
bottom row:xox
['xox', 'xox', 'xox']
0 - check a finished tic-tac-toe
1 - check a finished sudoku
2 - check a game of connect four
3 - quit
choose an option:
This is a bigger portion of the code:
for x in i:
if x not in valid_symbols:
print("invalid board - invalid symbol " + x )
done = True
break
if ttt.count(x) > 5:
print("x took too many turns")
if I insert an invalid symbol, then it prints that statement.

Answer 1

It appears that you misunderstand what the contents of ttt are. Open up the interpreter and try the following:
Python 3.3.2 (v3.3.2:d047928ae3f6, May 16 2013, 00:03:43) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> tic_tac_toe = []
>>> tic_tac_toe.append(input('Top row: '))
Top row: xxx
>>>
>>> tic_tac_toe
['xxx']
>>> tic_tac_toe.count('x')
0
>>> tic_tac_toe.count('xxx')
1
What happens when you .append('xox')? What does the list look like?