Monthly Archives: March 2006

Disc Golf 03/31/2006

Hole

I went to Old Settler’s Park again for another quick round of disc golf. I had the feeling that I was throwing a little bit farther today than in the past. So hopefully I am improving.

Think this hole in the ground has enough flags marking it off?

Game Day 03/30/2006

Game #1

1870

Mike convinced us all to try the “lite” version of this game. And it really, really sucks. It was completely unbalanced. And, thankfully, we finally stopped playing it. It was so painful, in fact, that I am placing it on my permanent ban list.

Why is it so unbalanced? Take a look at the picture and keep in mind that you can only place two track segments per turn. John (lower left) goes first. Mike (upper left) goes second and cuts John off. He also cuts me (upper middle) off as well. I cannot reach Houston or Galveston before Mike does. So I decide to go for Alexandria. However, as I draw near, I realize that everyone else will be able to use up the remaining city markers before I can use one to connect to Alexandria. I was only able to, in fact, because John skipped connecting to Galveston. It is only in the next stage of the game that you can connect up the tracks with other tiles.

The other flawed aspect of this “game” was that there are only a limited number of train engines. Once all of the 4 engines are bought, all number 2 engines are removed. So when Mike was able to buy a second number 4 engine before I could buy my first, I lost my number 2 engine and only had a number 3 engine left. This effectively takes you out of the running for the game.

Game #2

Mu

At least we were able to play Mu. Its an okay trick taking game for five people. Although I must admit that the strategy is not as crystal clear for me as it is with Tichu.

Lunch Time Tichuers 03/30/2006

Ugh. Failed Tichu calls, lead to failed GrandTichu calls and further sliding down the score track…


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Ed & Jon Mark & Mike
  10    
90
 
 
65
    135  
 
170
    130  
T+
340
    160  
 
460
  T- 40  
  510   GT- -110  
 
580
    20 T+
  780   GT- -180  
 
840
    -140  
 
915
  GT+ 85  

links

Rail bike link via

Soybean sportscar link via

iTazer link via

Seeing movies before the hype link via

100 mile diet link via

Quake 3 on 24 monitors link via

Your Nano runs Mame? Build a cabinet for it! link via

Telling the approved story link via

Wiretapping vulnerabilities link via

Mc Donald’s employees share non-standard recipies link via

But suppose I offered you the following deal: I’ll sell you a share of my car, but you don’t get to drive it. It generates income, but I won’t share it with you, nor give you any say in what I do with the proceeds. I have no intention of ever selling it. I won’t listen to anything you have to say about how the car ought to be used, and I won’t tell you what I plan to do with it. In fact, buying a share of my car will provide you with no tangible benefits whatsoever. All it will do is give you bragging rights that you own a share of my car. link via

Electronic crucifix broadcasts the Lord’s prayer link via

How a software patent affects web surfing link via

Condo installs air shower to blow off alergins link via

GPS Tron link via

Key ring kite link via

Fake eggs contain growable plant link via

How our tax dollars are spent link via

A doctor even thinking about a link between B-12 and heart disease violates a patent link via

Administration tells Congress (again) – We won’t abide by your “laws” link via

Non-transitive dice link via

Sicherman dice link via

Penny ante link via

“Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.” link via

Lunch Time Tichuers 03/28/2006

Wow, how one sided can a Tichu game get? Not as bad as 3 GrandTichu/12s in a row by one team, but still bad. Anyways, Tichu can be like that at times. We had a first for me. A zero/zero round.


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Ed & Mark Jon & Adam
  0    
0
T-
  0     400 GT+
  0     600  
 
70
    630  
T+ 220     680  
  255    
645
T-
T+ 375    
725
 
  375     1025 T+

Disc Golf 03/24/2006

Mike #1
Mike #2

Today it was beautiful out and Mike and I played disc golf at Old Settler’s Park. Mike had bought a Wraith in the Star line of plastic. I was looking into buying that as my next disc, so it was a good opportunity to borrow it from him and try it out myself. And I was lucky as well since Mike did not like the feel of the grip and kept throwing it in places that he was not intending (like the water). So I convinced Mike to give it to me! Woo woo!

Game Day 03/23/2006

Game #1

Byzantium

Mike bought a new game that I was itching to try out. Martin Wallace’s new game Byzantium. In it, all players can controll the three sides that are fighting (the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Bulgars). You score victory points based on your actions on one of two main sides (the Bulgars score victory points on the Arab track if they take out Byzantine cities or vice versa). If your two scores are “close” (the lesser is at least or more than 1/2 of the greater) then your scores are added together. Otherwise the lesser score is ignored. However, there is an alternate win of only the Arab’s score if Constantinople is taken over. This is remaniscant of Liberte.

Unfortunately, after the rules were explained, we realized that we were taking too long to play the game (aka Ashley-rollmaning). So we stopped after one round (out of three). I certinally would like to play this game again. And I think that this game can be played faster. The problem was that it was not obvious what the strategy was after the rules were explained.

Tichu

An interesting situation came up in Tichu today. It had been discussed briefly but today I experienced its full force. My partner, Mike, likes to make random wishes. By that, I mean that he does not wish for the card that he passed. And instead tries to use some intelligence on what card to wish for. But it basically boils down to a guess that this person has the card and needs it versus my partner having the card and needing it. Since this is really a partner game, anything that hurts your team is a bad thing (in my opinion).

So, previously in the game he wished for a five and played a straight. Thankfully Adam could fufill the wish and play over it because I could as well and it would hurt my Tichu call. Now Adam calls Grand Tichu. Mike plays the Mah Jong, wishes for an Ace, immediately bombs it, and then leads two sequential pairs. Adam passes. Unfortunately, I can fufill this wish with my AAKK. And now Adam easilly makes his GT call. Our team has wasted a bomb and AAKK.

In a perfect world, Mike would always have the lead and work down the possibilities of Ace combinations and Adam would have to fill one of them. However, Adam’s team-mate would recognize what Mike is trying to do and try to stop it. If I passed on the sequential pairs, then Jon, if possible, would want to take control of the lead and lead a single if he has no Ace since that is the least destructive choice. The question always is, how likely is the Tichu caller able to fufill the wish compared to your partner.

And to leave you with an idea of just how desperate the last hand Grand Tichu’s can be. Here is Adam’s hand:

Game #2a

Mike’s hand:

Game #2b

Jon’s hand:

Game #2c

and my hand (for the GT call):

Game #2d

The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Mark & Mike Adam & Jon
  50   T+ 150  
 
260
T+   140  
  270    
230
 
  315    
185
T-
T+ 405    
295
 
 
490
    310  
  510   GT+
590
 
  530    
670
 
  530     970 T+
 
405
GT-   995  
GT-
300
  T+ 1100  

Low limit hold-em

Poker hands

William hosted a low limit poker night in an effort to get more people comfortable with playing poker. He had helpfully created these charts for new people. There was one new person who had some good starting hands (I think like 4 pocket Aces). After watching the first two people with pocket Aces loose the hand, I was worried when I got them. But fortunately they held up to someone who had an Ace and I think a Jack. When the flop had an Ace in it, I bet strong. And by the river, there were no possible flushes or straights that could beat it.

Lunch Time Tichuers 03/21/2006

What turned out to be a come from behind win for our team crumbled under the pressure of my Tichu data program. Our team was given 100 too many points early on in the game (we were playing under the assumption that our team was at 115 after my missed Tichu call). Which reminds me that even though you have a strong Tichu hand, an opponent who has a perfect hand will beat you. I played a straight and was left with Dragon, Ace, and Ace. Unfortunately Mike had two straights. One that beat mine and another to go out on.


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Dan & Mike Mark & Adam
T+
175
    25  
 
350
T+   50  
  385   T-
15
 
 
440
  T+ 160  
 
405
T-   195  
  405     495 T+
  605     395 T-
T+
805
    395  
T- 750    
550
T+
T+ 875    
625
 
 
940
    660  
  985    
915
GT+

Game Day 03/16/2006

Game #1

Ys

Another playing of Ys for me and I still like playing it. Yes, there is an aspect to it where you need to control an area by blind bidding. However, as the turn progresses, you begin to get more information. This somewhat is analagous to a “fog of war” where information slowly resolves itself.

Game #1

Attila

This is a older game that I like and that we rarely play. So I was glad that it was brought to the table. Unfortunately for me, I had both good and bad luck in this game. The good luck was that I was able to control and initiate the scoring. However, my card draws were really bad and I could not draw the colors that I wanted to control. Sigh.

Game #3

Flea Circus

To end out the night, we played this light game. I was able to make a lot of melds and it was enough for me to overcome Ed’s 6 different 7 cards that he was collecting for the win!