Game on (27 May, 2020)

Here is the position from last week:

We are guaranteed three turnovers and there are several ways to achieve this. It would be difficult even for an expert player to visualise the final state once we get the three (or more) turnovers. Obviously, much will depend on the newly exposed cards, but the following sequences should give a general feel of how the game might play out:

<ja, jc, hc, hc, bd, fb, fi>

<ja, jc, hc, hc, bd, fb, ib, fb>

<ag, ad, jg, jc, hc, hc>

<ag, dj, ed, jg, ag, jc, hc, hc>

Looking beyond the number of turnovers, we see it may be desirable to build in-suit with e.g. the 2-A of Diamonds or 6-7 of Clubs. We might wanna start a junk pile on the King of Clubs so that other columns become easier to deal with later. Or we might wanna start thinking about obtaining an empty column ASAP. And don’t forget the virtues of procrastination – the more flexible the game state the better our chances will be. So there is plenty to think about (assuming you are serious about improving your game!)

I executed the following moves. It is beyond the scope of this blog post to explain every decision in detail:

<ja,jc> Qs

<hc,hg> 4h

<hb> 3s

<da,ba,ha,ed,ea> 7d

Now that we turned over a Seven, it becomes clear to shift the Queen in column f (not column j) to expose an Eight. Of course we can improve this plan slightly by procrastination i.e. dumping the Seven onto the empty column.

<eh> 2c

<fb, fi> Qc

Things have settled down somewhat. We have an empty column, but must use it immediately to turn over a new card. We can do some significant tidying. For instance the J-0-9 in column c can shift onto one of three queens. Even though we can’t immediately turn over column c, it might become available next round. Several other shifts are possible (an exercise for the reader!). In other words, there are several plausible actions to choose from.

What would be your play here?