Link to previous round can be found here
Previous Moves
Round 2, initial position
xxx6s5sTh9h8h8s/xxxxxQs6h5c4h3h2sAs5h/Tc2c4h/KdQdKd/4c3c2cAc6h/TsJd/Qd5d/xxxxKcQhJhTh9s8c7sQc/xxx3s2dAd4dTd/xxxxTd9d8d7d6dQc
Stock = 30
Checksum: 9 + 13 + 8 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 2 + 12 + 8 + 10 + 30 = 104
Red: Two easy “empties” but with no obvious follow-up. Best seems “ge,gd,if,ie,ie” guaranteeing two turnovers, but spurning the dopamine rush that comes with the temporary possession of two empty columns. Note that many columns rot13(fhpx), requiring us to spend both empties just for one turnover.
Green: We can also get two spaces in columns 5 and 6. Then we can turn over column 8 at the expense of only one empty column. I prefer “hd,ha,fd,fd,hd,ea,eb,hg” over Red’s decision. The Seven of Spades is an important card with several Sixes already in play.
Blue: Well spotted by Green. Actually further improvement is possible with: “hd,fj,fj,ha,hj,(d1=h3), hf” retaining the option of clearing column 5 and reaching the same position as Green – or an outside chance that something even better turns up. Note that the meaning of the “supermove” d1=h3 is easily guessable and I believe this notation shortcut becomes useful in future rounds when we have to handle a rot13(fuvgybnq) of cards.
Actual play (Decision 21, 25 Oct): fj,fj,ge,gd,hg,eh,eb,jf,jd,id,ih,ih → 8 of Diamonds.
Blue: Things have deteriorated and we don’t have a lot of options. We must take the turnover with “ie” and pray for a good card. Note that it is no longer possible to build in-suit with 8-7 of Spades even if we thought that were desirable.
Red: If we must turnover a card the only reasonable alternative is “hc,ie”. Unfortunately, we have a serious shortage of odd-numbered cards and we are dangerously close to a “one-hole-no-turnovers” scenario. I would rather fancy my chances of bringing down the Club King in column 8 than three even-numbered singletons in column 3. Therefore “hc,ie” for me
Green: An interesting gambit is “hc,je,jd,hd” spurning a turnover and playing for the Diamond suit. But I really don’t like the fact completing Diamonds will only reveal another useless Queen, so the risk-reward isn’t worth it. May as well turnover the card and pray for a Jack or Nine. I’m with Red here but the difference is small. I vote “hc,ie”.
Actual Play (Decision 22, 28 Oct): ie → 9 of Hearts
Actual Play (Decision 23): id (trivial) → A of Hearts
Red: Just as I feared – one hole no card. Best of a bad lot is “df,ef, be,cb, ic, hb, ji, jd, hd” playing for the Diamond suit.
Green: Oh, give it a rest! Reasons why Diamonds rot13(fhpx) have already been discussed. I vote “ed, be, cb, ic, hb, ji, hj” which at least keeps column 6 atomic. Column 8 is important – even if we don’t get a turnover, there might be an opportunity to tidy up suits.
Blue: Both Red and Green are sus. I vote “ed, be, cb, ic, ai”, hoping to reach that important 5 of Spades in column 1. This also “diversifies” the bottom cards in columns 5,6,7,9 – and increasing our chances of winning back some precious empties.
Actual Play (Decision 24, 30 Oct): ed, be, cb, ic, hb, ji, hj, (Bart + SA + Green). Deal Me Up Scotty!
Coming soon: Round 2 summary and Round 3
Edifying Thoughts of a Spider Solitaire Addict 
Decision 21.
Naturally there’s lots of new things to think about with 10 new cards appearing.
Occasionally there’s something better to do than make a space, but most of the time a space is like “money in the bank” and can help you do other things, and if nothing else you can choose the best of many cards to fill it in with.
The easy space is F. Jack onto the queen in j, ten on the jack. You can get one of e or g but not both.
But — what do we want to do?
No suits are near completion. Diamonds is missing the 3. It’s also not an exciting suit to complete, since both diamond kings are in column 4, and all you’ll expose is a queen — we already have 3 extra queens able to host jacks (though the one in column b is at present buried).
On the other hand, nearly complete sets can also serve as “lubrication” for other moves.
Here are the columns red rejected as needing 2 or more spaces… In more detail, which can be skipped, if you accept red’s level of work:
[[[[[[[[[[[[
Column 1 requires using spaces for the 8, the 10 and the queen to get at the 7. Three does not sound good.
Column 2 requires a 6 which we can have arranged to preserve, but then a 7 which we cannot have preserved if we preserved the 6 and a king for the queen. Two spaces.
Column 3 has an easy 5 to take the 4, but needs a space each for the 2 and 10. Two spaces.
Columns 4 and 8 both require two and putting kings in spaces, so look very poor.
Column 10 also requires two spaces.
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Column 9 requires a space for the 10, but then the 4 and 3 both have homes. Uses just one space, and we can uncover a card! Column 9 is the place to dig, but there are two ways.
My “runner-up move”: We can prioritize some diamond action. Let’s try it: ge,gd (1 space),fd,id,super ie(uncover). We’ve put together K-ten of diamonds in d…, 9-6 lurk in j, and 54(3)2A are in e… nice progress on diamonds, but column e is badly junked up, and as said before, diamonds are not an exciting suit to finish. But there is a better option! One that “dominates”!
My final move: As one key goal is to leave our “near space” atomic, we can still make progress in diamonds — with more work. If we do fj,fj(1space),ge,gd(2spaces),hg(1space),eh(super),eb(2spaces),jf(1space),jd,id,ih,ih(super+uncover), and wait until we see what is uncovered… we leave column 6 as a single 10, and 7 as a single queen — atomic. Column d has K-10 of diamonds, 10-6 lurk in j, and 54(3)2A are in h. Column h is also a clear run down from the king, allowing us to sort it soon when conditions permit.
This is so darn complicated I’ll write it out longer-hand to help make sure(r) I haven’t blown it:
fj,fj — clear column f onto j
ge,gd — 5 temporary home, queen to permanent home on d.
hg — Give up our space to the Q for all time but..
eh — start clearing column e
eb — stick that A-4 out of the way because we’ll put other stuff on h later
jf — put a 10 in the space (for all time)
jd — make an in-suit diamond move (jack)
id — now we’re digging in column 9, starting in-suit
ih — keep digging
ih (super) uncover!
with one space left!
—————-
BLobs:
Well, this is sure complicated! Three options, none of them like mine.
I really dislike both green and blue, as they are putting a king (column 8) in a space for no very good reason. I would call it “awful”. Not sure I really get “D1=H3” shorthand. I would think it might be swap 1 card in D for the 3 cards in h but doesn’t quite seem to fit here.
Red can uncover two cards, but at the cost of a junked-up column e. Column f could be less junked-up by putting the jack-ten onto one of the queens, yielding a bare 10 there. This method also creates K-10 of diamonds, like mine, which is good.
This idea of uncovering the 7 of spades in h — independent of the awful parts of their plans, blue and green at least do that much — my plan does that too. But they want to move it to column a. We want to keep column a as uncomplicated as possible, and keep building junk in column h.
I would suspect both blue and green here — but what good is TWO suspects?
——————–
In my plan I can uncover 2 cards just like red can, but my two filled spaces are both atomic! So I much prefer mine to any of theirs.
Of the three, I much prefer Red to the other two.
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Decision 21 has been added to the blockchain
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Round 2, initial position
Just random first look thoughts:
Easy to produce two voids.
Double 8 in Col. 1 and no 9’s, I don’t like
4-6-8-10-Q-Q. Poo.
5’s is cheap, Q’s is cheap.
We only lack the Dia. 3 to have a run “on the board”
Nice little 3 card Heart in-suit build served up on a platter.
This is the most interesting position so far, lots of thinks to do here.
We have been taking baby steps and so I should I do that here? I think I should push to the point of the first turnover.
I can find a lot of things that you could do here, and I like none of them very much. Only one I liked a little so I will opt for a turnover in Col 9 and still having one void. We will simplify Col 3 en route.
.ge,gd,if,ie,cb,ib
I hope someone can do better than that. Kolorfull Kibitzer’s? Red and I seem to be on the simple tract while Green and Blue go for more complicated maneuvers. The short version for me is that I don’t like moving a K into a void so early in the hand. I did look at emptying Col 5 but did not like the damage done to other columns.
And now to read Esteemed Scholar Bart. Wow, just WOW !! THAT is what I was looking for but did not see. I played around with clearing Col 5 but just did not see your delicate choreography of “Fill Void With Q, gain Other Void” to bring the Dia Royalty together. I need to get better at this. Nicely done, very nicely done and I officially vote for Esteemed Scholar Bart’s trickery.
Master Chi-Yuen, I read your (d1=h3) to show a swap-out of Queens in Col’s d & h and totally agree that this may save a ton of typing in later stages, especially when we do multiple repeated swap-outs across three or even four columns, each sequence of moves gaining a single in-suit build and sometimes cumulating in something brilliant. If I may be so bold as to offer an alternative notation? (Qd=Qh)
And I proudly wore the title of Master for a day, but offer it back until I can see stuff as well as Esteemed Scholar Bart and almost as well as Master Chi-Yuen. I prefer to remain as lowly as my stature and continue to absorb all possible from the true Masters.
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Decision 21 has been added to the blockchain
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Decision 21.
My choice is “ie”. I don’t see anything else worth considering.
Now I look at the blob suggestions.
They all end with “ie”, so that much is shared.
Blue notes “it is no longer possible to build in-suit with 8-7 of Spades even if we thought that were desirable”. I didn’t think it was desirable last time, and no blob explained last time why it would be desirable. It’s no surprise that options go away as you fill in spaces.
Red gives an explanation for why he thinks “hc” is a good move. If our sole goal was to uncover cards, I’d agree (I guess) that taking a bit off column 8 is good. But there’s more going on. There’s a 2 right under that 4 that might be very handy for absorbing an ace if one comes up, and a single 4 is easier to move than a 3-piece A-4. There’s a 10 under that, and while we already have one ten, two nines will come up sooner or later. Column 8 is a full suit with tons of suit breaks. Think of it as a full garbage pail. Or perhaps argon or neon or helium — a sort of noble gas. One part of its job is to absorb as many suit breaks as possible, it has done its job here, so why undo it?
If roads considered but rejected are removed from the blob answers, it’s ie vs hc,ie vs hc,ie. I’m with blue for a simple “ie”.
No information bearing on suspicion.
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Decision 22 is locked in. Good news – the next decision is trivial and also added to the blockchain. Bad news – tempers are starting to fray 🙂
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Decision 22 Position 428
“ie”, move the Dia 8 into the hole, gain a turnover.. Is there something else?. We could organize the Diamond run at the expense of a turnover, but as Esteemed Scholar Bart has pointed out, even if we were lucky enough to remove 13 Diamonds from play, our reward would be another Queen, plus we would be attacking a double King Kolumn.
Kolorfull Kibitzers ??…. “hc” ????!!!!!! I think not. I go with Blue and eagerly await for Esteemed Scholar Bart’s comments.
Bart, Bug and Blue Blob form a fierce front of simplicity “ie”.
Esteemed Scholar Bart is putting the most shoulder to the load when it comes to evaluating the blobs each turn. It took me until now to see the value in this. I will try to do more but it may cost us a day or so each Decision Time as I hop back and forth, Kolor to Kolor.
A Jack would fit in with my current plans quite nicely.
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Decision 22 is locked in. Good news – the next decision is trivial and also added to the blockchain. Bad news – tempers are starting to fray 🙂
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Decision 23.
I am not thrilled. I am not jumping for joy. I doubt SA is hopping for joy either.
We can grab one space from column 5, but then what? Even if we had enough steppingstones to move column h into the space, I still wouldn’t occupy a potential space with a king just for the sake of a single turnover. I do not see the ability to turn over any other card, so after this move we will deal.
The decision last time to leave no junk on the 4 in column c shows its advantages now, as we at least have the option of finding a home for the ace that just came up. I think the best we can do is simplify a bit.
Leaving an atomic column is always a good thing. I don’t like ji because we already have a queen occupying a space, and the wider the variety of things occupying spaces, the better the chances of retrieving a space. However the alternative of making column c atomic has the worse disadvantage of making one of the space-occupiers non-atomic. (ed, be, cb, ec, ie, ci. Column c is an atomic 10 over 5 cards, but e is 432 of clubs with an ace of hearts on it – no longer atomic. We have exposed a receiving 10, and we already have one of those).
Another thing we could do to fill the space is put in a card which has one or more homes. Putting that 8 back in the space (de) has the advantage that we have one home lurking for that 8 if we can uncover the cards that land above. This gets more appealing as we have more potential homes, such as if we had two other vacant 9s — but we don’t. So while I really dislike two queens occupying spaces, here’s my final bid: ed,be,cb,ic,ji. Things are not looking good. A couple jacks would be nice. If the deck had a doubling cube and doubled, I would decline.
Now what do those blobs have to say?
Red’s play is terrible, just as Green notes.
In its most important respects, Green’s is like mine, and I like it for that reason — leave column j atomic. He argues for not filling up column 8 because it’s important. I wanted to keep column b simpler. But what he might have thought was obvious but did not say, that I now see, is that column b is not an exciting column to uncover. When we can move the 5 we expose an ace (boo!), and if we move the underlying A-6, we expose a queen, in a situation where we are already swimming in queens. So let’s call b a garbage column, with no greater reason to keep it simple than column h. The rest of his plan leaves the diamond run of 10 to 4 in j. Even if we aren’t going to be removing diamonds soon, that is an impressive potential lubricant for other moves. On balance I go with Green’s plan rather than my original one.
Blue’s plan is interesting — not at all crazy. His arguments are sound, but he does not leave column a atomic, and Green leaves column j atomic. He speaks of getting closer to accessing the crucial 5 of spades, but Green actually right now exposes a 6, which could also be very handy.
If we were doing ranked-choice voting, my second vote would be for my plan, and the 3rd choice would be blue’s plan: Green, Bart, Blue.
If we judge by making terrible suggestions, Red gets a “sus” point.
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Final decision of this round added to the blockchain. And there is also an alternative “currency” in the form of Spider GM Jokes. Round 2 summary and Round 3 coming soon
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I know I have some tendency to not reply to messages like this, because there is no “homework”… But in terms of being sociable… Yay! We made it through round 2. I’ll await eagerly the round 2 summary, the start of round 3, and the Spider GM jokes (at least I’ll do my best!).
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Decision 23 Position 426
Well, I just don’t see much brilliance here. I would give up one AtomicVoid and do 1 in-suit un-build to gain 1 AtomicTurnover, placing our hopes on Col 3.
“ed,be,cb,ec,ie,ci”— rejected, see new and improved below.
Now as I picture that position in my mind, I think maybe I should have moved the Spade 3 from Col 8 to Col 3 ??????? My thought here is that in Col 3 even if we defeat the Heart 5-4 we face another 5-4 on our way to a turnover. Perhaps it is better to consider that with three AtomicVoids and an AlmostAtomicVoid we might should think of moving the King in Col 8 to achieve turnovers as an easier route. Esteemed Scholar Bart, HELP !!! But I chose to be on my own here, so I think I will move them.
“ed,be,cb,ec,ie,hb,ci”
Final answer…..for now.
Kibitzers? What say you?
Red’s plan follows a different path to gaining an AtomicTurnover by giving up an AtomicVoid but looses the AlmostAtomicVoid by making Col 6 more complicated than my Col 5 and also leaving the Second Best Prospect for a Turnover, Col 3, worse than my Second Best Prospect for a Turnover, Col 10. Also Red places Queens in two of the three AtomicVoids, I’m not positive that is bad but I don’t like. Red does attack a Column with only 4 face down cards instead of my 5 which normally is a good idea but here we have AtomicVoids already and actually I prefer to attack the five pile, we need cards. Finally Red is certainly building a strong Diamond run, but we have stated that gaining a Diamond run at this point is a low reward line of play.
Green goes for 4 AtomicVoids and an AtomicTurnover. I missed this line. I kinda’ like it. Although we are not actively pursuing a Diamond Run the long 10-to-4 run is nice. Green doesn’t un-build the Club run, as I did. Green does leave two Queens as AtomicTurnovers. This line is better than mine.
Blue also goes the 4 AtomicVoid route without gaining an AtomicTurnover. Blue’s first thought is that we get closer to that “important” Spade 5……someone has to remind me as to why it is important. Blue does avoid the 2 Queen AtomicVoid syndrome.
Now for Esteemed Scholar Bart’s take. Excellent, as always. He goes along the same general line as Green, then agrees with Green so he votes: Green, Bart, Blue. I vote Green, Bart, Bug. I just feel like leaving this position without an AtomicTurnover is a bad idea.
Time for ten new cards, that was quick.
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Final decision of this round added to the blockchain. And there is also an alternative “currency” in the form of Spider GM Jokes. Round 2 summary and Round 3 coming soon
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