Link to previous round can be found here
Previous Moves
Round 4 initial position:
x4s3s2sAsAc/xxxxxQs6h5h4h3hJh/xxxxxTc2cAh6s5s4h6c/xxKdQdJcTh9h8h9d/Ts9s8s7s6s7h/Ts4dQh/Qc8s7c/xxxxKcQhJhTh9h8d7c6h5c4c3c2cAcKh/KhQcJcTc9c8cKs/xxxxTdQs
Stock = 10, Suits removed = 1
Checksum: 6 + 11 + 12 + 9 + 6 + 3 + 3 + 18 + 7 + 6 + 10 + (1*13) = 104
Green: We can take two empty columns but can’t quite force another suit onto the foundations. I vote “bf,be,bi”
Red: I prefer “ji,bf,jf”. But I agree there is no need to take empty columns now.
Blue: I really want to sacrifice an empty column to tidy up that rot13(fuvg) in column 8 but can’t make it work. I vote “bf,ji,dj,df,id”.
Actual Play (Decision 28, 13 Nov): bf,be,bi → 9 of Clubs
Blue: I vote “jh, jf”, guaranteeing two turnovers.
Red: I can improve Blue’s plan with “jh,fh,jh”. We sacrifice an in-suit build but “take out insurance” if the next card is a King.
Green: It’s desperate either way but I vote “jh, dj, df, ef, ed, (d2=g1), je”, playing to complete the Heart suit. I will concede that sacrificing a turnover is not exactly pleasant.
Actual Play (Decision 29, 15 Nov): jh,dj,gb,df,ef,ed,cb,cd,je → 5 of Diamonds (Bart + SA)
Actual play (Decision 30, 17 Nov): jc → 2 of Hearts (Trivial)
Actual play (Decision 31, Nov 17): jf → A of Spades (Trivial)
Blue: Finally, some luck with the unseen cards in the tableau. I vote “dc,af,ad”. We are only one card away from completing the Spades.
Green: I can improve that to “cb,db,af,ad”. For those unfamiliar with Nathaniel Hawthorne, the scarlet letter ‘A’ is initially a symbol of shame but it ends up representing something else entirely. In our case, the Ace of Hearts in column 3 is precisely what we need to complete a suit of Hearts. “A” stands for Awesome!
Red: Nineteenth Century romance novels aside, the obvious “jf” is entirely plausible. If we draw the Jack of Spades then we can still clear the Spade suit. Therefore, no need to expose Yet Another One Of Those Horrible Things in column 1. “A” stands for AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
Actual play (Decision 32, Nov 17): cb,db,af,ad → 3 of Diamonds (Green + Bug + Bart)
Green: Could be worse – at least we get one more turnover. I vote “ab, ja” and pray.
Blue: We can tidy up somewhat. Better to play “ab, ha, gh, dh, ja”. We might need the option of turning over cards in column 4.
Red: Blue meant to say “ab, ha, gh, dh, jg” – which I agree with. Forget the Hearts for now – even if we can clear that suit, our reward would be exposing two Aces in columns 3 and 8. Our game plan must be “Spades or Bust”.
Actual play (Decision 33, Nov 19): ab,da,ed,he,gh,fb,dh,bg,jb → 4 of Clubs
And that’s the final turnover for this round.
Normally we have an opportunity for last-minute tidying up before dealing the next ten cards. But I’m not seeing anything – even “neutral options” are unavailable. The only legal move that doesn’t lose an in-suit build is “ac”, which is clearly ridiculous given the Spade suit situation.
Red: Deal
Blue: The
Green: Cards
Actual play (Decision 34, 21 Nov): Deal the cards.
Coming soon to a place near u: Round 4 wrap summary, followed by round 5.
Edifying Thoughts of a Spider Solitaire Addict 
Decision 28.
This deal is miserable. Two new kings, on top of those heart/club royalty columns. Just one new jack.
We still don’t have a 2 of hearts or a jack of spades, so those suits are not possible. We do have a complete set of clubs, but key components are buried under two kings, so we don’t have the flexibility to pull that off. We can make a heart run from Q down to 3 — and do not need any of the hearts buried in column h to do it. The king lurks on h and the ace in c, not far away, if only we got a 2.
We can come up with two spaces. ji,dj,ed,eb,gj,gh. But what then? We no longer have homes for A, 4, Q, 10. We can comb out columns b and c, getting down to a queen in b and a 10 in c, but not both as we have 3 6s wanting homes but only 2 7s to provide them. To my limited brain, what it boils down to is that we can uncover cards in columns b, c, and j at the cost of just one space, and of course a second one using the other space. Doing work towards those hearts is the best reason I can think of to favor that one. Exposing a receiving 3 also seems like a good idea. It’s getting to the point where we might need to wish for a specific card (or rank) to be uncovered, and if not we’re mostly toasted.
SO, going on… bf, (df swap 10s), be
So what do the blobs say?
I believe there is an error in reporting Blue’s moves. The last one has to be “jd”, not “id”. That’s what I’ll assume.
They all agree on not taking the empty columns, which I am happy to admit is the better thing to do even if I have more trouble keeping things straight that way. I’m sure it closes off fewer possibilities. What none of them says explicitly is that their move to uncover is using up the possibility of one of making those empty columns. Maybe they think it is obvious. None of the three of them seems bad — they’re all pretty close in my view.
Green is going to uncover column 2, the others are going to uncover column 10. Blue does a bit more cleanup than Red before the uncover. My intuition is that Red’s clean-up is an improvement over Blue.
The main difference I see is that Red and Blue use up our precious jack, while Green does not. Green uses up a precious king, but there is still one of them left. Preserving that jack seems slightly more important. Green also does a bit more work towards putting the hearts together.
My votes in order: Green, then Blue, then Red.
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Decision 28 has been added to the blockchain
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Decision 28 Position 437
A long ways from a #1 Draw but still a few things can be done.. For me, one very important key here is that we only have the one J.. So I would save the deep thinking for a minute and take the turnover in Col 2 because I can do that without covering the J..
“bf,be,bi”
I am very interested to see what the others think..
Kolorfull Kibitzers?
Green: Same as me..
Red: “ji,bf,jf”.. I dislike this immensely.. It gives a Turnover, yes, but precludes gathering up the Hearts Q-3 in Col 6 and covers the only J we have..
Blue: “bf,ji,dj,df,id”.. Better than Red, but still uses up the J.. It just seems like good form to delay using the J..
Additionally Green keeps alive the possible void in Col 5..
And onward to see what is Esteemed Scholar Bart’s take on the proceedings.. Again, a very orderly analysis of the current Poo Position.. In the end we agree, preserve the J..
My final vote is with Green and the Human..
Reading Esteemed Scholar Bart’s post had me worried for the longest time.. I thought he was going to go with Blue.. If he had done this, I would have been put into the poor position of having to cast the final and deciding vote, which would have gone with Green and against my Mentor.. We need more voters.. We have an Elderly Scholar and a Hip-it-ti-Hopper working here, surely there is a Grizzly Bear or Unicorn or even another Human lurking out there somewhere who can join in the fun and spread the pain a little?
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Decision 28 has been added to the blockchain
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Decision 29.
Initial thinking: We could get turnovers in both columns 2 and 10, but at this point it’s most important to make sure we have a couple potential spaces that are atomic. We can’t work on columns 5 or 7 without moving a 7, and the only 8 is in column 4. We have to move the 9 to get it, meaning we lose the column 2 turnover, but we can then simplify.
jh, dj, df, ef, ed, gb, je.
This leaves a ten in column e and a queen in column g and turns over one card. Putting a 9 in the space from column 2 instead is unwise because all 10s are already on the board and none can come up. There are still 3 jacks, however.
Now, the blobs:
Blue’s is worst, because Red’s improvement is valid.
Green’s is better than Red’s because it cleans up a lot of clutter at the price of one turnover. It starts out the same as mine, with some difference at the end, where I do more. One difference from green is I have the 8/7 from g over on column b. Retrieving that space in column 7 could be vital, while the cost to my plan is making it a little harder to uncover a card in b. Since we are gambling on getting a heart suit soon, I would also make the ace in column 3 more accessible at the cost of column b becoming even more “junky”.
My final plan:
jh, dj, df, ef, ed, gb, cb, cb, je.
I like mine best of all. Ranked voting:
mine, green, red, blue.
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Decision 29 Position 434
Well, here I go again. You don’ need to be crazy to play this game, but it helps.
We could take a guaranteed two turnovers jh,jf,bf but I just don’t like this position.. We would need a lot of good cards to gain some order out of this mess.
Also, going into the last draw I like to get as many Atomics or near Atomics as possible.
I am going to give up one turnover in favor of future possibilities, even thought I know our future is almost here.
So, Void Col 5, do some housework and then fill the Void with either the 9 or 10 from Col 2 or Col 10. If we do Col 2 we have not really created an AtomicVoid because all the 10’s are in play, so moving the Dia 10 into the Void is my main play. We can create another AtomicVoid in Col 7 as we go along, and simplify Col 3.
.jh,dj,gb,df,ef,ed,cb,cd,je.
Kolorfull Kibitzers, what say youse?
Blue goes the down the Two Turnover Trail.
Red sacrifices a guaranteed turnover with “jh,fh,jh”. I don’t think the small amount of Heart gain is worth the sacrifice of a turnover.
Green also gives up a turnover with a more complicated “jh, dj, df, ef, ed, (d2=g1), je”. I like this OK. It keeps Col 2 AtomicTurnover. I like mine slightly better also as it gives two AtomicVoids.
Esteemed Scholar Bart, how did you see things? We actually see things the same right up to the last move. (Also we differ on when to move the Spade 8 but this is inconsequential.)
Me ..jh,dj,gb,df,ef,ed,cb,cd,je.
ESB jh,dj,df,ef,ed,gb,cb,cb,je.
I like putting the Spade 5 on the Spade 6 in Col d better.
I vote: me, Esteemed Scholar Bart, Green, Red, Blue.
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We finally get some decent cards and trivial moves – Decisions 29,30,31 added to the Blockchain. Round 4 has also been tagged under “Nathaniel Hawthorne” for reasons that will become clear 😊
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I agree SA’s plan is better than mind, so I change my vote so it’s 2-0 in favor of his.
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We finally get some decent cards and trivial moves – Decisions 29,30,31 added to the Blockchain. Round 4 has also been tagged under “Nathaniel Hawthorne” for reasons that will become clear 😊
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Decision 32
On my own I had picked blue’s plan, but on seeing green’s I like it better. I think red’s plan is much, much worse. Getting spades ready to come off seems very valuable. They are a more interesting suit to remove than hearts. We can see both kings of hearts, in uninspiring locations. If we get another king on the draw (there are 2 left), top priority will be reclaiming space g. Heart removal uses up a king or space to get the queen out of column f, revealing unhelpful cards. If we work on spades, we will have A-10 of spades ready. With a jack of spades letting us make a complete suit, that will expose an 8, and there are 3 7s still in the deck, likely looking for homes.
Top vote: green.
Second choice: blue
Last: red
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Decision 32 has been added to the chain of blocks
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Decision 32 Position 419
Nice little run of turnovers which came to a halt with the Spade Ace.
I am trying to resist attacking Col 1 and exposing yet another Ace, but I can’t. Having an almost complete Spade Run is too tempting. I will also complicate Col 2 instead of Col 3 because we cannot move the Club 9 without a Ten from either Col 3 or Col 6. Also this gets us closer to the Heart Ace
.cb,db,af,ad
Kolorfull Kibitzers?
Blue also goes for the Spade build but doesn’t change the Difficulty Differential Defining Col’s 2&3.
Green goes with me.
Red decides on not Adding An Ace to the proceedings on the basis that the Spade Jack lives in Col 10. Only problem with this line of thought is that the Spade Jack lives in Col 1.
Up to now, I vote me, Green, Blue/Red-I like neither, I give a slight nod to Blue.
Lets see if Esteemed Scholar Bart has posted yet. Agreement has been achieved, Bart, Bug and Green. Thank you again, Sir, for your analysis of the position.
JackofSpadesJackofSpadesJackofSpadesJackofSpadesJackofSpades
With the Spade Jack and two more Top-of-the-Line Turnovers we could put this thing in a very winning position. But the reference to N.H. leads me to wonder if both remaining Red A’s live in Col’s 1&10 ?? Let’s not rule out 7’s. We’ll know soon. This statement by Master Chi-Yuen along with his previous acceptance of the doubling cube at a somewhat troubling position should leave no doubt that he knows which cards are where.
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Decision 32 has been added to the chain of blocks
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Decision 33 Position 415
Well, put the 3 on the 4 and the A in the hole. Or we could put the K from Col 4 in the hole, but that should be as a last resort. I question if we should be active with the void in Col 1 whilst we have it?
We can gain a Club in suit build with the J in Col 4 and the Q in Col 7. But we lose Atomic in Col 7 so better to do a Q swap out and move the Club J to Col 8 instead.
The only thing I can see us protecting against is turnover-ing an 8 in Col 10. If an 8 does live in Col 10 we can still do the Last Resort thing and gain a turnover in Col 4 but we lose our Atomic Status in Col 5.
We can add a 10 swap out below the Club J and not lose an Atomic if an 8 does get turnover-ed
.ab,ha,gh,dg,dh,eh,je
Kolorfull Kibitzers ??
Green goes Simple.
Blue ja must be jg. This goes along my line but doesn’t guard against a 8 living in Col 10 and costing us our Atomic Col 5.
Red corrects Blue’s typo and then gives some verbage about this line making a Heart run more difficult. Yes, but certainly not forgotten. Also I don’t see what ace is exposed in Col 3.
Esteemed Scholar Bart are you here yet? Not yet, I’ll go first and hope my haste doesn’t present you with a typo or two or three.
For now, I vote me, Blue, Red, Green
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Decision 33
The obvious is ab,ja. Expose another card, learn whether column 10 will be a candidate for making a space.
But we can do some fiddling around first, before ja. These tweaks are mostly independent. None seems terribly important; all are for a slight edge.
da,ed. It’s slightly better to have the vital spade run in a potential space, where 2 of the things we would need (space and A-10 of spades) can be gotten from the same column And also, here, a receiving 9 (if needed) would not have vital stuff under it.
(g1=h1). Column 9 might get hit with something we can’t move, but we also might get dealt the other king of spades, in which case the other spade queen would be vital. Once again, put it where it could also be part of retrieving a space. (g1=h1) is one way of conveying the concept, though in actual moves it will be part of other stuff.
fb supermove. If we desperately need a 4 after the deal, having an atomic unit on it in column 6 might help. We used to have a spare 4 but we just used it up. The new suit break is a small price to pay.
I have a tiny, tiny preference for that lone ace being clubs rather than spades. We can imagine wanting to swap that ace into the column 3 A-2, and the ace of clubs will fit more nicely.
We end with j moved in the space, seeing what’s under that last ace.
And what about the kibbitzers?
Green is the basic plan, without tweaking improvements.
Blue works towards a goal I hadn’t… making d atomic so we can get a turnover there more easily. Our plight is really desperate if that’s our best option. The A-5 of clubs in column 8 will likely become relevant soon, so not burying it more deeply is a goal that clearing out column 4 works against. But whether we do that is independent of other decisions. Having an in-suit JQ of clubs is a slight benefit. I’m indifferent so I’ll go along with Blue.
A side effect of their plan was leaving the queen of spades in a space alone instead of the queen of clubs, but they probably just wanted the JQ of clubs to be in-suit. Looks like they achieved one of my goals by accident.
So, differences… They don’t see the merit of A-10 of spades in its space instead of 9-10 of diamonds. They don’t see the merit in making the heart run in f easier to get at. They don’t see the merit in having ace of clubs instead of ace of spades in the space.
There are lots of independent small-tradeoff decisions here, so it’s likely SA and I will have final plans that differ.
My answer broken down by goals:
ab — get space to allow other work
da,ed — A-10 of spades alone in space instead of 9-10 of diamonds
he,gh — get Q of spades alone in space versus Q of clubs
fb — supermove to make 6 “more atomic”
dh — blue’s “d-clearing” I go along with indifferently.
bg,jb — leave A of clubs in space, not A of spades.
My final answer:
ab,da,ed,he,gh,fb,dh,bg,jb.
Ranked choices:
Mine
Red
Blue (same as red except typo)
Green
Meta-suggestion for GM: If, as seems likely, SA and I differ in one or more of these details, what then? In the past, one of us is convinced by the other’s choice and changes their vote. But after allowing a day or so for that, maybe you as GM can just resolve remaining differences independently instead of having to take a single complete plan as a package? I would suggest.. if SA and I suggest the SAME deviation from the Red plan, take our suggestion, but otherwise stick with the Red suggestion on any given point?
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Decision 33 — addendum
Now I see SA has replied before I did mine. So now to compare.
I think SA is sticking to the blue/red plan pretty closely. He and I do converge on putting the A-10 of spades in the space, though for me it is early in my thinking and I have independent motivations for it, and for him it seems to be the end of a round of thinking, as a reluctant conclusion?
So as I see it, the way it stands is that the leader is the blue/red plan bolstered by votes from SA. The one deviation is that we both want to put the A-10 of spades in a space and pull the 9-10 of diamonds out.
I am not inclined to change my vote on anything.
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Esteemed Scholar Bart, where we place the Spade 10 and which Ace is left Atomic is small pickings.
I think that functionally our main difference is your move of fb. I did look long and hard at this and somehow lost the train of thought as I did my final (for then) answer. So I didn’t reject the move as much as I lost it in the fog of old age. I do really like getting closer to that 4 in Col 6, Three’s and Five’s is acomin’.
Master Chi-Yuen, I would like to go forward using Bart’s plan.
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Bart’s plan it is. Our luck has come to and end – time to deal the final round.
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Bart’s plan it is. Our luck has come to and end – time to deal the final round.
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