[benlessard]

Here in Montreal they play a lot of duplicate Scrabble. There is 0% luck in DS but there is also no board control strategies for duplicate Scrabble because its always the best word (in pts) that get put up on the board. There is also a lot of english speaking that play french Scrabble because there is more verb form and more players.

http://en.wikipedia....licate_Scrabble

I think you must score more than 800 pts per game to win a big tournament

Quote

Outside of the USA, a world-class player will average about 440-450 per game. In the USA it will be about twenty points lower, because the US dictionary has fewer 2- and 3-letter words which makes scoring harder

In french there is a lot of verb tense and "subjects" change how the verb is written. http://en.wikipedia....ki/French_verbs

http://www.ortholud....verbes/etre.php

Etre is to be

[Antrax]

I like diplomacy, but I'm only good at the diplomatic part of it
BunnyGo, you could try Fischer Random chess, online it's usually easy to find a game.

[paulg]

 benlessard, on 2012-February-18, 23:35, said:

Here in Montreal they play a lot of duplicate Scrabble. There is 0% luck in DS but there is also no board control strategies for duplicate Scrabble because its always the best word (in pts) that get put up on the board.

Duplicate Scrabble is not played in the UK. I think it is the lack of rack management and endgame strategy that is the big difference between the games.

[JLOGIC]

 mgoetze, on 2012-February-16, 05:07, said:

Poker, on the other hand, has always seemed a bit boring to me. My impression is that being a successful poker play just involves a lot of folding.

Sadly true, but it is the game with by far the most money in it, so it's worth it as long as you don't play full time imo. I mean if you can part time it and make 6 figures a year it's worth it for a while even if it's boring imo. Of course if you are successful/rich with other ventures, don't bother.

[Xiaolongnu]

I am some sort of a jack of all trades. Maybe queen would be a better word for us bridge players since we have an additional step response to king and a superhuman to the ace. Enough of euphemisms.

Chess: I know the game, I know the theory, I could play reasonably well, not as good as my bridge, which is not very good. About 80% of my bridge. Good with rooks. Reasonable with queens. Bad with bishops. Typical of those who also play Chinese Chess.

Chinese Chess: I know the game too, around 70% of my bridge. Good with combinations.

Scrabble: I am as good at Scrabble as I am at bridge.

Othello: Know a bit, don't like it.

Go: Know the basics but that's all. Way less than 1 dan. (1 dan is I think roughly the same rank as someone who has just started winning green points in the EBU system. Not sure whether it is a good comparison, someone advise this? I seem to draw a rough line that green points = 1 dan, gold points = 1 dan professional.)

Magic: Played before, rather good but do not know the high level, Director level rules. Also do not really have good, in other words expensive cards. It is the sort of game that while you are a student you have no money to collect the cards, when you are working you have no time to play. The paradox of life. One of the main reasons why I converted to bridge.

Mahjong: The four player game, not the solitaire tile matching game. My MJ was better than my bridge. In fact most of these games started off better than my bridge but I chose bridge in the end by several twists of fate, friendships and shhh...the power of love (: haha. I like it very much too.

[billw55]

 Xiaolongnu, on 2012-February-20, 13:46, said:

Go: Know the basics but that's all. Way less than 1 dan. (1 dan is I think roughly the same rank as someone who has just started winning green points in the EBU system. Not sure whether it is a good comparison, someone advise this? I seem to draw a rough line that green points = 1 dan, gold points = 1 dan professional.)

I don't know exactly how one earns green or gold points in the EBU. But I can say emphatically that earning ACBL gold points does not even remotely approach the achievement of earning a professional rank in Go. All professionals are in the top 0.1% of the total playing population.

I would say that an amateur 1 dan ranking is roughly equivalent to a moderately competent bridge player who expects to earn a few ACBL gold points if he plays several events at a regional tournament.

[wank]

There are quite a few people on here saying they like diplomacy. This thread caused me to look for a site and I found playdiplomacy.com which has very good and simple software. I was thinking if enough of us joined up we could have a BBF game.

[Antrax]

I can mod a BBF game using Realpolitik, if you like. We used to play it on another forum. Typically there's a dedicated thread, the mod sets deadlines and posts moves and the updated map after the deadline, and players communicate either via the thread, PM or email.

[BunnyGo]

 wank, on 2012-February-23, 22:32, said:

There are quite a few people on here saying they like diplomacy. This thread caused me to look for a site and I found playdiplomacy.com which has very good and simple software. I was thinking if enough of us joined up we could have a BBF game.

My favorite site is www.diplomacy.ca, I'd be happy to have a BBF game.

[neilkaz]

 wank, on 2012-February-23, 22:32, said:

There are quite a few people on here saying they like diplomacy. This thread caused me to look for a site and I found playdiplomacy.com which has very good and simple software. I was thinking if enough of us joined up we could have a BBF game.

I'd be interested in a BBF Diplomacy game. I haven't played it much since college 30 years ago, but think I remember it as I used to play it lots in high school. I went to a private school and our 11th grade history teacher used to let us play diplomacy on Weds and then there was a free period and then lunch after that so we could get a lot of the game done one week and finish during the next couple sessions.

I recall when at college, going to a local bridge club that had an enlarged diplomacy map(Japan, China, India added and 4 armies to start with for most civs (6 for Russia)) which made for a fun game on some Friday nights..I partied almost every other night anyhow so didn't mind gaming on Fridays.

.. neilkaz ..

[BunnyGo]

Yes, colonial diplomacy was fun. Some extra rules with the suez canal and the siberian railroad. It wasn't as small as the original map, and so amazingly took even longer to play.

[neilkaz]

The varient at that bridge club was different than Colonial Dip since there were no extra rules or railroad. It just had an extra SC for most countries as well as China/India/Japan added and an extra province or two in most. A good way to play with 10 players, but, we really couldn't completely finish a game even though sometimes (starting at 7 pm) we were allowed to play til 2 am. Often it was clear who'd win or a two or three way draw was agreed and other times we'd write down everything and continue the next week.

I signed up at diplomacy.ca and am hoping they let me into a game soon. I'll probably have to PM you with some procedural questions. thx .. neilkaz ..

[neilkaz]

 JLOGIC, on 2012-February-19, 05:36, said:

Sadly true, but it is the game with by far the most money in it, so it's worth it as long as you don't play full time imo. I mean if you can part time it and make 6 figures a year it's worth it for a while even if it's boring imo. Of course if you are successful/rich with other ventures, don't bother.

Many of my friends and aquaintances who were/still are world class or close to W/C backgammon players either gave up BG completely or put it far back on the back burner when the poker craze started. Now that options trading is basically a waste of time there are many times that I wish I'd done the same thing but even until a few years ago, trading was too good to even think of stopping. When I tried poker a few times I quickly became bored at tossing away hand after hand. I suspose that if I was trying to play professionally and good enough to do so, that I'd be less bored folding my two cards and watching what everyone else is doing. Another factor causing me to not pursue poker is that I am very bad at reading people and very bad at hiding my emotions. Of course at BG, I can sometimes get a read on whether someone is scared/confused and will make a cube error, and/or whether they don't understand the position and will make checker play errors, but I've played that game vs W/C opps for nearly 35 years.

That being said, when I retire in a year or two, I'll likely take a stab at more serious poker, although I may need to move at least part time to a country where I can play it online. ... neilkaz ...

[BunnyGo]

 neilkaz, on 2012-February-25, 10:01, said:

That being said, when I retire in a year or two, I'll likely take a stab at more serious poker, although I may need to move at least part time to a country where I can play it online. ... neilkaz ...

At the rate some bills are being discussed, you may not need to move.

[neilkaz]

 BunnyGo, on 2012-February-25, 10:08, said:

At the rate some bills are being discussed, you may not need to move.

One can only hope, but I think nothing will happen until after the Nov elections. Hopefully, a bill would also make it OK for Americans to play BG for money online again as, while no where the market poker is, it will be good for the game.

[Antrax]

 neilkaz, on 2012-February-25, 10:01, said:

Another factor causing me to not pursue poker is that I am very bad at reading people and very bad at hiding my emotions.

I can't speak for the higher levels of competition, but in the lower levels, that's completely unnecessary. I suspect it would be like someone not playing Bridge competitively because they can't figure out triple squeezes or something. Just having a sound opening strategy and understanding some very basic notions is enough to be consistently profitable.

[wyman]

I referred to the community cards as "dummy" last night and realized my bridge:poker ratio has been enormous lately.

edit: at the casino

[blackshoe]

I suppose governments will allow on line gambling as soon as they figure out how to ensure they get a piece of the action.

[JLOGIC]

 neilkaz, on 2012-February-25, 10:01, said:

Many of my friends and aquaintances who were/still are world class or close to W/C backgammon players either gave up BG completely or put it far back on the back burner when the poker craze started. Now that options trading is basically a waste of time there are many times that I wish I'd done the same thing but even until a few years ago, trading was too good to even think of stopping. When I tried poker a few times I quickly became bored at tossing away hand after hand. I suspose that if I was trying to play professionally and good enough to do so, that I'd be less bored folding my two cards and watching what everyone else is doing. Another factor causing me to not pursue poker is that I am very bad at reading people and very bad at hiding my emotions. Of course at BG, I can sometimes get a read on whether someone is scared/confused and will make a cube error, and/or whether they don't understand the position and will make checker play errors, but I've played that game vs W/C opps for nearly 35 years.

That being said, when I retire in a year or two, I'll likely take a stab at more serious poker, although I may need to move at least part time to a country where I can play it online. ... neilkaz ...

Yes, a lot of the bridge guys are/were options guys, and I grew up hearing that I should be getting into options because it was so great...eventually I heard it dried up (little known fact btw, joe grue moved to NYC to be an options trader not a bridge pro).

Anyways I'll be happy to trade backgammon lessons for poker lessons at some point if you want! That said, poker is drying up a lot also, I think you may miss the boat on that one in a few years also. That said, the reverse will happen if it does get legalized/regulated in USA and we have a Harrahs, MGM, Wynn online poker room lol. Right now even Vegas is brutal for poker, the games are terrible and there don't seem to be many drunk baccarat players who come and go all in 20 hands in a row anymore. But that may have more to do with the economy and Vegas combined with good online players moving to Vegas to play than poker drying up. There is still lots of money to be made though and I am hopeful that it will be legal in USA in the next few years which will cause a boom of fish and money galore. I might even give up bridge for a few years if that happens, one of my biggest regrets is not grinding a lot more when it happened the first time.

[Antrax]

JLOGIC, did you enjoy grinding in real life? I found it terribly depressing.
Also, do you mean to say that low stakes over the weekend no longer have 95% drunken idiots?