Category Archives: Non-video Games

Speedster Emblem

I finished the first two pages of emblems (the games high-scorers emblems) of Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games for NDS. Yay. Took me like two weeks to figure out that boosting multiple times quickly gives you faster speed than boosting multiple times with delays in Supersonic Downhill. That also explains why I kept finding opponents at 22.100 seconds while my record was 22.300 seconds. 😦

Now I need to figure out how to get 2700 meters in Rocket Ski Jumping… Like, opponents get 2700 pretty common, while my record is 2400.

Unrelated:
You’re waiting for Monopoly report? The English Native teacher got substituted for unknown reason, so no Monopoly today 😦 But for some reason we were able to play it on the “Tutor Time” one hour before school ends.

Three vs one is impossible to win if you’re the one with bad luck. Like, you went around the board for the first time, without landing on any unbought property. 😦 Then there are three people making an agreement, like immunities and trading properties without anything in return. $4,500 + three pawns = triple purchase ability. Versus a single player with bad luck. 😦 😦 😦

Monopoly House Rules

I started to go crazy over Monopoly since…uh…5 days ago when my English “Native” teacher (which is actually from Bandung anyway) had the theme about negotiation and brought up Monopoly.

There are a lot of house rules in Monopoly, starting from the perhaps-most-common no-auction rule, to the unlimited buildings, to the weird “no collecting rent in Jail”. Before knowing the actual rules, I even went as far as “Free Parking grants you the ability to move your piece anywhere, getting the $200 salary if it’s in the first half of the board (it’s going past Go right?).”

Yeah, they are all wrong. But even then, I feel the actual rules pretty constricting. Like, you can’t trade anything other than cash, properties, and Get Out From Jail card. Nah, it’s no fun without alliances and betrayals. (Too many The Mole craze, seeing my next game on AoPS is The Mole.) So expect some weird rules to be reported (hopefully) when I play Monopoly against my classmates in 2 days (in the same English “Native” class)…

Crossruffing

N AQJ76S AJT985H JD QC
E T93S Q643H Q87D AKJC
S K852S AKT32D 8752C
W 4S K72H 9654D T6543C
Enb S1D Wnb N1H Enb S2D Wnb N2S Enb Snb Wnb
Contract 2S, North is declarer.

East leads Ace of Clubs and takes the first trick.
It’s good that East doesn’t lead with King of Clubs as North has given up Queen of Clubs and shows he doesn’t have any more clubs. But any way, my partnership holds the remaining Aces, so we certainly score some.
East leads Eight of Diamonds, South takes the trick. South leads King of Diamonds, then small club to be ruffed by North.
North leads Ace of Hearts, and South discards a club. Crossruff begins.

Because of the luck that both diamonds and hearts split 4-3, West holds a small trump, and North holds three trump honors, it’s easy to score all the tricks by crossruffing. When West runs out of hearts (trick 10), South already has a larger spade, so West is out. On trick 11 where East has nothing but trumps, all the remaining trumps by N-S are already the highest. Hence 12 tricks scored, for 2S+4. Insert another rage moment here.

What a Luck

N KJT874S A9H K8D AQ6C
E AQ653S K63H QT7D 54C
S T75H A64D KJT8732C
W 92S QJ842H J9532D 9C
I got 2C+5. Another enraged moment.
Bidding:
N1S Enb S2C Wnb Nnb Enb

Play:
West leads Queen of Hearts. Guess what happens. Okay, it’s pretty obvious that I wash the trumps.
After Trick 5,
N KJT874S 9H 6C
E AQ653S K6H QD
S T7H 6D KJT87C
W 92S J84H J95D
Trick 6-7:
KS 3S 7H 2S
JS 6S TH 9S
Note how East misplays here by allowing my King and Jack to score. (Has East took either, I would only score around 11 tricks, missing on my hearts.) It’s also a luck that both Ace and Queen of Spades are in East. That basically secures the grand slam.

Moral: Luck plays like 10% in a Bridge game.

Problem: Given perfect knowledge of the hands as above to everyone playing, but everyone plays perfectly, determine whether the contract is met or not. Additionally, determine the game play.

Achievement Replenished

Well, so my second forum game with a co-mod is almost ready. Thanks to Yoshi aka Yoshiap aka [real name redacted], the game is well prepared. Hopefully. The nth achievement game in AoPS, also the mth (I cannot use the same variable to represent different numbers right?) forum game that is based on another forum game.

So…I think I haven’t got to know good things to post, so here’s a bridge hand. A bad one, I would say, since I got 2D+5. 😦 I’m south. See if you can get a grand slam yourself.
South: 9653S AKQ7H KJ3D A7C
West: K84S 9643H T65D 843C
North: AQT7S J2H A98742D QC
East: J2S T85H QD KJT9652C

Oh, in case you’re one of the few that reads this entry, here’s a hint: I have a secret in one of my AoPS blog entries. A recent one.