One of the most challenging things about these games is that we have limited time to figure out a strategy. If I play 100 games of chess, by game 100 I'll have a much better idea of what to do. But with this challenge, you've got to be able to quickly figure out a good strategy, and suss out your opponent, even though you've only just met and have never played the game before. Which is part of the fun of it! But man, it's a lot trickier than it might look. I'm watching it back now kicking myself over making certain choices.
+StevenBridges Great playing! It seemed you had a good grasp of the game unfortunately you forgot it was one less card in the main game otherwise you would have won. Playoff was just bad luck, almost seemed that the first point was the most important in that tiebreaker.
+StevenBridges Yes! This is totally different to playing well-known games that we may already have worked out strategy for. But I guess your opponent is in the same boat? :)
+StevenBridges I think you had the correct strategy in the shootout - you had a 85% chance of winning off of that last card and lost to the variance of it being a seven. I'm dissapointed you lost :(
+rafagd Yes, but a better tactic would have been to tell him what she did to make him play a 1, but then only played a 2 herself. Meaning she'd win the 11 card while only spending 2 points.
I wonder if the reason Ms. Nicklin was explaining her stratagy is because she's a game designer and more used to trying to dissect and understand games than in trying to win them?
+LittleMikey The programming problem FizzBuzz. It's a somewhat common really basic "can this person program their way out of a paper bag" type of interview question. The question is usually of the form: write a method that takes a number, and for every integer from 0 to that number, print "fizz" if it's divisible by 3, "buzz" if it's divisible by 5, "fizzbuzz" if it's divisible by both, or just the number if it's divisible by neither. This takes less than 5 minutes and fewer than 20 lines of code in pretty much any language if you know what you're doing. And in a job I was once in, we were given SO MANY people to interview by terrible 3rd-party recruiting companies who just could not do it. Instant fail, no more questions.
Had my heart racing. The tie breaker part wasn't very fair though; it was too much luck. The guy had the right idea to try to play small until a large point card, and try to do the same auto-win rollover strat he almost fell for the first time, but she didn't take it.. and he didn't choose a high enough point card to do it with. Not that he could've known, with all the luck involved!
+Boredness It's a tough one ain't it. You've got to very quickly figure out a strategy without every having played. Which is part of the fun. You don't have time to text out various approaches.
I don't know why but this got my heart pounding a little! As natural, I was rooting for the underdog (who likes cocky magicians anyway?) so I'm so glad she won!
This is a traditional card game too! I've heard it called "Psychological Jujitsu". Basically the same rules as this, jacks are 11, queens 12, kings 13 and aces 1
The small game of 5 is a very bad way of resolving ties. It basically makes it all up to luck for whether the final card they were bidding for was a 7 or a 1. A better tiebreaker method would have been to look at the remaining card in each of their hands at the end of the original game: who spent fewer resources to achieve an equal score to their opponent?
Mr Bodycombe, you were right, it did get much better after game one. Thank you for your comment after round 1. I'm glad I hung around. Now if Tom and Matt would stop mucking about on park benches and get the next series of Citation Needed sorted, I'd be a truly happy man. Tom if you are reading this, what happened to the biscuits?
There is a simple practical strategy to these games, and that is as follows: Instead of playing something really low when underbidding in order to save cards, play something mediocre, so that you can get those free points that the opponent will sooner or later be forced to underplay. So for example, for an 8 you could play a 4, for a 6 you could play a 3, etc. Then, when a really low number is out, you can throw out your 1, and when a really high number comes out, you have your whole hand on your side.
If you like this game you might consider the board game "Hoity Toity" (Adel verpflichtet in German). It's also based on overbidding your opponents, just more complicated. If you're interrested theres a rules explanation on youtube :)
That's how most "mentalists" come across to me. Probably because psycho levels of manipulation are part and parcel of the occupation, even if that's not the practitioner's natural state.
You should have had the tie be broken by who had the highest number of points left over in their hands. It would have added an edge to the tactics of keeping one left over.
I wonder how one of the eleven yellow cards is removed. The sum of all numbers from 1 to 11 is 66. So, if an even number is taken out, the sum of points on the left ten cards will be even. Ties are then possible in all cases, no matter which even card (2, 4, 6, 8, or 10) is taken. Instead, if an odd number is taken out, we will have odd score sum, no chances of draws.
What do you do when you both use the same card in first round? You play for 7 and you both use 7s. When this card passes to the next round, and now you play for 7 and 5, how to avoid the situation that both players will use then 11, 10, 9... etc, and the whole game will be like that?
Sooner or later, *someone* has to blink. Probably by playing one higher to actually claim the points, but sacrificing their ability to win a future round. Though grabbing several rolled over cards would likely be worth it. Of course, if both of them break at the same time, you could well end up needing some kind of tiebreaker.
+skorp86 As a US show would say, "portions of this program not effecting the outcome have been edited". Sequences are shortened, but nothing important's ever cut out!
This reminds me of CDPR's Gwent where each player has a small diminishing hand and has to manage their resources while trying to determine if their opponent has enough strength left to win.
Simple but cool game. If I play it with my friends, I'd probably tweak it to reduce the possibility of a draw. Maybe award ties to the player with the higher leftover card, or add a fractional point card to the yellow deck.
I actually own a game that's just like this for more than two players. It's even more tricky bc if you pick the same number as one of your opponents the card automatically goes to the other one even if they've put out a way lower card. For example: Yellow card is a 10. Everyone wants it. Player A plays the highest card possible. So does player B. Player C guesses that both might be playing the highest card and just plays a low one. When reveling the cards, Player C wins.
I'm sorry but this is nothing to do with the game, but is it me or is Hannah extremely fit!? Also her name is a palindrome, which is just too awesome!!
Tom really needs a TV show, if you slightly lengthen Game On and Citation needed you could merge the two into one hour long show including commercials, and maybe with a short ad break do half an hour if it's too long for an hour.
+davidbod Yep, sorry, should have said that differently - seeing you there reminded me of Tom's appearance on the show, and I'd like him to make a park bench video about it. Or something to that effect. :)
If the right strategy is to play the same as the card on the table. the counter strategy is to play one higher than the card on the table the counter strategy to that is to play two higher ... you should play your highest card If both players do this all games will end in a tie. The game needs another random element. perhaps remove one card from both players hand at the beginning of play and not just on from the deck
If you waste your highest card, the opposite player can just waste a 2 and wait for a higher card where they know they can win, so it's an infinite loop of counter strategies
I prefer the name Goofspiel for this game. And the comment about optimal strategy, I don't think that was quite right. I think it is referring to when your opponent plays randomly or something. It is certainly not an optimal strategy in the real game.
So here I was, confused with the rules for this game and I thought: "Well, I'm almost understanding the mechanics of this game: The one who plays the higher card takes the yellow number..." and I just had to wait until the end to see who was going to win and complete my thoughts (I didn't know if yellow cards were good or bad)... and they tied. For christ sake
Steven: *sneezes*
Tom: "IT'S WHAT HE DOES, HE'S A MAGICIAN & MENTALIST HE'S GREAT AT PSYCHOLOGY"
One of the most challenging things about these games is that we have limited time to figure out a strategy. If I play 100 games of chess, by game 100 I'll have a much better idea of what to do. But with this challenge, you've got to be able to quickly figure out a good strategy, and suss out your opponent, even though you've only just met and have never played the game before.
Which is part of the fun of it! But man, it's a lot trickier than it might look. I'm watching it back now kicking myself over making certain choices.
+StevenBridges Very well played, both you and your opponent
+StevenBridges Great playing! It seemed you had a good grasp of the game unfortunately you forgot it was one less card in the main game otherwise you would have won. Playoff was just bad luck, almost seemed that the first point was the most important in that tiebreaker.
+StevenBridges Yes! This is totally different to playing well-known games that we may already have worked out strategy for. But I guess your opponent is in the same boat? :)
+StevenBridges I think you had the correct strategy in the shootout - you had a 85% chance of winning off of that last card and lost to the variance of it being a seven. I'm dissapointed you lost :(
sus
Hannah almost became a Bond villain when she told her evil plan to the magician. Luckly she still got it in the end.
+rafagd Yes, but a better tactic would have been to tell him what she did to make him play a 1, but then only played a 2 herself.
Meaning she'd win the 11 card while only spending 2 points.
+James Bradwell
Indeed.
This was the most interesting episode so far.
"What was your last card?"
"6!"
"I had a 9!"
...Well, if that's not real magic, then I don't know what is.
2:45
I wonder if the reason Ms. Nicklin was explaining her stratagy is because she's a game designer and more used to trying to dissect and understand games than in trying to win them?
As soon as Steven acknowledged the pattern I knew he was about to break it.
yeah. Tbh he kinda always played just exactly as you would expect from someone trying to lead you on.
i watch this show because its fun and cool. but mostly because i want to discover all these cool games
I have to say, this has been an extremely interesting and exciting show about mental gymnastics. I quite enjoy it.
do you watch the genius? these guys are big fans of that show as well.
"QuizzBuzz" You're not having answers based on multiples of 3 and 5 are you? :D
+Craig Domville And 7, and 9, and 11, and 13...!
+Tom Scott QuizBuzz 'ave a banana?
+stichomythia3435 I think I owe you a thank you for that reference.
+Craig Domville What's that from?
+LittleMikey The programming problem FizzBuzz. It's a somewhat common really basic "can this person program their way out of a paper bag" type of interview question. The question is usually of the form: write a method that takes a number, and for every integer from 0 to that number, print "fizz" if it's divisible by 3, "buzz" if it's divisible by 5, "fizzbuzz" if it's divisible by both, or just the number if it's divisible by neither. This takes less than 5 minutes and fewer than 20 lines of code in pretty much any language if you know what you're doing. And in a job I was once in, we were given SO MANY people to interview by terrible 3rd-party recruiting companies who just could not do it. Instant fail, no more questions.
When they played for the 11, I knew he was gonna play his 1, I was so hoping that she would play her 2 xD
This was amazing, really made my day better this did! Can't wait to see the other episodes.
4:03 magicians do NOTHING by accident..
Also best game so far.. loved it :D
That was so close but Hannah did it again! Loving the series! The videos are short and really interesting
revealing your strategy to your opponent is not the best move
+Curtis Baker It is if you don't follow it.. she could have said all that and played a 6 or a 3
+Curtis Baker I guess she's not that immune to magic
+Curtis Baker Eh, revealing the strategy AND mixing it up is a nice way to make your opponent not as concentrated.
Very fun series, please continue it in the future! Gave me a great respect for magicians, devilishly smart people.
Electoral college: the game
William Brennan 😭
Had my heart racing. The tie breaker part wasn't very fair though; it was too much luck. The guy had the right idea to try to play small until a large point card, and try to do the same auto-win rollover strat he almost fell for the first time, but she didn't take it.. and he didn't choose a high enough point card to do it with. Not that he could've known, with all the luck involved!
+Boredness It's a tough one ain't it. You've got to very quickly figure out a strategy without every having played. Which is part of the fun. You don't have time to text out various approaches.
@@stevenbridges the 5 card version should only feature cards upto 5, otherwise the game loses its balance
I don't know why but this got my heart pounding a little! As natural, I was rooting for the underdog (who likes cocky magicians anyway?) so I'm so glad she won!
Am I the only one who thought the magician was the underdog?
Yes.
I think this is 1x04, not 4x04... unless you published three extra series since I last looked!
+Chris Borgars-Smith Honestly, you'd think I'd be better at double-checking these titles. Fixed!
+Tom Scott Is that two title errors in a row?
+Tom Scott Your typo lives forever in my subscription email
+Chris Borgars-Smith 4(x)04 seasons not found
Thanks Tom and the rest for making me fall in love with off-line gaming again.
I thought I didn't like magic until I started watching Steve's channel. He's so great that he convinced me of its awesomeness! Fascinating game!
I played this game once with my sister, & we bid the same amount throughout the entire game! Thankfully, the tiebreaker broke the tie.
This was intense to watch! Great game Hannah! Sorry Steven! Loving this series Tom! :)
This is a traditional card game too! I've heard it called "Psychological Jujitsu". Basically the same rules as this, jacks are 11, queens 12, kings 13 and aces 1
This is ridiculously fun to watch, please tell me there's another series on the cards.
This series is more exciting than I thought! :D
I really liked learning this new variation on an otherwise terrible game. I'm going to teach this to my kids. Thanks Tom.
This is a good series. Teaches you loads of fun and bunkers games to try out
The small game of 5 is a very bad way of resolving ties. It basically makes it all up to luck for whether the final card they were bidding for was a 7 or a 1. A better tiebreaker method would have been to look at the remaining card in each of their hands at the end of the original game: who spent fewer resources to achieve an equal score to their opponent?
Mr Bodycombe, you were right, it did get much better after game one. Thank you for your comment after round 1. I'm glad I hung around.
Now if Tom and Matt would stop mucking about on park benches and get the next series of Citation Needed sorted, I'd be a truly happy man. Tom if you are reading this, what happened to the biscuits?
Was ist just a coincidence that there was apart from the 7 so low yellow cards at the end? I was kinda thinking that the yellow cards were 1-5 aswell.
They were 1-7, Tom said that.
Ooooh yep, going to be watching all of these tonight.
This is interesting. It's like instantly switching between 'hearts and spades' mentality. Very cool.
There is a simple practical strategy to these games, and that is as follows: Instead of playing something really low when underbidding in order to save cards, play something mediocre, so that you can get those free points that the opponent will sooner or later be forced to underplay. So for example, for an 8 you could play a 4, for a 6 you could play a 3, etc. Then, when a really low number is out, you can throw out your 1, and when a really high number comes out, you have your whole hand on your side.
+Anos Anosn well duh, its remembering the cards that have been played by that is the hard part
That´s a pretty darn good strategy game! Love the simplicity, too.
Blackery's TH-cam url is incorrect in the annotation link.
If you like this game you might consider the board game "Hoity Toity" (Adel verpflichtet in German). It's also based on overbidding your opponents, just more complicated. If you're interrested theres a rules explanation on youtube :)
"He's good at psychology".
Just strikes me as socially aggressive.
That's how most "mentalists" come across to me. Probably because psycho levels of manipulation are part and parcel of the occupation, even if that's not the practitioner's natural state.
Is this your own game or an old one? I´m a gamedev and would love to make this into an app if possible
You should have had the tie be broken by who had the highest number of points left over in their hands. It would have added an edge to the tactics of keeping one left over.
+Daniel Fair I know, I know. A tie shouldn't have been possible, but I didn't realise shortening the game from 13 to 11 cards made it achievable.
Holy shit, this was extremely fun to watch.
I wonder how one of the eleven yellow cards is removed. The sum of all numbers from 1 to 11 is 66. So, if an even number is taken out, the sum of points on the left ten cards will be even. Ties are then possible in all cases, no matter which even card (2, 4, 6, 8, or 10) is taken. Instead, if an odd number is taken out, we will have odd score sum, no chances of draws.
It was removed by a spectator at random. I realised too late the trick of the odd number of odd numbers guaranteeing a win.
I have really enjoyed these games.
I’m late to find this video, but what would you do if both players made the same bid?
What do you do when you both use the same card in first round? You play for 7 and you both use 7s. When this card passes to the next round, and now you play for 7 and 5, how to avoid the situation that both players will use then 11, 10, 9... etc, and the whole game will be like that?
Sooner or later, *someone* has to blink. Probably by playing one higher to actually claim the points, but sacrificing their ability to win a future round. Though grabbing several rolled over cards would likely be worth it.
Of course, if both of them break at the same time, you could well end up needing some kind of tiebreaker.
Those who don't like the video disliked because they didn't like how the contestants played, they don't have all the information!
is the contestants clips sped up?
+skorp86 As a US show would say, "portions of this program not effecting the outcome have been edited". Sequences are shortened, but nothing important's ever cut out!
+Tom Scott Interesting! Why would you do this?
I feel the pace of the conversation and actions does not match the enthusiasm of the contestants.
This reminds me of CDPR's Gwent where each player has a small diminishing hand and has to manage their resources while trying to determine if their opponent has enough strength left to win.
Very good video!!!
is that the "Bee Diamond Back" design on the cards?
+B/@(K0UT Indeed! Surprised our magician didn't make a reference to that, actually.
Simple but cool game. If I play it with my friends, I'd probably tweak it to reduce the possibility of a draw. Maybe award ties to the player with the higher leftover card, or add a fractional point card to the yellow deck.
I wanna know if there could be a three player version
I actually own a game that's just like this for more than two players. It's even more tricky bc if you pick the same number as one of your opponents the card automatically goes to the other one even if they've put out a way lower card.
For example: Yellow card is a 10. Everyone wants it. Player A plays the highest card possible. So does player B. Player C guesses that both might be playing the highest card and just plays a low one. When reveling the cards, Player C wins.
Hannah was like Victoria Coren playing Poker - honest and helpful and - did I just win a Million Dollars, well how ever did that happen? - Great fun
Of course, this game can be played using cards from a standard playing cards deck.
great video :) ... good seeing you productive tom :D
"I didn't see that coming" LOL
Biggest mistake ever: telling a magician "I've won these"
This game is similar to the second half of the game 'For Sale'.
This is the game that reminds me the most of "The Genius", and especially the number auction games from it.
I'm sorry but this is nothing to do with the game, but is it me or is Hannah extremely fit!?
Also her name is a palindrome, which is just too awesome!!
I don't know what happened. Numbers confuse me.
what type of sunglasses is hannah wearing? they look very good!
when do we get season 2???
3:32 would make a great reaction gif, I've decided
How about some championship trees to see where we are in all this adventure?
Tom really needs a TV show, if you slightly lengthen Game On and Citation needed you could merge the two into one hour long show including commercials, and maybe with a short ad break do half an hour if it's too long for an hour.
Seeing Mr Bodycombe there: Please do a park bench about your Only Connect stint! :)
+varana312 Park benches are Tom and Matt's domain! :)
+varana312 Park benches are Tom and Matt's domain! :)
+davidbod Yep, sorry, should have said that differently - seeing you there reminded me of Tom's appearance on the show, and I'd like him to make a park bench video about it. Or something to that effect. :)
This game is very similar to the game designed by Seiji Kanai called "R" or "BraveRats".
I would have died if she'd played the 2 at 3:47
if anyone watched the Korean game show The Genius, it is very similar to this but with amazing editing and sound.
+seal3081 Tom's brief to me for the games was "six 'The Genius' death matches".
It could have been interesting if the value of the bidding cards left in your hand was add to your score
Is there a reason you called this game weighed war instead of goofspiel? It's not a big deal, I'm just curious.
Wow... Hannah is very intelligent. I would never in a million years make that play O_o
Someone make an app of this please
You need an Ace that beats the 11 but loses to everything else, otherwise removing the last yellow card doesn't affect the play at all I think.
Hannah would've won game one so easily if she hadn't been giving Steven advice on how to play.
Pretty cool!
this is actually a really cool game.
I want to see the bracket table but is too lazy to make one myself.
weighted war looks fun like black hole.
Hannah is so good (and/or lucky). She never loosed so far. Hmm...
If the right strategy is to play the same as the card on the table.
the counter strategy is to play one higher than the card on the table
the counter strategy to that is to play two higher
...
you should play your highest card
If both players do this all games will end in a tie.
The game needs another random element.
perhaps remove one card from both players hand at the beginning of play and not just on from the deck
If you waste your highest card, the opposite player can just waste a 2 and wait for a higher card where they know they can win, so it's an infinite loop of counter strategies
That was good, but I still enjoyed black hole best so far.
I prefer the name Goofspiel for this game. And the comment about optimal strategy, I don't think that was quite right. I think it is referring to when your opponent plays randomly or something. It is certainly not an optimal strategy in the real game.
So here I was, confused with the rules for this game and I thought: "Well, I'm almost understanding the mechanics of this game: The one who plays the higher card takes the yellow number..." and I just had to wait until the end to see who was going to win and complete my thoughts (I didn't know if yellow cards were good or bad)... and they tied. For christ sake
playing for a 7 is the only strategy possible with 14 vs 23. She can only tie by taking the 3 with 1 card to go with a 1 in hand.
cool game
4 7 win !
And that's how you make people paranoid
Annotation for emmablackery is wrong
man, o wanted Steven to win
"Quiz"
"Buzz"
"'Ave a banaaana."
gj Hanah
😮
I don't get this at all
it rips me apart to see this as both a game designer and a magician!
The whole time I was like "beat him seriously I REALLY don't want the magician to win."
OH MY GOD I INVENTED THIS GAME
Ha, nice!