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Is there a strategy guide or tips somewhere?

I ALWAYS lose. My only 2 wins came from beginners (0 ELO) who clearly had no clue how to play

You will find strategy guides for most games on boardgamegeek.
https://boardgamegeek.com/forum/8136/lo ... s/strategy

But in the end, Lost Cities is much more random than you might think while you improve in the game. It's much closer to Can't Stop or Yahtzee than it is to, say, Kingdomino 7x7 or Takenoko(2player) to name some more strategic/tactic 2p games.

I am not saying that is bad, just that you should expect some long streaks of winning or loosing and you need a large sample size of matches to know your skill.

It is much less random than what you think. There is a lot to determining what is your statistically best play and reading your opponent. I could go on long runs against good players. One out of maybe 12 or 15 games I get cards that I can't make into a competitive game. I would put lost cities in with poker in that your quality of play changes dramatically when you have an idea of what your opponent has and is trying to do. Sometimes, I will get scorched by a lower level player that wins gambling heavily that he will get certain cards from the deck. It is statistically a bad way to play but he will work occasionally. The better players play more of a tight game and that is why their results are much more consistant,

my only strategic thing would be to say if you don't have high cards or only high cards and you don't want to put them out yet, put all your low cards out so you know which cards you have more of, or put low cards out of the higher numbers and wait for a double card thing for the start and then put them out and then pick the cards from the middle back up.

CaptainKong wrote: ↑03 July 2021, 20:19 It is much less random than what you think. There is a lot to determining what is your statistically best play and reading your opponent. I could go on long runs against good players. One out of maybe 12 or 15 games I get cards that I can't make into a competitive game. I would put lost cities in with poker in that your quality of play changes dramatically when you have an idea of what your opponent has and is trying to do. Sometimes, I will get scorched by a lower level player that wins gambling heavily that he will get certain cards from the deck. It is statistically a bad way to play but he will work occasionally. The better players play more of a tight game and that is why their results are much more consistant,

THIS

A good representation imo of the luck on a game, is checking the top elo.
Yahtzee is around 450.
An high skilled based around 800.

Lost cities is pretty weird. First player is at 605, second at 435. We could average that at 500.

Of course, it's not the only factor which change the elo (the popularity of a game is really important too), but that factor tend to said Lost Cities is slightly less lucky than Yahtzee, but just slightly.

Romain672 wrote: ↑28 August 2021, 01:41 Lost cities is pretty weird. First player is at 605, second at 435. We could average that at 500.

Another abnormality from 2017 ELO revision, which effectively added +200 to all existing ratings. So, actual cap is lower than 450, I guess.

So, lost cities is more random than Yahtzee?

No. Yahtzee's current #1 also has benefited from 2017 revision.

I consider myself average at this game, but here's some things I like to do.

1) If I have only one 9/10 and a 2/3, I'll put the 2/3 up on the table if I don't already have the double card of that color. I'll only take a 2/3 off the table if I have 2 or more doublers for that color already.

2) If I have a 4 or 5 card gap (eg, 2,7), I'll hold off on playing the 7, especially if the opponent hasn't played that color. Their hand might be full of middlng cards, and they'll lose flexibility. As soon as you put down the 7, don't expect 2-3 cards of that color to come out.

3) If I have 15 or more points in a color but no double, I'll put the 2/3 up on the table if I have to.

4) If I have 12 or more points and an opponent has already started a color, I will start that color without the double card in most cases rather than put the card on the table.

5) Remember, after you play N of a color, if you're holding N+1 (eg, 6 and 7), you might as well play that next. Sometimes I'm not paying attention, and I'll unnecessarily skip numbers of other colors because I'm thinking a couple turns ahead (or trying to anyway!)

6) Sometimes if I'm fishing for a double card, and you have > 20 points in a color already, I might put a 2 or 3 up on the table if I don't have another play. This sometimes results in the opponent feeling safe to ditch a better card of the same color.

7) Keep an eye on the card count, and towards the end of each round, remember that some card are worth more than others. If you have a double on red, playing a red 7 is worth more than playing a white 10 without a double. Once you've commit to a color, you're already in the bag for the negative points, so that's a sunk cost. Focus on maximizing points across your entire board, rather than worrying about finishing a particular color.

8) If I'm really up against the wall, I will play something like 6,10 rather than give away a good card or jump too many numbers on a doubled color.

9) In reference to the previous point, I try to commit to a color after I have 15 or more points, depending on the situation. Early in the game, if I have 2,3,10, I'll play the 2 and 3, and fish for the others to fill in. This is especially true if I have a double of that color.

10) If an opponent has 3 doublers on a color, I will not discard anything they can use of that color. If they have 2 doublers, I will throw out a 2, not a 3.

11) I generally don't throw out anything higher than a 4 if the opponent hasn't clearly abandoned a color or played past that number. Sometimes I will throw out a higher number (5-7) if my hand is otherwise full and I'm fishing for a double and I don't have any other move to make. I do this rarely.