Dear Reader,
this is my interpretation of 'how to play - The Gang'.
It's pretty long, but I hope, it brings some clearance.
If you are new or hear a lot, that you play confusing, this will give you a thoroughly answer and guidance. And if you don't want to dig through this wall of text, you'll find a code of conduct at the very end. Acting confusing regularly mean, you are breaking some of the rules of that code.
These rules are from my perception and completely set up by myself. They might not be official.
I am native in german and this is mostly handwritten, so sorry in advance if my english skills left you in twinkles and frowns. If you spot a lack of improvement or language issues please pardon it or help to correct.
Thanks to a BGA Friend, I recently began my own jurney into 'The Gang' with the toutorial and I brang a noticeably amount of Poker experience which is carried it on a back of nearly forty years of life.
Let's beginn with 'This is not Poker'. That is a term you'll hear quite often when playing 'The Gang'.
So I began to play and after a couple of hours I indeed figured out some major differences. First and drastically is that there are two camps for 'The correct playstyle' and that the tension between these camps brings annoyed and frustrated people to the daylight. For some it is more like competitive cooperative and for others it's just Team-Poker. Y'all need a bit to calm down and get fresh, we all need to get chill. Some outcomes are just wild and having 'that one guy' complete missplaced in the chain, can be annoying for everybody.
After playing and arguing for a while, I figured one key difference is, a Poker player would never put the 5 common cards not to the scale pan. You always think of, how could this hand evolve and what on the table could beat that. You learn to evaluate your own outcome against thus your opponents. The propabilities for good cuts are so important, bc. winning the Jackpot is the only thing that really matters. Playing Team-Poker is when you take that behaviour to anticipate, which outcome is the most propable.
But unlike in Poker, it is nessecary not only to estimate if you are the winner or not (meaning best/highest hand), it is most important to keep up as a chain and stay in the right order at the end of a round. If you are third or fourth is now equally important to if you win the Pot or not. Not only need you to know, if you are the highest or not, every position in the chain needs to be correct and matters equally.
As a Gang-beginner but with lots of Poker expirience, I had no choice but playing it Poker-Style: "Yes, of course I can estimate all the outcomes and arrange" I thought.
I had absolutely no idea, how this game really is gonna be played. And so it came, that every group I joined called, I play confusing and I need to stop. One guy even gave me a red thumb after a couple of minutes for 'not playing it correctly' (basically for being a newbe). This resulted in heavy discussions about the games philosophy. It took me a couple of games but I understood more and more. And the very moment I processed the arguments and began to adapt the algorithm, other people came around and started to say 'nah, now you're playing it wrong'.
No wonder why everybody is so explosive here, we have two groups, both claiming to 'play it right'. We got never ending debations instead of relaxing Poker and end up in games that crashes because both strategis don't mix up well. It's like water and oil and this statement tries to be an emulsifier.
You see, in Poker a hand is not complete until you have all the seven cards. The strenght of a Pokerhand depends on the possibilities and your hopes in the outcome. When you start a suited hand, your chances to hit the Flush can raise to hundred or drop to zero per cent but mostly are somewhere in between. Adapting that behaviour means, you sort yourself post River ('redchip') and the chips you take on the way to there, signals your estimated strenght in your hand.
That way the first 3 rounds are kind of a stalk up to the final card and after that you sort yourself into a chain, based on what you think, you and your playmates have. You always value the possibilites for an outcome, and at the end the final strengths are compared to eachother.
But that is exactly the point, where it's confusing for the other system. There it doesn't matter if you mostly hit a Straight, are close to a Flush or if your Starthand is Suited/Connected or not. You value only real changes like a 3 oak (3 of a kind). There you sort yourself preflop, based on a pattern little different to Poker and only react to real changes while fully ignoring all possibillities but the cold hard facts. Your chance for a Flush is always (!) zero or hundred per cent.
When you hit the Flush, you Hit the road Jack.
Both systems have in common to reach for the same goal. As a Team we need 2b in a correct chain and do not pull the alarm trigger. Every math student would have a blast to explain, why more player results in higher difficulty. In short, with more players, you get more variations. And for the fact that only one single combination don't lead to a misscom (more with splitpots) you have a fast increasing number of chances for errors in your repertoire. With n players you have n! possible outcomes. Given your group contains 5 people, then you have 5! (5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120) variations for an outcome. If you play complete random you'll face a chance for success even for a single hand of roughly p=0.8% . With 6 Players that number drops to p=0.14% .
And here we are, having two camps of 'how to play' and how to beat the game. That first group I give the name 'Gambler'. Here we have the Poker oriented way to play. You take your odds for an outcome, consider Poker stats and sort after the river cleared the field.
In real Poker you can always bluff and keep your hand secret, you can steal a Pot and your chances are variating heavily over your estimations.
But in the Gang, we want to be clear with our hands... we need to!
And you know that, you are not stupid, so when you got stuck with four Diamonds and didn't hit the Flush on the River, you lower your expectations (the chance droped to zero) and so you must have a lower rank in the chain and rearrange. Thats why a Gambler pressures down. People calling it 'playing the table'. I certainly would enjoy a Round, where everybody agrees to play that Style. It could be called a 'gamble game'.
From what I experienced, the Poker-Style is really not that good in covering these heavy variations from p=0.14%. If a Straight is left-end bc everybody else have a Flush or if a Pair is right-end because all else have only High Cards, is often not that easy to spot and you'll find yourself in weird situations. With more player in your party, this problem escalates quickly and you need to find a better solution to crack the code.
And here is where the 'Puzzlers' enters the bank. A Puzzler has realized, that every single position in the chain have the exact same value in terms victory. We all win together or we lose it. Wish a farewell to bluffing, gambling and hoping for a Flush. The Jackpot is, to stay correct. The Pokerface is, being clear and apparent. The tools are combination and communication.
The most important part is, to bring the chain in the correct order and hold it. The best way to manage this, is a good system and strict rules. That way it is more a Puzzle game than Poker.
A Gambler don't know the rules and will appear random and confused. A Puzzler in a gambled game will appear controlling and finally resign.
I guess, when playing it with physical cards at home, the better playwise would be Poker-Style, because it's more fun to play when you expect a game of 'Cooperative Poker' and not a riddle.
But here at BGA, the Puzzler's approach has prevailed. It produces more reliable chains and therefore more victories and better statistics.
I certainly would like to play dedicated games and start a competition between both strategies and may lead to that, when we have enough member who are willing to participate in a little Gangstudy.
But now to 'The Puzzlers Principle'. Here is a link to the enhanced explanation:
https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tips_ ... dvanced%29
Going back to why this is not Poker in a Texas way, but rather a Cooperative Troubleshooting with a scent of Poker. Here in 'The Gang' every hand has an equal value in terms of winning the round. We all are in the correct chain or we all won't see the pot.
So in general we need a good overview of the board. Instead of guessing arround like wild, we behave patient.
And specifically we need to find a good logical pattern, which maximizes our chances in finding the true order.
Let's posit that if
a) we find the correct initial chain order ('preflop' or 'whitechip') and
b) all changes (hits) are handled properly
then the outcome must be true.
That leads to the state, in which the initial order must be exactly, what would win, when no changes applied at all in the Flop, Turn nor River. We can evaporate that down to 'What would win in a 2-card-showdown' (or 3 in some cases). Here is, where the key difference to Poker is settled.
We don't measure propabilities or possibilities. We don't measure, what could happen or may will. We only measure, what actually did happened. And preflop, the only thing what already is done so far, is that the starting hand was dealt. Now we need to establish the initial order, the first chain.
The best starting hand is AA and then all the pocket pairs down to 22. The worst pair is still higher than the best non-pair (22>AK). After that the higher card weights more than the kicker (A2>KQ) and that going all the way down to 32 which makes that to the worst possible preflop hand.
If the hand is suited or offsuit makes no different at all and also a connection wheights nothing (we don't adjust possibilities), a Straightflush needs 5 cards and nothing below that is able to reach it. Yes, hitting it is worth strong communication, because it's a major change, but putting the opportunity into scale, irritates the order while no actual changes applied. This result in a history which become impossible to read.
So the same combination, if suited or offsuit are valued absolutely the same. Being 'close to a flush or straight' don't mean a (s)hit. Four of a color are worth same as only one. And a 27 is better than a 34, because we don't need to value the chance for a straight. Only the actual hit is the noticable change! We measure not the relative, but the absolute strength of a hand (see down below).
If you hit the straight, you have a change to a straight and we need to reevaluate, but if nobody hits anything, the 7 in the 27 is a higher Kicker than the 4 in 34 is. With no changes, the common cards can't change the true order and the 27 stays higher than 34 (or at least it results in a splitpot, wich is complete fine).
Let's go back to starthand-grading, to complete the circle. There are 13² = 169 possible hands and only 13 of them are higher than AK, keep that in mind, but don't overestimate it (it's still about propabilities). In poker, only a handfull of people would value a 22 even close to, nor above an AK, but in the world of 2-card-poker it means that we got a pair when your mates with a chance of ~92% each only have a high cards.
You could find yourself in a situation where the players made their handshakes and left you with a single white 1 or 5 token on the table (mentioning a 5-player-game). This is a perfect opportunity to show others where you estimate your hand so everybody can adjust. In general it's a good idea to look if others bite for the highest or the lowest whitechip, that way you get a feeling if the round is more high or low settled.
When you take a chip out of a stabalized field (whitechip or new hand), everybody have to focus, rearranging is fine, but breaking the order is not. Don't jump in this situation, unless to purposely change the order.
If the work for the first round is done, the initial order is set and the game proceeds with the Flop. Now we move on and enter stage b) Handle any changes with the given new informations.
Of course you still can pick downwards or upwards to adjust the initial order. We can't be sure about everything and correcting an earlier mistake can save the group.The natural hits we as a Team will get, helps us to revalue our position and getting the correct conclusions to arrange proper, that is what the riddle is about and the soul of the game.
Don't be shy to push a Straight or defend a 3-oak. The battle between Ace Flush or King could be insane. Rating the changes offers much room for misscom, missinterpretation or various confusions. But if it's done flawless, we should be able to do the trick.
Three rules are important after the Flop:
First, you only attack (grabbing for anothers number), if you actually produced a change and need to rearrange or when you deflect. It is also okay to (more or less strongly) insist some adjustments, but try to stay Postflop. A change can be only produced by a hit or in some cases, a new hand. So when you got your cut from the Flop or the liver from the River, it simply cannot weaken your position in the initial order, since strength allway goes up and weakest is lowest (or left). With a new hand you have to thread in again and it's always a splendid idea to mention it in the chat, bc failing to notice it, is pretty easy.
Here applies rule two: A hit is always and ever upwards, you never attack downwards unless you have a need to adjust or to deflect. So in short: Only hits produce changes and they always goes up.
But keep in mind, that the deflection can be stronger than the hit, so you end up in an equal or lower position, even if you improved.
F.e. if you have the pre River 4 and don't got any new changes with the Flop, your hand can't have increased in strength* (*we'retalking about that later) and for that reason you can't climb up. Attacking the 5 would be nonsense. 'No_change' can't get you ranked higher and post River you can't be higher than 4 . Adjustments spend little room for exceptions, but don't overdo it. They are there for if you spotted an error in the initial order and not to randomize the history.
Here is rule # three and remember: If you don't have a change, then take a seat. That means if noone below you, indicates a change, you stick with your current position. Fairly often someone below will indicate a change. In that case you have to consider if their changed hand ist stronger than yours and you let them pass or that your old hand is still stronger than their new, so you defend the path. Defending the path could have as a consequence, that someone above you reconsider his hand, to let both of you pass. So in that case, you increased with no_change, by profiting from a change below.
If you decide to let one people pass, taking a seat means you got deflected by 1 and decrease your number accordingly to grab the 3 in this scenario. It isn't really offensive to let sb. pass. But you better pay attention, that the relative order of all people with no changes stays the same and not become mixed up.
Don't underestimate the manifold variations. No_change don't mean, you can't block. If you have Pocket Kings (5) and the Flop brings AJ4 you need proper communication to decide what change you block and which shall pass. Here lays good opportunities to gather some informations about your mates hands, don't let them on the ground. Better conclusions instead of better predictions, that makes the better chain (at least with a Puzzlers perspective).
*Now to the term 'Strength'. It is a characteristic to describe how high a hands rating is on a scale wich contains all possibilities.
In Poker you always consider all seven cards, no matter if you know them yet. And you compare them relative to your opponents. So 'all possabilities' means everything from '5 out of 7'; which is way more than 'only the two cards'. You use the relative strength scale for Poker, but the absolute scale in the algorithm. And that's why AK, 22 and even 27 are rated so differently.
Here is a neat example:
Player A ('Angel'): Jack and Queen, both in Hearts
Player B ('Belzebob'): King of Hearts + Kicker (Spades)
Common Cards: 687, all in Hearts
How would you estimate Angels strength?
Sure, she had a hit on the Flush and unless another Heart appears, Beelzebob will need very good luck, to pass above Angel.
But what if... if another Heart appears. It will instantaniously drop Angels Queen-Flush below Bobs King-Flush. It seems that the strength of Angels Flush has decreased and she needs to attack a lower token. In fact, only the relative strength drops with another Heart, bc it is more easy now to hit. The absolute strength of Angels Flush stays stable, it will never be less than a Flush anymore. For Math friends, "The absolute strength is strictly monotonic increasing"
Let's imagine, the Turn brings the Ace of Hearts. Angel with her suited hand needed only 3 further cards for the Flush. But now every hand with a single Heart can possibly be stronger than her. The relative strenght is indeed lower and she may feels the need to adjust downwards.
But the absolute strength of your hand looks at you as if you play allone. With that terms, Angels hand actually increased in value, simply because she also has a better hand now... A higher Flush.
There are hands, which are now stronger that her, that's the relative decrease. But there are also less hands, which possibly can be stronger (Ace Flush). That's the absolute increase.
Bob is above Angel now because not only his relative strength rises enormously, but because his absolute strength rises to a higher level. It may look like her hand got worse, but the fact is, that although she took way less benefit from that Ace, than Bob, she indeed took a benefit.
You can feel a kind of matching point, where both strengths fall together. Imagine you have Angels hand, see the Flop and the Turn after that, What would be good to see on the River?
Answer: The King of Hearts would be a great relief, in terms of Poker.
Yes, the Flush is irrelivant now, because everybody have at least that now. Assuming, nobody got sth. higher than a Flush, then the Kicker (Hearts!) becomes the only decider for the chain-order.
But what happened here?
Well, you increased your relative strength, because huge threat for your Flush got eliminated, which can be a deciding different. And in addition your absolute strength increased too. You have a better Kicker in your Flush now and you can be sure, that no more Flush is higher than yours. So you don't need to worry, if a Bob runs arround or not. But dont forgot, that higher things exists as a Flush.
Poker player usually measures the relative strength of hands, they need to know, how much to bet or if they fold. That's why an AK in Poker is valued around Pocket Aces instead of 22's. If someone uses this scale in puplic BGA he or she is either new in the Gang or simply is a gambler.
For the puzzlers algorithm, we measure the absolute strength of a hand (the 'right now strength').
The absolute strength compares your hand to a fixed point. We could imagine a big zero, which is not affected by the common cards. In this example, Angel don't need to fear the next Heart anymore. No additional card is able to take her Flush away and make it less. A loss in relative strength should lower your shield, but not make you attack downwards.
Using the absolute instead of the relative measure tape, reveals what really happened here. It is not, that Angel decreases strength against Bob, her hand value is nearly stable against the big zero. Bob on the other hand has massively increasing his hand value with the Turn against Angel and all players need to figure out, whos hand is the better now.
So following this logic, you don't decrease by yourself, because no card can weaken your absolute strength. Angel can not know, if a Bob sits at the table and it's not her job, to insinuate. It's Bobs responsibility to give the right signals in that case.
What if or could be, don't inspinge the absolute strength. You only measure, what you actually have, not the potential. That is why no_hit can't get you a higher number than before. Your hand value can't increase without any hits (or a new hand).
Sort in short: Hits only upwards; No_Hits only downwards. Please don't mix that up.
But keep in mind, that it is possible, you had a hit and want to increase, but people below you increased even more, so you end up lower, although having a hit.
I need to settle another example where the strength also feels to decrease, and where we learn sth. crucial:
Player A ('Alonso'): 44
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5
Player C ('Claire'): 32
Common Cards: AA9
Preflop, Alonsos Pair is way stronger than Beatrixs Jack Five and Clair has perfect reasons, to fight for the white 1 token.
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 ; (3) - 1P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 ; (2) - HC
Player C ('Claire'): 32 ; (1) - HC
The Flop really changes nothing. Nobody had a direct or privat hit (when your own cards are involved) and the only actual hit is fully on the table, so it affects everybody, I call that community or common. The two common Aces increase everybody's strength equally, but we'll see, that that's not always the case.
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 ; (3;3) ; (AA449) - 2P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 ; (2;2) ; (AAJ95) - 1P
Player C ('Claire'): 32 ; (1;1) ; (AA932) - 1P
Common Cards: AA9
A) 1-Pair into 2-Pair
B) and C) High Card into 1-Pair
Then the Turn brings us another 3 . Clair got a change and aproach forwards.
Alonso noticed, that she hit on the 3, so probably has a Two Pair now. His 44 is still stronger and he blocks the attack. Beatrix also noticed, that Clair has improved with the 3 and let her pass. And bc. Beatrix and Claire are clever too, they mention, Alonso blocked a Two Pair, so at least have the 9 or a Pocket in hand. Maybe an Ace?
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 ; (3;3;3) ; (AA449) - 2P
Player C ('Claire'): 32 ; (1;1;2) ; (AA339) - 2P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 ; (2;2;1) ; (AAJ93) - 1P
Common Cards: AA9 / 3
But what if we hit another 3 or 9 with the River?
Everybody has at least a Two-Pair now. The 3 would be a direct hit for Clair and a community hit for everybody at the same time. But the 9 is an exclusive community hit.
It seems like Alonso's strength collapses and he is getting weaker. His own Two Pair is common now and he don't even is the highest anymore. He is tempted to decrease. But again, it only decreases relative. He increases less with the community hit, than people without a Pair Preflop.
But in absolute terms spoken, for each new phase, you can at least take the cards you had before. So you can't lose absolute strength. If the 3 smiles, he take the exact same five cards (AA449, no decrease at all) and when the 9 smiles, he even improved (AA994). He should consider his defence, but never attack downwards.
Scenario 1: River is 3 (community and privat hit)
Player C ('Claire'): 32 - (1,1,2,3) ; (AA333) – FH
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 - (3,3,3,2) ; (AA449) - 2P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 - (2,2,1,1) ; (AA33J) - 2P
Common Cards: AA9 / 3 / 3
Claire got a major boost since she increased both, common and direct. A Poker player, who folded this hand pre or post Flop, would be incensed but fine, although the relative strength increased monstrousively, it also can result in huge losses, if anybody hold an Ace.
Beatrix had a hit and increased commonly from 1-Pair to 2-Pair, but that's not enough to actual climb up.
Alonso increased absolutely nothing and got deflected by Claire. But he can still block Beatrix.
Scenario 2: River is 9 (exclusive community hit)
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 - (2,2,1,3) ; (AA99J) - 2P
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 - (3,3,3,2) ; (AA994) - 2P
Player C ('Claire'): 32 - (1,1,2,1) ; (AA993) - 2P
Common Cards: AA9 / 3 / 9
Claire has no direct hit anymore and the common 2-Pair makes her 3 to the worst Kicker.
Alonso increased very little from that community hit, because he already had a 2-Pair. In fact, he holds a better 2-Pair now, but it's still a 2-Pair. The strong Pocket Pair he had Preflop, broke down to a Kicker, and not even a good one. A 27 would defeat him. His relative strength decreased very much, but not the absolute, that indeed went up.
For Beatrix, the common 2-Pair is a major upgrade. She went from 1-Pair to 2-Pair and nullified her disadvantage, not holding a Pocket Pair. Beyond that, since nobodys lower handcard is better than 6th place anymore, only eachs better handcard matters. Now, Beatrixs Jack values much more, relative and absolute. She climb up to first place, but it was luck, nobody hold an Ace or a 9.
Now to that very crucial and important information, we can spot in Scenario 2:
The River (9) is an 'exclusive community hit', so in theory it affects everybody. But this example shows, that it's not nessecarily affects everybody equally. We learn, that even an exclusive community hit is able to alter the chain order and must be acknowledged as a hit and change.
We can also mention, that the strong 44 at any time is at least second in chain order.
Finally, to stay in the correct order more easy, we need a standard procedure on how to handle all the changes. Often everything happens at the same time. This is understandable, everybody wants to play and not wait all day long. It is faster and you can get important informations from that. It is fully okay, as long as everybody keeps the chain in order. But if we got confused, we should reset and aproach a bit slower.
Rules we already have so far:
Let's put up some advanced rules and define how 'attacking upwards' exactly should look like:
*c'mon, this algorithm needs to hold some fun for the Player. I don't mechanicalize every step
**What a beautiful word <3
Do you, as Reader, agree to my portrayals?
Did I miss something?
You can join my group 'The Gang Puzzlers'
Best Regards and sweet greetings to everyone
Looking forward to crack some codes together
Jörg MZ
this is my interpretation of 'how to play - The Gang'.
It's pretty long, but I hope, it brings some clearance.
If you are new or hear a lot, that you play confusing, this will give you a thoroughly answer and guidance. And if you don't want to dig through this wall of text, you'll find a code of conduct at the very end. Acting confusing regularly mean, you are breaking some of the rules of that code.
These rules are from my perception and completely set up by myself. They might not be official.
I am native in german and this is mostly handwritten, so sorry in advance if my english skills left you in twinkles and frowns. If you spot a lack of improvement or language issues please pardon it or help to correct.
Thanks to a BGA Friend, I recently began my own jurney into 'The Gang' with the toutorial and I brang a noticeably amount of Poker experience which is carried it on a back of nearly forty years of life.
Let's beginn with 'This is not Poker'. That is a term you'll hear quite often when playing 'The Gang'.
So I began to play and after a couple of hours I indeed figured out some major differences. First and drastically is that there are two camps for 'The correct playstyle' and that the tension between these camps brings annoyed and frustrated people to the daylight. For some it is more like competitive cooperative and for others it's just Team-Poker. Y'all need a bit to calm down and get fresh, we all need to get chill. Some outcomes are just wild and having 'that one guy' complete missplaced in the chain, can be annoying for everybody.
After playing and arguing for a while, I figured one key difference is, a Poker player would never put the 5 common cards not to the scale pan. You always think of, how could this hand evolve and what on the table could beat that. You learn to evaluate your own outcome against thus your opponents. The propabilities for good cuts are so important, bc. winning the Jackpot is the only thing that really matters. Playing Team-Poker is when you take that behaviour to anticipate, which outcome is the most propable.
But unlike in Poker, it is nessecary not only to estimate if you are the winner or not (meaning best/highest hand), it is most important to keep up as a chain and stay in the right order at the end of a round. If you are third or fourth is now equally important to if you win the Pot or not. Not only need you to know, if you are the highest or not, every position in the chain needs to be correct and matters equally.
As a Gang-beginner but with lots of Poker expirience, I had no choice but playing it Poker-Style: "Yes, of course I can estimate all the outcomes and arrange" I thought.
I had absolutely no idea, how this game really is gonna be played. And so it came, that every group I joined called, I play confusing and I need to stop. One guy even gave me a red thumb after a couple of minutes for 'not playing it correctly' (basically for being a newbe). This resulted in heavy discussions about the games philosophy. It took me a couple of games but I understood more and more. And the very moment I processed the arguments and began to adapt the algorithm, other people came around and started to say 'nah, now you're playing it wrong'.
No wonder why everybody is so explosive here, we have two groups, both claiming to 'play it right'. We got never ending debations instead of relaxing Poker and end up in games that crashes because both strategis don't mix up well. It's like water and oil and this statement tries to be an emulsifier.
You see, in Poker a hand is not complete until you have all the seven cards. The strenght of a Pokerhand depends on the possibilities and your hopes in the outcome. When you start a suited hand, your chances to hit the Flush can raise to hundred or drop to zero per cent but mostly are somewhere in between. Adapting that behaviour means, you sort yourself post River ('redchip') and the chips you take on the way to there, signals your estimated strenght in your hand.
That way the first 3 rounds are kind of a stalk up to the final card and after that you sort yourself into a chain, based on what you think, you and your playmates have. You always value the possibilites for an outcome, and at the end the final strengths are compared to eachother.
But that is exactly the point, where it's confusing for the other system. There it doesn't matter if you mostly hit a Straight, are close to a Flush or if your Starthand is Suited/Connected or not. You value only real changes like a 3 oak (3 of a kind). There you sort yourself preflop, based on a pattern little different to Poker and only react to real changes while fully ignoring all possibillities but the cold hard facts. Your chance for a Flush is always (!) zero or hundred per cent.
When you hit the Flush, you Hit the road Jack.
Both systems have in common to reach for the same goal. As a Team we need 2b in a correct chain and do not pull the alarm trigger. Every math student would have a blast to explain, why more player results in higher difficulty. In short, with more players, you get more variations. And for the fact that only one single combination don't lead to a misscom (more with splitpots) you have a fast increasing number of chances for errors in your repertoire. With n players you have n! possible outcomes. Given your group contains 5 people, then you have 5! (5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120) variations for an outcome. If you play complete random you'll face a chance for success even for a single hand of roughly p=0.8% . With 6 Players that number drops to p=0.14% .
And here we are, having two camps of 'how to play' and how to beat the game. That first group I give the name 'Gambler'. Here we have the Poker oriented way to play. You take your odds for an outcome, consider Poker stats and sort after the river cleared the field.
In real Poker you can always bluff and keep your hand secret, you can steal a Pot and your chances are variating heavily over your estimations.
But in the Gang, we want to be clear with our hands... we need to!
And you know that, you are not stupid, so when you got stuck with four Diamonds and didn't hit the Flush on the River, you lower your expectations (the chance droped to zero) and so you must have a lower rank in the chain and rearrange. Thats why a Gambler pressures down. People calling it 'playing the table'. I certainly would enjoy a Round, where everybody agrees to play that Style. It could be called a 'gamble game'.
From what I experienced, the Poker-Style is really not that good in covering these heavy variations from p=0.14%. If a Straight is left-end bc everybody else have a Flush or if a Pair is right-end because all else have only High Cards, is often not that easy to spot and you'll find yourself in weird situations. With more player in your party, this problem escalates quickly and you need to find a better solution to crack the code.
And here is where the 'Puzzlers' enters the bank. A Puzzler has realized, that every single position in the chain have the exact same value in terms victory. We all win together or we lose it. Wish a farewell to bluffing, gambling and hoping for a Flush. The Jackpot is, to stay correct. The Pokerface is, being clear and apparent. The tools are combination and communication.
The most important part is, to bring the chain in the correct order and hold it. The best way to manage this, is a good system and strict rules. That way it is more a Puzzle game than Poker.
A Gambler don't know the rules and will appear random and confused. A Puzzler in a gambled game will appear controlling and finally resign.
I guess, when playing it with physical cards at home, the better playwise would be Poker-Style, because it's more fun to play when you expect a game of 'Cooperative Poker' and not a riddle.
But here at BGA, the Puzzler's approach has prevailed. It produces more reliable chains and therefore more victories and better statistics.
I certainly would like to play dedicated games and start a competition between both strategies and may lead to that, when we have enough member who are willing to participate in a little Gangstudy.
But now to 'The Puzzlers Principle'. Here is a link to the enhanced explanation:
https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tips_ ... dvanced%29
Going back to why this is not Poker in a Texas way, but rather a Cooperative Troubleshooting with a scent of Poker. Here in 'The Gang' every hand has an equal value in terms of winning the round. We all are in the correct chain or we all won't see the pot.
So in general we need a good overview of the board. Instead of guessing arround like wild, we behave patient.
And specifically we need to find a good logical pattern, which maximizes our chances in finding the true order.
Let's posit that if
a) we find the correct initial chain order ('preflop' or 'whitechip') and
b) all changes (hits) are handled properly
then the outcome must be true.
That leads to the state, in which the initial order must be exactly, what would win, when no changes applied at all in the Flop, Turn nor River. We can evaporate that down to 'What would win in a 2-card-showdown' (or 3 in some cases). Here is, where the key difference to Poker is settled.
We don't measure propabilities or possibilities. We don't measure, what could happen or may will. We only measure, what actually did happened. And preflop, the only thing what already is done so far, is that the starting hand was dealt. Now we need to establish the initial order, the first chain.
The best starting hand is AA and then all the pocket pairs down to 22. The worst pair is still higher than the best non-pair (22>AK). After that the higher card weights more than the kicker (A2>KQ) and that going all the way down to 32 which makes that to the worst possible preflop hand.
If the hand is suited or offsuit makes no different at all and also a connection wheights nothing (we don't adjust possibilities), a Straightflush needs 5 cards and nothing below that is able to reach it. Yes, hitting it is worth strong communication, because it's a major change, but putting the opportunity into scale, irritates the order while no actual changes applied. This result in a history which become impossible to read.
So the same combination, if suited or offsuit are valued absolutely the same. Being 'close to a flush or straight' don't mean a (s)hit. Four of a color are worth same as only one. And a 27 is better than a 34, because we don't need to value the chance for a straight. Only the actual hit is the noticable change! We measure not the relative, but the absolute strength of a hand (see down below).
If you hit the straight, you have a change to a straight and we need to reevaluate, but if nobody hits anything, the 7 in the 27 is a higher Kicker than the 4 in 34 is. With no changes, the common cards can't change the true order and the 27 stays higher than 34 (or at least it results in a splitpot, wich is complete fine).
Let's go back to starthand-grading, to complete the circle. There are 13² = 169 possible hands and only 13 of them are higher than AK, keep that in mind, but don't overestimate it (it's still about propabilities). In poker, only a handfull of people would value a 22 even close to, nor above an AK, but in the world of 2-card-poker it means that we got a pair when your mates with a chance of ~92% each only have a high cards.
You could find yourself in a situation where the players made their handshakes and left you with a single white 1 or 5 token on the table (mentioning a 5-player-game). This is a perfect opportunity to show others where you estimate your hand so everybody can adjust. In general it's a good idea to look if others bite for the highest or the lowest whitechip, that way you get a feeling if the round is more high or low settled.
When you take a chip out of a stabalized field (whitechip or new hand), everybody have to focus, rearranging is fine, but breaking the order is not. Don't jump in this situation, unless to purposely change the order.
If the work for the first round is done, the initial order is set and the game proceeds with the Flop. Now we move on and enter stage b) Handle any changes with the given new informations.
Of course you still can pick downwards or upwards to adjust the initial order. We can't be sure about everything and correcting an earlier mistake can save the group.The natural hits we as a Team will get, helps us to revalue our position and getting the correct conclusions to arrange proper, that is what the riddle is about and the soul of the game.
Don't be shy to push a Straight or defend a 3-oak. The battle between Ace Flush or King could be insane. Rating the changes offers much room for misscom, missinterpretation or various confusions. But if it's done flawless, we should be able to do the trick.
Three rules are important after the Flop:
First, you only attack (grabbing for anothers number), if you actually produced a change and need to rearrange or when you deflect. It is also okay to (more or less strongly) insist some adjustments, but try to stay Postflop. A change can be only produced by a hit or in some cases, a new hand. So when you got your cut from the Flop or the liver from the River, it simply cannot weaken your position in the initial order, since strength allway goes up and weakest is lowest (or left). With a new hand you have to thread in again and it's always a splendid idea to mention it in the chat, bc failing to notice it, is pretty easy.
Here applies rule two: A hit is always and ever upwards, you never attack downwards unless you have a need to adjust or to deflect. So in short: Only hits produce changes and they always goes up.
But keep in mind, that the deflection can be stronger than the hit, so you end up in an equal or lower position, even if you improved.
F.e. if you have the pre River 4 and don't got any new changes with the Flop, your hand can't have increased in strength* (*we'retalking about that later) and for that reason you can't climb up. Attacking the 5 would be nonsense. 'No_change' can't get you ranked higher and post River you can't be higher than 4 . Adjustments spend little room for exceptions, but don't overdo it. They are there for if you spotted an error in the initial order and not to randomize the history.
Here is rule # three and remember: If you don't have a change, then take a seat. That means if noone below you, indicates a change, you stick with your current position. Fairly often someone below will indicate a change. In that case you have to consider if their changed hand ist stronger than yours and you let them pass or that your old hand is still stronger than their new, so you defend the path. Defending the path could have as a consequence, that someone above you reconsider his hand, to let both of you pass. So in that case, you increased with no_change, by profiting from a change below.
If you decide to let one people pass, taking a seat means you got deflected by 1 and decrease your number accordingly to grab the 3 in this scenario. It isn't really offensive to let sb. pass. But you better pay attention, that the relative order of all people with no changes stays the same and not become mixed up.
Don't underestimate the manifold variations. No_change don't mean, you can't block. If you have Pocket Kings (5) and the Flop brings AJ4 you need proper communication to decide what change you block and which shall pass. Here lays good opportunities to gather some informations about your mates hands, don't let them on the ground. Better conclusions instead of better predictions, that makes the better chain (at least with a Puzzlers perspective).
*Now to the term 'Strength'. It is a characteristic to describe how high a hands rating is on a scale wich contains all possibilities.
In Poker you always consider all seven cards, no matter if you know them yet. And you compare them relative to your opponents. So 'all possabilities' means everything from '5 out of 7'; which is way more than 'only the two cards'. You use the relative strength scale for Poker, but the absolute scale in the algorithm. And that's why AK, 22 and even 27 are rated so differently.
Here is a neat example:
Player A ('Angel'): Jack and Queen, both in Hearts
Player B ('Belzebob'): King of Hearts + Kicker (Spades)
Common Cards: 687, all in Hearts
How would you estimate Angels strength?
Sure, she had a hit on the Flush and unless another Heart appears, Beelzebob will need very good luck, to pass above Angel.
But what if... if another Heart appears. It will instantaniously drop Angels Queen-Flush below Bobs King-Flush. It seems that the strength of Angels Flush has decreased and she needs to attack a lower token. In fact, only the relative strength drops with another Heart, bc it is more easy now to hit. The absolute strength of Angels Flush stays stable, it will never be less than a Flush anymore. For Math friends, "The absolute strength is strictly monotonic increasing"
Let's imagine, the Turn brings the Ace of Hearts. Angel with her suited hand needed only 3 further cards for the Flush. But now every hand with a single Heart can possibly be stronger than her. The relative strenght is indeed lower and she may feels the need to adjust downwards.
But the absolute strength of your hand looks at you as if you play allone. With that terms, Angels hand actually increased in value, simply because she also has a better hand now... A higher Flush.
There are hands, which are now stronger that her, that's the relative decrease. But there are also less hands, which possibly can be stronger (Ace Flush). That's the absolute increase.
Bob is above Angel now because not only his relative strength rises enormously, but because his absolute strength rises to a higher level. It may look like her hand got worse, but the fact is, that although she took way less benefit from that Ace, than Bob, she indeed took a benefit.
You can feel a kind of matching point, where both strengths fall together. Imagine you have Angels hand, see the Flop and the Turn after that, What would be good to see on the River?
Answer: The King of Hearts would be a great relief, in terms of Poker.
Yes, the Flush is irrelivant now, because everybody have at least that now. Assuming, nobody got sth. higher than a Flush, then the Kicker (Hearts!) becomes the only decider for the chain-order.
But what happened here?
Well, you increased your relative strength, because huge threat for your Flush got eliminated, which can be a deciding different. And in addition your absolute strength increased too. You have a better Kicker in your Flush now and you can be sure, that no more Flush is higher than yours. So you don't need to worry, if a Bob runs arround or not. But dont forgot, that higher things exists as a Flush.
Poker player usually measures the relative strength of hands, they need to know, how much to bet or if they fold. That's why an AK in Poker is valued around Pocket Aces instead of 22's. If someone uses this scale in puplic BGA he or she is either new in the Gang or simply is a gambler.
For the puzzlers algorithm, we measure the absolute strength of a hand (the 'right now strength').
The absolute strength compares your hand to a fixed point. We could imagine a big zero, which is not affected by the common cards. In this example, Angel don't need to fear the next Heart anymore. No additional card is able to take her Flush away and make it less. A loss in relative strength should lower your shield, but not make you attack downwards.
Using the absolute instead of the relative measure tape, reveals what really happened here. It is not, that Angel decreases strength against Bob, her hand value is nearly stable against the big zero. Bob on the other hand has massively increasing his hand value with the Turn against Angel and all players need to figure out, whos hand is the better now.
So following this logic, you don't decrease by yourself, because no card can weaken your absolute strength. Angel can not know, if a Bob sits at the table and it's not her job, to insinuate. It's Bobs responsibility to give the right signals in that case.
What if or could be, don't inspinge the absolute strength. You only measure, what you actually have, not the potential. That is why no_hit can't get you a higher number than before. Your hand value can't increase without any hits (or a new hand).
Sort in short: Hits only upwards; No_Hits only downwards. Please don't mix that up.
But keep in mind, that it is possible, you had a hit and want to increase, but people below you increased even more, so you end up lower, although having a hit.
I need to settle another example where the strength also feels to decrease, and where we learn sth. crucial:
Player A ('Alonso'): 44
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5
Player C ('Claire'): 32
Common Cards: AA9
Preflop, Alonsos Pair is way stronger than Beatrixs Jack Five and Clair has perfect reasons, to fight for the white 1 token.
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 ; (3) - 1P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 ; (2) - HC
Player C ('Claire'): 32 ; (1) - HC
The Flop really changes nothing. Nobody had a direct or privat hit (when your own cards are involved) and the only actual hit is fully on the table, so it affects everybody, I call that community or common. The two common Aces increase everybody's strength equally, but we'll see, that that's not always the case.
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 ; (3;3) ; (AA449) - 2P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 ; (2;2) ; (AAJ95) - 1P
Player C ('Claire'): 32 ; (1;1) ; (AA932) - 1P
Common Cards: AA9
A) 1-Pair into 2-Pair
B) and C) High Card into 1-Pair
Then the Turn brings us another 3 . Clair got a change and aproach forwards.
Alonso noticed, that she hit on the 3, so probably has a Two Pair now. His 44 is still stronger and he blocks the attack. Beatrix also noticed, that Clair has improved with the 3 and let her pass. And bc. Beatrix and Claire are clever too, they mention, Alonso blocked a Two Pair, so at least have the 9 or a Pocket in hand. Maybe an Ace?
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 ; (3;3;3) ; (AA449) - 2P
Player C ('Claire'): 32 ; (1;1;2) ; (AA339) - 2P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 ; (2;2;1) ; (AAJ93) - 1P
Common Cards: AA9 / 3
But what if we hit another 3 or 9 with the River?
Everybody has at least a Two-Pair now. The 3 would be a direct hit for Clair and a community hit for everybody at the same time. But the 9 is an exclusive community hit.
It seems like Alonso's strength collapses and he is getting weaker. His own Two Pair is common now and he don't even is the highest anymore. He is tempted to decrease. But again, it only decreases relative. He increases less with the community hit, than people without a Pair Preflop.
But in absolute terms spoken, for each new phase, you can at least take the cards you had before. So you can't lose absolute strength. If the 3 smiles, he take the exact same five cards (AA449, no decrease at all) and when the 9 smiles, he even improved (AA994). He should consider his defence, but never attack downwards.
Scenario 1: River is 3 (community and privat hit)
Player C ('Claire'): 32 - (1,1,2,3) ; (AA333) – FH
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 - (3,3,3,2) ; (AA449) - 2P
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 - (2,2,1,1) ; (AA33J) - 2P
Common Cards: AA9 / 3 / 3
Claire got a major boost since she increased both, common and direct. A Poker player, who folded this hand pre or post Flop, would be incensed but fine, although the relative strength increased monstrousively, it also can result in huge losses, if anybody hold an Ace.
Beatrix had a hit and increased commonly from 1-Pair to 2-Pair, but that's not enough to actual climb up.
Alonso increased absolutely nothing and got deflected by Claire. But he can still block Beatrix.
Scenario 2: River is 9 (exclusive community hit)
Player B ('Beatrix'): J5 - (2,2,1,3) ; (AA99J) - 2P
Player A ('Alonso'): 44 - (3,3,3,2) ; (AA994) - 2P
Player C ('Claire'): 32 - (1,1,2,1) ; (AA993) - 2P
Common Cards: AA9 / 3 / 9
Claire has no direct hit anymore and the common 2-Pair makes her 3 to the worst Kicker.
Alonso increased very little from that community hit, because he already had a 2-Pair. In fact, he holds a better 2-Pair now, but it's still a 2-Pair. The strong Pocket Pair he had Preflop, broke down to a Kicker, and not even a good one. A 27 would defeat him. His relative strength decreased very much, but not the absolute, that indeed went up.
For Beatrix, the common 2-Pair is a major upgrade. She went from 1-Pair to 2-Pair and nullified her disadvantage, not holding a Pocket Pair. Beyond that, since nobodys lower handcard is better than 6th place anymore, only eachs better handcard matters. Now, Beatrixs Jack values much more, relative and absolute. She climb up to first place, but it was luck, nobody hold an Ace or a 9.
Now to that very crucial and important information, we can spot in Scenario 2:
The River (9) is an 'exclusive community hit', so in theory it affects everybody. But this example shows, that it's not nessecarily affects everybody equally. We learn, that even an exclusive community hit is able to alter the chain order and must be acknowledged as a hit and change.
We can also mention, that the strong 44 at any time is at least second in chain order.
Finally, to stay in the correct order more easy, we need a standard procedure on how to handle all the changes. Often everything happens at the same time. This is understandable, everybody wants to play and not wait all day long. It is faster and you can get important informations from that. It is fully okay, as long as everybody keeps the chain in order. But if we got confused, we should reset and aproach a bit slower.
Rules we already have so far:
- Always start bottom, going up (1 to n). The lowest number take action. (can be skipped)
- Always measure the absolute, instead of the relative strength of a hand. (can't be skipped)
- When your hand did not change, take a seat (the number you had before or decreased by deflection). The deflection value is the number of people you let pass. Hold the order!
- When your hand improved, attack a higher number until you find a new spot. Take that seat, but expect that others will put their own hands on that seat as well. Figure out what that means and defend or let pass. You may end up with a lower number, even when improved.
- Even a community hit is an improvement, that may change your position.
- Always look for inconsistencies and adjust if nessecary. Maybe the Preflop order is wrong or you realise that somebody could hold a Flush while you only sit on a Straight and are not that high as you may thought anymore. Or may you are stronger than expected ^^
Let's put up some advanced rules and define how 'attacking upwards' exactly should look like:
- When we play it slow #1 is always first. The lower the position, the higher the priority.
- The Chip you attack is at least +1. This is not possible, when you already hold the highest Chip, so we need an exception.
- In that case you aggressively sit down: Do it earlier, defend it more. The strongest Player and hitting again? Communication is key and Finefeeling*, find out, who rung the highest !
- The amount of Positions in front of you, subdivide the estimated strengh of your change. The smallest changes attack +1 and with more significant upgrades, attack higher Counter.
- Whoever think, holding a hand, strong enough to block the attack, defend the Token by putting it back on the table or keeping it themself to attack centemporaneously**.
- If sb. shielded your attack, you move on by attacking the next chain link (heading in a dicection of your choice) or the same again. The more you attack, the more certain you are.
- To avoid that an attack from pos. 1 to 2 got defended from pos. 6 we need an enhancement:
- ...You never defend a position below your current position (the last chip you took), except you spot a mistake.
- We urgently need an upwarts trend for the hits, so if your change remains without answer, you attack further, until it becomes finally blocked. You may try again, after reconsideration.
- When someone sat down, the new lowest player step into action, until the final chain is set.
*c'mon, this algorithm needs to hold some fun for the Player. I don't mechanicalize every step
**What a beautiful word <3
Do you, as Reader, agree to my portrayals?
Did I miss something?
You can join my group 'The Gang Puzzlers'
Best Regards and sweet greetings to everyone
Looking forward to crack some codes together
Jörg MZ
