In preparation teaching Whist at SteamCon I've started putting together notes and information on the Seattle Whist Club blog. It's just a start but I hope to post the content that will become the info I'm planning on handing out at the con.
Last Saturday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ragnorokt, hollyqueen and I went
to the the First Annual Cider Summit N.W.. It was the first
cider summit put together by the new
Northwest Cider Association. I had a great time tasting all
the cider and meeting some of the faces behind the scenes. We’re at
the leading edge of a craft cider explosion and it’s a great time to
be a fan. I’m looking forward to future events such as the Vashon
Ciderfest and Ivar’s Cider Celebration.
In other news, I’m getting excited about teaching Whist at Steamcon II. Soon I should know my schedule and I’ve been working on a short history of the game and rules so I can create handouts for people who learn the game. My not-so-secret goal is to educate enough players to create a Whist club.
Speaking of Steamcon II, I think I need to make new calling/business cards. I have “eyeball QSO,” but they met with confusion and a lot of note writing on the back of the them as people tried to match up their view of me with the person on the card. At the same time I’m thinking about dropping some of the email addresses and web sites I have scattered out there. I’m not interested enough to expend the energy to become a “superstar” blog star so one blog on LJ is enough for me.
I like playing Spades and Whist. It’s not easy to find people who also like to play so from time to time I try playing online or AI opponents. Online players drop out if they start to lose. AI opponents have been bad, bad players.
I mean the AI players in the games I’ve tried are really bad. For example, it is my partner’s turn to play in the first round of a hand and the following cards have been played: K♥, A♥ and 7♥. So I have taken the trick and expect the AI partner to follow suit or toss an off-suit card. This AI decides to drop the A♠ and steal a trick I bid on taking. Did the AI have a lot of spades and not have anything else to play? No, that was his only spade. Damn thing bid high to so we weren’t able to make our bid for that hand because of plays like that. Gah! I am almost tempted to learn more about programming games and artificial intelligence just to I can write an AI partner who would be smarter than a box of rocks.
Time to survey the non-free card games on the PC to see if there have been any improvements in the AI players. I just didn’t want to buy a bunch of games to find one I would actually play.
I posted before about enjoying card games and wanting to host some. Well its past time that I should have, so I am. On Wednesday March 18th I welcome people to join me at 7pm to learn and play Whist.
As I mentioned before Whist is similar to Spades. The differences are the trump suit changes each deal and there is no bidding. I think it is easier to learn Whist before Spades because there isn’t any bidding and the scoring is simpler.
For your amusement here is an article from the New York Times from July 1912. I used the picture of Horatio Hornblower as he was known as an avid Whist player in the books by C.S. Forester.
Well crap! I woke up this morning a bit congested, but I didn't feel particularly sick. So hollyqueen and I went to pick up some groceries before I headed out to the fun at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
bean_west. While walking around the store I started feeling worse and worse. So now I'm going to pass on the party so I don't infect everyone else.
Damn, I was so looking forward to today too. I was hoping to expand my world domination plans by creating more Spades, Hearts and Whist players. These are three of my favorite card games that are similar enough to be easy to teach in an afternoon.
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timeasmymeasure
