Okay, it’s official. I cannot do strategy to save my life (hopefully it doesn’t come to that ) . I understand the concept of strategy any everything, of course, but I just don’t seem to be able to apply it.
Playing canasta, for example. No matter what happens: I always lose. I know all the rules and know how to play (don’t give away the pile, etc.). I just suck.
Continuing the canasta example, I’ve already checked out this website website, and try to follow the advice, but it doesn’t work. I think the biggest problem is that I either a) stick to one strategy no matter what else happens in the game (what the other players do, or what cards I pick up), or b) I keep switching strategies and end up with no stragegy.
So, generally speaking, is it possible to teach me strategy? How would I go about learning?
Thanks for the help in advance!
Strategy is absolutely learned, not intuitive. I can tell within sixty seconds if someone I’m playing poker or chess against has studied the game and knows some of the basic strategies or whether they’re just playing off the top of their heads.
I don’t know anything about canasta, but in general, it’s not a good idea to switch strategies mid game. Pick one strategy and stick with until you’ve mastered it. While you will still lose sometimes, you’ll understand why, and then you can add another strategy to your repertioire. That’s how players of any game get good.
A suggestion – try learning blackjack basic strategy and see if you can get the hang of that. Those charts tell you everything you need to know, it is literally all written out for you. You can practice on the Internet free game sites and everything.
Then if you do okay with that, I suppose you’ll have proved to yourself that you can learn strategies; and you can move onfrom there.
If you can’t learn blackjack strategy, then focus on tic-tac-toe.
Strategy is in large part knowledge of the game rules and a basic working knowledge of odds in any situation inside the game.
for instance in black jack. the house has to hit on 16 or less but if you split a deck based on a 50% or better chance not to bust then the number you hit on is 12 and you stand on 13
but these numbers are altered based on what cards have been played. one reason vegas went to 6 deck black jack is because its very very easy to keep track of the cards played from one deck.
know the rules, get a basic (it doesnt need to be perfect by any means) understanding of odds and you are well on your way. the res of it is experience patience and some luck.
I can tell you about strategy in chess, but remember that’s a complicated game!
What follows is hopefully general advice, but all examples are from chess.
In general I think you need to learn tactics (‘immediate’ moves, such as a pin or a fork) first.
These are great fun, but they don’t come about naturally. To reach a position where there are favourable tactics for yourself, you need strategy (an overall plan).
Let’s take some opening strategy in chess:
develop your pieces
control the centre
get castled
If one player is doing all these and the opponent isn’t, there may well be tactics. Other clues include undefended pieces…
For example:
Strategy is, at its root, all about maximizing your probability of success. Strategy is thus about probabilities - choosing the plays that have the greatest chance of achieving some goal.
This seems to indicate that strategy is definitely learned. While many people are naturally good at this, it’s by no means genetic. It’s about learning what the best plays are in all sorts of different situations.
Think of tic-tac-toe, everyone knows that the most strategic first move is, of course, the center spot because it has the most potential to result in 3 in a row - the greatest probability of success. The second move always ought to be a corner, as should the third, and so on.
Card games are much the same. Card strategy requires a deep knowledge of the odds of success with a given hand and lots of card-counting (keeping track of the cards that have been revealed to be able to calculate odds better). All of these things, obviously, can be taught. Like all things that are taught, some learn more easily than others, but everyone is capable of learning.
Probability doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with it, since not all games have a random element. With something like Tic-Tac-Toe, your only hope of winning is that your opponent make some sort of mistake, so at most, you can say that you should try to make the move that maximizes the probability of a mistake.
Speaking of Tic-Tac-Toe, the center isn’t, in practice, the best first move, since even if your opponent is moving randomly, there’s a 50-50 chance that he’ll pick a corner, which almost guarantees a tie. On the other hand, if you start by taking a corner, your opponent has eight moves to choose from (or five non-degenerate moves), all but one of which will give you the win.
I wouldn’t use this definition. Choosing between plays is to me ‘tactics’. Having an overall objective which leads you to positions containing useful ‘tactics’ is ‘strategy’.
I don’t think tic-tac-toe is deep enough to have strategy. You can easily give a new player a few guidelines and make them unbeatable.
In bridge, you will indeed calculate (or know) the best way to play each individual suit and how many likely tricks to expect. But I still call this ‘tactics’. When you analyse the whole hand, allowing for entries and keeping dangerous opponents off lead etc, that is then ‘strategy’.
While I am not great at strategy type stuff I did find that learning to play the game Go helped a whole heck of a lot in that regard.
In Go it is very easy to win the battle but lose the war. There are little fights (tactical) and then there is the whole board (strategy). Sometimes a little fight might end up taking over the whole game but that doesn’t happen all that often. What does happen, especially with newer players, is that they get so focused on a little fight that they let the other player take large amounts of profit while they flail away on a minor fight.
The downside to Go is that it takes a bit to learn how to play. The rules are simple, simpler than chess, but it is as complex if not more complex than chess*.
Slee
*There has always been a bit of a fight between the chess players I know and the Go players about which game is harder. Personally, I think Go is harder though Chess isn’t for wimps either. Both are hard enough that the difference is trivial. A point for my side is that they finally figured out a way to write a program that is as good as the best chess players out there. The best Go programs pretty much suck, I think they got them to about 5 kyu. 5 to 1 kyu is considered intermediate for amateurs. Kyu ranking goes from 30 (lowest) to 1 (highest). After 1 kyu there is a dan (lowest) through 7 dan. Professional ranking is 1 dan through 9 dan (highest)
Long-time Strategy consultant here - I help big companies develop strategic plans.
There is a lot of good advice here - Slee (hey, dude) summed it up well when he said:
Strategy is about viewing the entire situation, setting an objective, and establishing a path to that objective - one that takes into account changes in your environment, whether those changes are the actions of others or other external forces. The more you can stay focused on your long-term objective while dealing with near-term situations and investing to get them resolved so they ultimately work to your advantage is where the skill comes in.
With games - break it down:
Setting an objective is easy - that is however “winning the game” is defined
Viewing the entire situation - that involves understanding different approaches to winning. I refer to this as “top-down thinking” - looking at the Big Picture, what 3 - 5 major ways exist to win? In Poker, they might be:
Ride a strong hand hard
Hold back with a strong hand until you pounce
Bluff with a weak hand
Stay in while the cost is low and see if an opportunity arises
Fold and save your money for the next hand.
Again - I am not Mr. Poker, so these may be off, but I hope you see the intent: pretty much any bet you make puts you in one of these categories. You use probabilities to help you determine which of these is the best approach for you given your hand and what else you are seeing in the Big Picture.
Establishing a Path - this is what separates the men from the boys; it requires endless practice and experience. You know the objective, you know your options - now, when do you pick each option and what should you do should the environment change on you? THAT is where the learning comes in.
Strategy is 100% learnable - the trick is to establish a framework for your options and then practice to see how each choice plays out - over time, this builds up into a deeply-ingrained set of near-instincts you can use as patterns of play emerge and you have learned to see them and know how to act.
) . I understand the concept of strategy any everything, of course, but I just don’t seem to be able to apply it.