Pedro Martínez: Thanks Pedro....I knew my recent luck had to change shortly :)

I now have the grand total of 2 wins ROFLMBO :)

Andre thought Molly would bet more than what you had left and wanted to secure the first place by betting one point more than what Molly had left. It was not a pointless and nonsensical bet from him, he was just unlucky...in these situations you never know...I have already said somewhere that I find these decisions (3 people left in a pond with very high amounts of remaining points) the hardest ones at all in ponds....

http://brainking.com/en/Pond?g=337

why would AndreFaria bet so many points thereby giving me the game?
Not that Im complaining but it does seem strange:(

BIG BAD WOLF:I think I have been trying to play too close to the edge too early in the game, trying to save 10 points, when a lot of people are still staying close to the edge. After all of them fall in, if your playing close, the greater the chance you aren't going to be around for the finish.

Watch Foxy Lady. She bids high constantly and winds up in the final 5 a lot of the time. Staying in the middle or favoring the bottom 1/3 is what I have recently been trying to do.

I haven't finished enough games yet to know for sure if this is good strategy.

Yea, when you start to pay attention to what the higher ranked players are doing - almost every time it looks like they start out "bad".

For example, this pond: http://brainking.com/en/Pond?g=451

4 players rated over 2500 - highest after 2 rounds, 13th place. Then 15th, 15th, and 19th.

They must be doing something right!

10 wins?????????? Dang I'm still working on 10 games. Some of you guys have just about mastered this game! "BRAVO"

Nope, he said he wouldn't have been able to make his moves every day. I changed it to a 2-days-per-move pond a couple of minutes ago, so hopefully he'll sign up.

why? was he the one that thought people were cheating?

Vikings: we need 8 more people...Flake is probably not going to participate in the pond

now if only 7 more people would learn that, we could start the 10 wins pond

It is fun to watch certain players change their strategy

Pond #500 - Signup now!

http://brainking.com/en/Pond?g=500&trnst=0

That is the thing I noticed about one of the top players - I started to watch all their moves, to see how I could improve my game. For the first 5 moves or so, their bid were always higher then mine - nothing that would get them the bonus, but enough to start putting them further down the list.

Then all of a sudden, Boom - there they were at the end challenging for the win.

So yes, taking big chances may increase your chance to win - but I've noticed being nice and stedy - no real big chances will leave you with much beter chances of wins at the end. (in which my rate of wins has been increasing some I believe - took me forever to get to ten, and now all of a sudden I'm getting close to 20)

I don't like being at the top of the board until there are only about 5-6 people left, I much prefer being somewhere in the middle until then.
and the bidding has been changing since befor the introductions of ratings, thats the dynamics of this game that you constently have to re-think your moves

grenv: If he hangs up for at least 10 rounds, he's still a better player than those who have fallen behind him. In a 16 player pond, that would mean he got over half his opponents in the water before going for the swim himself.
Shouldn't he be rewarded for that?

The problem with applying a tournament ratings system is the following:

In a tournament you are always trying to win each game, and that will increase the chance of winning the tournament.

In a pond you can decrease the likelyhood of winning while increasing the likelyhood of finishing top 5.

Since the position at each round is proportional to the likelyhood of winning, I recommend that position at each round be taken into consideration. That way being bottom for 10 rounds is not rewarded (unless you catch up at some point).

When you have more than one Pond awaiting your move, they are in Pond No sequence, lowest pond numbers first.
Please could they be sequenced according to amount of time remaining, with least times first?

grenv: It is interesting that, since the introduction of grading, guys are making higher bids, particularly art the start of each game. And that is good, because it reduces the 'lottery' element later on.

It's still a flaw since you're not punished for making ridiculous bids. That's why some sort of logarithmic scale would be better in my opinion.

Nothingness: It's not that simple. If you think it is, try to finish second in three straight ponds. ;-)

i was thinking if a person who constantly bets high just to stay in the pond longer, could they feesably get a very high rating just b/c they stick around longer when in fact they should be punished for making unwinable bets. For example there are poeple who bet 1000+ on the first bet. This probably the dumbest bet poossible b/c even with bonus you will be losing by more than 500. They can do this for most of the tourney and be 2nd to last man standing every time but you will NEVER win! So im not really sure how ratings work in this situation.

you can fix it so that maxx dont win it.. if for example pedro can cause maxx to lose. by bidding low say 14 adn then vikings can only bet 15 adn lose only 15 points. thus maxx will beta normal amount and will now be behind with only 2 poeple left.

grenv: Thanks. My fault... :(

For some reason only some people saw that maxchriss had 0 points left. I guess scrolling down is a little difficult for some?

What happened in this pond?

http://brainking.com/pt/Pond?g=159

tony : i dont get it ???

Maxxina: Easy!!! Both of you bid 5661!!

Vikings: Well in that case, if I was Pedro i would take 3rd place. If I was Vikings, I would get ready to end up in 2nd place. If I was Maxxina, I would already be counting my BKR points gained by yet another win.

..... since you asked. :-)

Vikings: Looks easy to me...

BKR Points left Last move
1 Maxxina 2671 9680 3999
2 Vikings 2447 9119 3718
3 Pedro Martínez 2499 8886 3645

as long as we are getting group help, what do we do here

he he he,

just make sure you acknowledge what you are going to do on this board so I can help you

Thinking..

this may take some time.. got the blonde thinking cap on.. *giggle*

TIGER0005: Four to get a provisional rating, and 25 to get a regular rating, but the entire pond run has to complete before your score is computed.

how many ponds do you have to play in to get a rating ?

Maxxina:

I know what I would do, but it wouldn't help much if Vikings saw it.

Let's just say you want to bid at least 5663, but you probably want to go for the bonus.

(As if I'm one to be giving advice to the #1 player )

Maxxina: Well I never said it was going to be simple. O'wait - I did. TWICE!

BBW : easy to say :]]]

Simple - Bid either between 1-478 point more then Vikings bid

or

bid 524 points less then Vikings. (While still bidding above tonyh)

Simple!

Maxxina: hehe.. oh wow.. I was thinking you had 5662 sorry.. let me think here

5050 - really? I like yourself . Thats suicide

Maxxina: Bid 5050

1 Vikings 6827
2 Maxxina 6804
3 tonyh 5662

any idea what to do ? :]

ClayNashvilleTn: fill in some numbers and watch the results ;)

(it should be '42' :))

Pedro Martínez: I see what you mean (Pbarb collected two 500 point bonuses in the 1st 2 rounds) - but why?
The system credits me with a bonus as soon as I get it.
How may the rest of us bet against someone with hidden bonuses?

tonyh: I see 6612 but the system doesn't include any of the bonuses (8) Barb has collected throughout the pond in the number we see WHEN this person receives the bonus in the particular round we're looking at...

Pedro Martínez: Do you really see 8612 points????

I'll have a look at it.

Pbarb had 8612 points and bet 6612, I see nothing whacky about it....save for the problem I posted in the BugTracker

When I click on the red number next to the 'Main page' link it takes me to the oldest pond, but I have my games sorted by the time to deadline. Shouldn't the numbered link take me to the game with the least remaining time (I.e. the one at the top of my list according to how I have it sorted)?