Boardwalk Games -
Glossary of Generic Concepts and Terms

©2002-2015    Last updated: January 3, 2015

In movement, balance may be obtained.

Everything happens.

The information tells you what to do.

The Board: The total playing area.

The Deal: A specific arrangement of the deck.

Flip: (source) A face-up card on a tableau, to be used as source for further play.

Landing: (foundation) A column's (permanent) scoring, destination location.

Starting Five, Starting Nine: (the nine) The cards face up at the beginning of the game.  The starting cards in a fresh, new deal may present a unique, new world to the player.

Slot: A single opening or location on the board. 1) A single available, undeclared landing.  2) A single slide opening.  3) A single hand card position (hand slot). 4) A single opening for high trump or juggling.  5) A single opening for coaxing. 

The Family Stone: (the wall, the lead stacks) The row 1 stacks. The five columns of the upper walk, named from the left as; Annie, Bobby, Charlie, Deirdre or Dee, and Elsie.  Where there is a sixth, it is named Frank, a seventh is named Gail and an eighth Henry.  In the future, if needed, there may also be an India and a Jacob.

Stone, Setting Stone: A flip which will have to file, but which presently cannot, and which has been decidedly chosen by the player to set atop the source stack where it is, such as to be presently held out of the way. Primarily in reference to atop full row 1 stack. 

Spike: A member of a set of cards on row 3 that cannot flip, since they are the cards required (as flips) to turn themselves over. Where only spikes remain, the player is awarded one point for each of them. 

It may be possible in many variations of Boardwalk to programmatically de-spike deals, at least to a great extent, such that spikes cannot occur when the game is played logically.  De-spiked deals would not be perfectly random, but a great percentage of randomness could still remain.

Lead Stack: The upper walk source stack currently being cleared. Single lead, double lead, triple lead:  Indicates the number of simultaneous lead stacks.  (For the effects of multi-stack leading, see the count.)

Bullpen: The upper walk stack selected to follow the current lead stack.

Lead Trump: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) In the player's strategy, this is the rank selected to file next, such as by way of trump plays.  In Sqatsi, one might argue that, from the very beginning of the game, if in one's strategy one has not selected a lead trump, then one will probably lose.

Lance: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Two (or more) of a kind in the hand on the deal.  A lance tends to argue itself, strategically, as an occam when applied as one's opening lead trump.  Lance a lot: More than one lance.

Steps: As in 4/4 musical time, one step is one card in a stack, such as on row 1 at the start, with lead trump, or when creating an opening on row 2.  For example, if there is one-of-a-kind to play to row 2 when declaring there, the new opening is a one-step or single-step opening.  When there are two-of-a-kind showing to play to the given opening, it is a two-step, double-step, or half-step opening.  For three-of-a-kind, it is a three-step, triple-step or short-stack opening, and when there are four-of-a-kind, it is a four-step or whole-step opening. 

In five-of-a-kind (five-suited) variations, there may be tall stacks, containing five cards.  This can also happen on row 1 in four-suited Cheshire. In five-suited Cheshire, skyscrapers can occur on row 1 when a five-card stack is used as a destination in coaxing, thus producing a six-card stack. 

Debris: (dead cards) Unplayable flips, such as where destined for filing and presently blocked.

Posse: An abundance of flips that will play (primarily of live plays).  A large enough posse may presents a case for going live or digging down on row 3, to create slide openings. 

Spread: 1) Simple Spread: The number of face values showing thus far (as many as thirteen). Most simply expressed: "A spread of 12 on 26 up"  2) Calculated Spread: A calculated figure drawn from the number of face values showing per value-instance depth, among the total number of cards currently showing.  A high spread presents the greatest obstacle to winning.

Blockade: A set of lower walk columns that are simultaneously blocked by each other.

Preempting: A play made specifically to avoid the creation of a blockade.  For example, where on the lower walk there are Aces and Eights columns, and where the Eights column is blocked by an Ace... Where the current lead stack is topped by an Ace, one might preempt a possible Aces-and-Eights blockade by playing the Ace blocking the Eights column first.

Pole Position: The selection among a group of live play possibilities that is least likely to produce a blockade.  In preempting amidst a posse of live plays on the lower walk, the pole position is firstly the column played to which has the tallest source stack, and secondly (within that target) it is the column played from which has the tallest source stack.  Columns with the shortest source stacks are the least likely to become blocked.

Pandora: A single lead stack (from row 1) that produces cards that may not play live as a result of their collective values.  For example. from Annie, a 3 is led to column 2 of the live walk, followed by a 2 and and Ace.  Since the 2 will play in the only available slot left of the 3, the Ace to follow will not play live.  

Information: Collectively, that which has been seen.

Playability: The range of motion a player has in directing the course of the game.  In the beginning, one has the whole world in front of them, and great playability.  At the other end of this spectrum, there is hopscotching through a series of only one or two options per play, as most frequently occurring in a game's bottleneck.

Ordered Declarations: Declarations in accordance with a blind-probability-based declaration set.  With 52 cards... Where there is a seven column lower walk, declaring it as Aces, 3s, 5s, 7s, 9s, Jacks, and Kings, with 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s, 10s, and Queens between the upper walk and the hand is in accordance.  Where there is an eight-column lower walk, declaring it as Aces, 3s, 5s (three of five), 6s and 8s (two of three), and 9s, Jacks and Kings (three of five), and filing 2s, 4s, 7s, 10s and Queens is in accordance.

Corner Cards: With 52 cards and 7 lowerwalk columns... On the deal, the primary corner cards are Fours and Tens.  On the left, Fours don't align so well with the 2nd or 3rd column, but where declared on the live walk, they will generally have to play to one or the other, establishing a corner for the remaining "boxes for ranks" on either side.  For Tens, it is between the 2nd and 3rd columns from right.  2s, 6s, 8s and Qs may function as mini-corner cards (inside and outside corner cards), for presenting similar conundrums.

Hedge, Hedging: In declaring the columns of primarily the lower walk, to maintain a hedge is to maintain openings such that any undeclared rank may presently still be declared.

Displacement: When one rank is declared upon a column, there is the displacement of any adjacent, undeclared ranks, such that none of them will be able to go there. Prior to the declaration, there was a possible home for more than one rank, but afterwards, there was only one. Ranks not declared upon the column have been pushed out of it. 

Bending the Walks: (Push, pull) Electing to push most of the values in a specific range of ascending ranks to one walk.  With two ascending walks, such as in Sqatsi and Cheshire, Pushing on one walk means pulling on the other. 

Edging: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Edge lead.  Leading from an end stack. Similar to hedging.

Center Lead: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Leading from the center, where lead trump may divide the upper walk in the early game.  Options remaining by doing so involve bending the lower walk (see bending walks), to shift which side of the center the value to play to the hand will lie (see bundling walks, swivel), as well as juggling via a center opening when expanding the lead.

Defiant Lead: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) A lead that is neither edging nor on center.

Swivel: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Increased playability revolving around a slot, where the walks have yet to be bundled.  Particularly, in a swivel scenario, the rank that the player wishes to score to the hand has not yet been precisely determined.  Where a declaration has been made on the upperwalk, a corresponding undeclared lowerwalk column may yet be declared to the left or right of that rank.  Conversely, where a lowerwalk declaration has been made, a corresponding undeclared upperwalk column may not yet be declared to the left or right of that rank.

For example, where there is one (open) slot on each of the upper and lower walks in the same region of ranks, we'll say that 8s, 9s and 10s have yet to be declared, and the scoring hand rank has yet to be determined.  By declaring 9s on one walk, the slot on the other walk may take 8s or 10s.  Also in this example, the rank scored in the hand may yet fall either to the left or right of the 9s, where this determination has not yet been made - the hand rank may still be any rank not yet declared.  As a matter of increased playability, either 8s or 10s may still be accumulated on the undeclared slot, and the bundling of the walks has not yet occurred.

Win: In Boardwalk, to clear row 1 constitutes a win. In competition, to score a win on a given deal is to score highest among competing scores which vary. 

Perfect Game: To score every card. 

Kansas: This is where you land when you play your first point to the last column.

Detroit: (Detroit landing) Close to a winning game, but not quite.

Bottleneck: In the middle of the game there is often a bottleneck, where continuing play is most difficult.

Breaking Through: Coming out of a bottleneck, and entering the end game.

End Game: After the bottleneck, where it is often easier to proceed.

Playing Pixies: During the end game, this is the matter of sometimes having to clean up the last few cards, so that each ends in just the right place.

Safety: In declaring, setting aside a column for a value that has not yet appeared.

14 Up: (Where there are 13 ranks) As the game matures, where a column has been set aside for a value that has not yet appeared.

Full House: (Row's Garden) 1) Where every column on the lower walk is blocked.  2) Three-of-a-kind and one pair. :-)

In the Weeds: Somewhere in the middle of a game, where it seems that sight of one's success is cloudy and distant. In the context of Kansas or Detroit, this is Outer Mongolia, the long, dark tunnel, or no end in sight. 

Up Cards: Strategy based upon the cards which have faced.

Down Cards: Strategy based upon the cards which have not faced (arguably best reserved for the end game).

Up/Down: The number of cards currently face-up and face-down. 

Vertical: (progressive cycling, playing forward) Tactically cycling progressively through row one stacks without other plays between. Pure vertical play leans toward the creation of new openings for filing as directly as possible by applying single leads. 

Active, Activity: (lateral play, playing back, going live) As opposed to pure vertical, with other plays between.  Play shifts from directly cycling through row 1 stacks to the mixing in of other plays.  Greater activity supports the possibility of creating slide openings (and possibly more blocked columns as a result).

Perfect Lead:  (Perfect vertical lead) At the beginning of the game, where two row 1 stacks have been cleared to their ends (such as in a double lead), having blocked the entire lower walk.  In Hopscotch 58, this means playing out two row 1 stacks, blocking 8 columns.  Where there is a 7-column lower walk, such as in Lucky Seven and Sqatsi 57, a single flip remains in the completion of a perfect lead. 

Split Walks: (parting of the seas, dead calm seas) A game ending where there are flips and unblocked columns, but no cards will play.  As a split between live and dead, this is due to no card currently in play being live, i.e. every card currently in play being dead.  

Elf: Fortune, in the form of a card.

Turnover: Angels and assassins may represent turnovers in one's fortunes the game.

Angel: (good elf) Where only (the remaining instances of) one value will do, it flips.

Assassin: (nasty elf, killer) Where only (the remaining instances of) one value will not do, it flips.

Tossing: (low road) Cannibalizing the board for a greater end point score than what is conceived along a perfect-game path.

Tossing the Hand: The hand is used as a buffer to absorb a motley variety of unplayable cards. The purity of the hand is abandoned in the process.

Tossing the Board: In Sqatsi or Cheshire, declaring on the upper walk in such a way as to preclude the possibility of a perfect ending game.  

Saintly Play: (high road) 1) No tossing of points, no tossing of the hand, and God forbid, no tossing of the board... All plays supporting the perfect end game, regardless of the odds against pulling it off.  2) Saintly Consideration: Toward a divergence from a perfect-game path as its own detriment to the future of the game.  When tossing, some of the otherwise playable cards also become unplayable.

Invert, Inversion: Electing to file the face values that are most frequently occurring as opposed to playing them live, or vice versa.  For a given game, reversing the tendency in declarations for frequently occurring values from one walk to the other.  For example, where it is expected that a player is looking to dig as deeply into the row 3 as possible, to clear row 1 early in the game. 

Forced Lead: Where the top card of an upper walk source stack will file on another upper walk column, its lead has been forced.

Cascade, Cascading: Planning on one upper walk column to eventually file upon another upper walk column and become the next lead stack.  By clearing one column, cards from one or more other columns will then cascade (or file) upon it.  These would also individually be forced leads.

Waterfall: A series of cascades, such as to produce an inversion.

Charging, Going Live:  Abandoning row 1 leads, and tactically directing oneself towards the creation of slide openings.  Dedicated Charge: Where the creation of a slide opening will be absolutely necessary before any row 1 lead can resume.  The Charge of the Light Brigade: Where row 1 is abandoned in its entirety.  

Nip, Nipping It In the Bud: Anticipating a trend in a game's information at the earliest possible moment.  Smelling the flowers along the way: Seeing and incorporating all information that is presently available prior to choosing the next play.  The information tells you what to do. 

Peck, Piffling: A strategy that begins and ends in a single play. A lone play, made presumably for the purpose of gathering information, which does not contribute to any other (larger) strategy. 

Convert, Conversion: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Converting a hand card (or hand slot) from one capacity to another, such as from trump to power. 

Round Robin: When a hand slot is used to conduct a trump play and a power play in succession, leaving the hand slot unconverted in the end.

Juggling: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Conducting hand plays to row 1.  1) Juggling includes using one row 1 slot to open another row 1 slot.  2) Using an available row 1 slot and the playable cards in the hand to dig into another row 1 stack. 

Loaded for Bear: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Four trump in the hand. 

One may elect to pull off a four-card shotgun blast (or to clear a full row 1 stack with four trump plays in succession), but one will also have to absorb all of the collateral damage (or unseen flips) that accompanies this initial decision.  Smelling the flowers along the way in the course of conducting such a blast may mix in other plays, or diverge in its course completely.

Occam: A play that would generally be expected next. 

Hat Trick: A good play that would generally not be expected next.  (Not a strategy)

Blueprinting: (contingencies) Charting sets of potential ranks for each landing (on paper).

Vanishing Point: Hypothesized as a point in forward, strategic digressions, where farther, imaginary calculations will be overwhelmed by nearer, actual luck (and therefore as strategically beyond significance).   A point in furthering calculations that will not alter the play selected based upon calculations performed thus far.

Lock: (gold) A hand position (hand slot) consumed by a scoring card for the remainder of the game. 

Single-Flip: A play where one card flips up.

Double-Flip: A play where two cards flip up.  This may produce twice as many options and will produce twice as much information as in a single-flip play. 

Bundling Walks: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Like the band which wraps a bundle of newspapers....  Where the upper walk must be declared in ascending order, first declaring upon it where it is then known as to which side of that declaration that the value to play to the hand must lie. 

Unfolding: Watching the deal turn naturally into its end game, such as where there is the notion of a seeded result played flawlessly to its own end.

Devils: Instances of (potentially game-defining) matching ranks on row one.  Strategically, they may seem nice, because matching values reduce the spread.  However, in order to capitalize on this, the player will be forced into a multi-stack lead, and which may be worse.  Conversely, turning one devil into a setting stone turns them all into setting stones, and which may also be worse.  In either case, for what the player does with one of them, they must do so for all, and as such, its name is its face-value (i.e. conspiring devils).

Four devils of one rank crosses a line into potentially winning results for the player, such as by converting, in time, a four-stack lead into an opening for slides, or by being cascaded into a four-stack lead (weather permitting).  On occasion, four-of-a-kind may be easier for the player to capitalize upon, as if it were downright nice. (four angels, turnover)

Snug and Smack: (and snap and easy 52) The cards that need to play might not fit in the playable area.  If they do fit, then the game is snug.  If they don't fit, then the game will snap, and the player might get smacked.   Smack is typically associated with a set-up followed by a let down. 

The smack is most directly experienced in Hopscotch, as the player has no hand, which makes the game more unforgiving in the face of a bad card.  Smack is an effect of a specific card combination having exceeding what the player would allow, often producing appearances of remarkably bad luck, but which in fact have only themselves exceeded what would have been snug.  When the deal is more snug than snug it is an easy 52.

Job's Hand: When smacked, the player experiences (for example) a 1 in 30 chance opposing their success, and failure occurs.  With Job's hand, the player experiences far lesser odds opposing their success, such as by way of a large number of flips positioned ever so precisely in defiance of masterful play, and failure occurs.  Where smack may knock the wind out of a player, Job's Hand may be infuriating. 

Set-Up: When a player is set up, they are masterfully commanding very nearly every possible eventuality, with great control over the deal. Set up is arguably the necessary precursor to the potential impact of the likes of smack and Job's hand.

Neti Neti: An ancient philosophy which holds the position that any concept regarding the truth is how far away from the truth one is. In Boardwalk, it is arguable that the randomness of the deal will eventually or inevitably defy any preconceived bearing. 

Vertigo: Strategic disorientation. Knocked-out.  A condition characterized by a player with a developed strategy who is making unsound plays. Conceivably, disorientation is made possible by a lack of consistency in the game environment - all elements are transient. Vertigo may be brought about by a bad mix between the player and the deal, but this may also be considered to be most likely brought on with a player who is inexperienced with the current arrangement, or with the game itself. (Opposite: Balance)

Knock-down: Continued play following a perceived strategic error. 

Knock-out: (TKO)  Continued play following a perceived loss of strategy itself.  Vertigo.  Does every strategy have a deal that will knock it out?   Neti Neti argues this to be so. 

Nimble: Where a strategy is like concrete goulashes, to be nimble is to embrace a new strategy at each and every flip of the cards.   (Nip and nimble)

Give-Me: (Gimme) For a given point in play, the choice considered to be inarguably the best of all possible choices.  A give-me is an inarguable Occam.

Crossroads: Where there are two choices equally good, and the player must choose one of them.  The player may have put his or her self into a crossroads position, where other plays prior to this juncture may have prevented this from coming to pass.  Perhaps that is not the case, and perhaps it is crying over spilt milk to wonder how one got here.  Tunnel: Where there is only one good choice, and the player must take it.

Procrastination and Deliberation: Where it seems that any choice the player may make will further reduce their options.  Examples of procrastination and deliberation include enjoying the view and balking.  

Enjoying the View (gilded cage): This is procrastination, where the player's sense of the current board arrangement is that it has a certain perfection to it, such that if any further play is conducted, that perfection will be lost.

Perfection at the present moment might seem to imply that movement can no longer occur. This is the paradox of movement and balance. The current picture has to combine with a continuous stream of plays. First in movement, balance may then be obtained.

Balking: This is deliberation, where the appearance to the player of what must happen next, such as with a give-me or an occam, brings with it a sense of impending doom.  To balk is to seek an alternate route.  

Jumping:  Moving from one Boardwalk variation to another.  Jumping may be argued as an insurmountable cause of vertigo, directly pursuant to the jump.  (See balance)

Jumping could present a game of its own, at a level of disorientation and difficulty beyond any single Boardwalk variation.

Paradox: Seemingly, the nature of any aspect or approach to these games.  Here are some examples:

• Shuffling the deck for the purpose of arranging it
• Safety Vs 14 Up
• Spikes
• blockades
• The cards don't fit in the playable area.
• Vertical Vs activity
• Vertical  Vs preempting
• Tossing Vs saintly play, or a win Vs a perfect game
• Devils Vs a narrow spread
• A premeditated approach Vs a randomized calling
• The easier the variation is to play, the harder it is to win.
• The more situations you handle (bending), the worse they are that get you (snap).
• Hedging Vs Displacement
• Ordered Declarations Vs Bending the Walks
• Blueprinting Vs the vanishing point
• In competition: Honors Vs points
• For two players: Playing cooperatively to achieve a win, while withholding hands.
• Polyparadox: (The Hand). To hold gold, or to have power. To absorb debris, or try for a perfect game. For each of the four capacities of a hand card, the grass may be greener on the other three sides.

Par: The score of a specific deal of the cards as played using a generic (brute force) programming algorithm. A par algorithm would implement the idea of cycling through every potential path of plays starting with each current play possibility, multiplied by every possible arrangement of cards yet to face. The number of paths ending at each possible ending score for each initial play possibility would then be tallied. The highest tally would indicate the next play.

Weight: For a Boardwalk variation, the weight is the number of cards in the deck minus the par average - as a percentage, or roughly, the ease of winning.

Count: A present positional evaluation within a single game. For example, the number of lower walk columns minus the number of live plays from the upper walk plus the number of filings from the lower walk plus slide openings (slots), and the following have ranges...  Minus the size of the next lead stack to clear plus the number of cards which can presently be filed.  

The Numbers: In reference to how many possible combinations there are between the player and the deal in a game.  In Boardwalk, the number of random deals tends to be relatively infinite.  It is argued that the range of playability - the variety of choices a player has, is the skillful partner by which the player experiences the numbers.   It may seem as if the player is engaging a live or intelligent opponent.   It may even seem as though there is an entity in the cards (haunted).  When, repeatedly, the player moves and the deal flips, it may also seem as if the player and the deal are sparring.

Balance: For a given Boardwalk variation, one who has balance can be said to have game, play in the groove, or to have the home court.  For a given variation, with balance a player has a sense of all of the tipping points, such as when to go left versus right, or when to go up versus when to go down.  Care must be taken when changing the variation being played, since all of the tipping points will change, correspondingly.

Control: When the player leads in which direction a game takes.  The opposite of this is where the player is being forced by the flips to make certain plays. (See crossroads, tunnel)

Strategy: Where strategy precedes play.  Below is the 2nd verse of the poem, What is the Purpose... 

When I put my fingers to my guitar
and tell them it’s time to play,
they just wander all about
and everyone goes away.
I wrap one hand about the neck
and prepare the other to strum,
and when I think of a song to play
the room begins to hum.

Beginner: One who has learned how to play.

Intermediate: One who has learned the concepts and terms.

Advanced: When you feel you have been before where you are now, know that you have not, and that there is no such thing as an obvious play.  The cards are always random, whereas strategies are preconceived.  Root your strategy in the random cards, and not the other way around.  One may have made plays, but now it is time to play the board.  Find harmony and balance in all that you see... And play.

Master: One who plays consistently well over the course of many rounds. 

Master-Random: A winning player with no discernible strategy.  The rank of a player for whom all strategy is contained in the cards and not in the player.

Master-Random Play Personality: Unique expression within the range of play possibilities at the master-random level of play.

Nemesis: (partner) The game itself is the player's dancing partner and eternal nemesis.  Does it matter what one has done in the past, or to any extent how much one has accomplished, when facing random deals? 

Corral Effect: The notion of a generally fixed scoring potential for a given deal, regardless of how it is logically played.  This effect is supported at least to the extent by which a particular spread runs throughout a given deal, such that it will not, by variation in logical strategy, be circumvented.    This effect does not appear to be supported otherwise.

Bending the Board: Gaining greater points or position than the blind probabilities of a deal would seem to allow. This arguably leads more greatly to snap, such as where there is a blind probabilities corral effect.  Breaking the Board: Bending the board without it snapping back.

Lucky Seven for Two: A variation of Lucky Seven for two players, played cooperatively to achieve a win. A lower walk column is taken as the second player's hand, leaving a six-column lower walk. Each player plays in turn, or may say "pass" instead. Neither player may reveal the contents of their hand to the other, with exception to what they will naturally see as taken into the hand from the board when that happens. The game is ended when the players pass consecutively.

Group Play: Two or more persons playing a single game, by sharing ideas on strategy, cooperatively (as a team) to achieve greater results than any one of them alone would.  Group competition: Group play for each team in a competition of teams.  

Death Match: Competition play, where the deals are preselected from those which are known to have been lost, when played by good players or by a game-playing algorithm.  The competitors will know that the deals they're playing have been lost (as such).

Surfing: 1) Riding the wave: For the analogy of "staying on top of the wave" during play. 

2) Playing off of a list of sets of three original deals each, where at the start each player sees each of the three (in each set), and they each pick their favorite one.  Any favorites picked by one are played by all in competition rounds, which then contribute to actual match set scores.

Kingdom: A metaphor for Sqatsi. Two kingdoms are entwined - that of the deal and that of the player. When the game is won, it is the kingdom of the player. Inclusive of the following parts:

• Castle Walls: Row one is the wall of the enemy castle, and row two is the wall of the player's castle.
• Behind the Lines: Internal organization and enemy resistance on row three.  Homesteads being built on row four.
• Hand: The King's hand.
• Gold: A scoring hand card (lock)
• Sword: A hand card that will play the upper walk. (Knight)
• Food: A hand card that will play the lower walk. (Civilian)
• Splinter: A hand card that will neither score nor play (dead, debris)

Knowability: A player may not, in advance, know if they will know, or not know, what the best play is.  Knowing happens.  Everything happens. The condition of not knowing may be exacerbated by the simultaneity of two factors.  The first factor in attempting to assess a specific strategic goal is in its odds of being achieved.  The second factor is the relative value of the player's position in having done so.  When weighing various specific goals, simultaneous variations in each of these two factors may muddy resolution on the matter, or possibly even make knowledge of a perfect choice unobtainable.   Knowability issues may also arise whenever there are cards whose values are not presently known.  ;-)

Design Goal: To create a game where the boat of all of mindful skill swims in an ocean of infinite possibilities.  In competition, to create a game where the players may not be able to absolutely know if their match results are determined by luck or by skill.  For example, one might argue that the winner of a particular match has been determined by skill.

Competition Ideas

Leftmost Play Rule: In competition, the purpose of this rule is to help keep players from losing identical paths of play, where variations in strategy have not occurred.  Where two or more currently available play options are deemed to be strategically identical in value, if either is to be played then it must be the leftmost of the set, starting with the leftmost source card, then its leftmost destination, and lastly where applicable, the leftmost return card to the hand.

Example: With 3 Aces on the deal in Hopscotch, the leftmost must be selected where the player chooses one of the Aces.

A Leftmost Judge is most necessarily leftmost, and therefore exercises supreme authority when applying the leftmost play rule to a given set of play options.  A player may render an appeal to the Leftmost Judge, but the judge's decision will be final.

A judge may also be capable of deciding certain player statistics, such as occasions judged to be turnovers, knock-outs, or wins by luck or skill, or to grant a banana, for an achievement not otherwise granted title or reward.  (If a player is allergic to bananas, then another type of fruit should be made available)

Game, Round: (Hand) In competition, each player plays the same deals. For each game played the highest among varying scores counts as one win.

Set: Three rounds, scored by highest honors (wins), and a breadwinner (points).

Honor: (Win, Game)   In a competition round, one win, a.k.a. honor is awarded for each instance of the highest point score, where scores vary.

Breadwinner: In competition, the player who scores the most points. It is likely that the honors champion will be the breadwinner, but not necessarily so. For example, by way of one win by 25 points, and two losses by 1 point each, honors and points victories will have diverged.

Match A match is first defined as its length in sets. Match sets are then numbered and named inversely, such that for example in a 5-set match, the first set played is the five game set, and the last set played is the one game set.  The number in the name is how many more wins a player needs to end the match at the end of the current set (assisting with scoring-system hysteresis).

Any set may end early, by way of a player exceeding its requirements for a win. Where there is no leader by one game after the one game set, then an additional points set can be played, which can be ended by the first win, i.e. at its end by the highest total point score.

PPGs: A series of sets played (by all unranked candidates) for the purpose of establishing tournament-qualifying points-per-game averages, and to produce ranked players.

Deals: 1) Arrangements of the deck. 2) Deals have to be created for competition that meet certain requirements, such as being purely random and secured.

Timeout: There may be a time limit for each play for each player in each game.  Each player can start with two red cards and throw one up each time they wish to exercise a timeout.  A timeout will stop the clock and allow for additional minutes of deliberation.