The Dao of Interchange                  Previous < Page 1  2  3

1. The first rule is number one for a reason: if you don't observe it, you will never win. So, never play a game that has an ace in the back row. NEVER!! These aces are unreachable, and trying to dig them out is fruitless. I don't play many games even when there are aces in the third row unless there are beaucoup aces already in the first row. When I am being brutally honest with myself, I extend this rule to deuces and treys as well. Raise your right hand and repeat after me: "I (state your name) promise never to play a game of Interchange that has an ace in the back row…NEVER!"
   
   
2. Likewise, don't play games that have face cards in the first row. The Perfect Game doesn't have face cards in the first row, so why should yours? Those kings and queens in the first row are immovable royal pains, and they will defy you right to end of your big whoop game score of 11. So don't go there.
   
   
3. Don't play games where a visible face card covers an ace, more or less for the same reasons stated above. Those aces may look so close and tempting, but you'll never move those royal pains in time to get the aces to the foundations.
   
   
4. Kill games when the low cards get buried. When the first few cards in the waste pile are deuces and treys, and you can't play them, and then they get buried by subsequent cards, kill the game, no matter how pretty it looks otherwise. When these baby cards get buried deep, there is no way to bring them back from the dead, and the game is a loser. Don't be a loser.
   
   
5. Learn to analyze each new game within two seconds. Look for aces in the first row. If you don't see them immediately, click on, brother. Condition yourself to stop only when you see aces in the first row. This takes practice, but you've got to perfect this technique; you've got hundreds of games in front of you, maybe thousands, and you don't have time to dawdle. When you see these aces, look quickly for the other indicators above. Be severely honest, grasshopper. What may look like a magical column of all aces is really a booby trap of big fat kings in hiding, so avoid the inevitable heartbreak that playing such games brings. Become disciplined and strong. Become an Interchange samurai warrior, hard as steel, wise and patient.
   
   
6. Learn to use the mouse efficiently. When you're left-clicking like a madman through the stock pile and you see a likely card, right click it. Even if it doesn't jump to the tableau you haven't wasted time glancing over to see if it fits anywhere. Learn to become a right-clicking machine. So what if you develop arthritis. Your first win will be worth the extra cases of Advil you had to buy.
   
   
7. Sometimes not playing a card can be just as important as playing it. Many's the time I have played that two of spades from the tableau immediately only to see another one pop up from the stock with no place to go. This takes courage but sometimes a win hinges on a single move like this. It's a strategy you will learn in your journey along the way.
   
   
8. Know when to kill a game. You'll know within ten moves whether you're finally on to a good game. A good game is "slippery." You click AutoMove and seven or eight cards whip up to the foundations like magic. Lots of aces appear, you're moving cards here, you're moving cards there, sequences grow like magic, every card has a place to go, and lo and behold, an empty column appears with 50 cards to go. Slippery! Your pulse quickens, your stomach flips, you begin to imagine the impossible: an Interchange win. Whoopee! But if a game isn't slippery, if you haven't placed all the aces by the time you've sent 25 cards to the waste pile, then forget it, you ain't gonna win this one. Be strong, samurai grasshopper. Kill this game and move on to the next one. Keep to The Way.
   
   

The Dao of Interchange                  Page 1  2  3