Mosquito Blog

Card Game: Tractor, or 升級 (Raise the Level)

2007-08-04 07:45:14

Last week, I learned to play a fun card game that has been around for a number of years, called 升級 in Chinese ("Raise-the-Level"), aka Tractor. I mistakenly thought it was "Raise-the-Flag", which turned out not to be so bad a misnomer. The game looks like a creative twist of Bridge, so basic play strategies from Bridge (or Hearts or Spade) apply here. I do not know the origin of the game, but credit goes to that person or group of persons, as well as my friends who introduced the game to me. My regurgitation of the game rules appear here for future reference and whoever wishes to learn it. Thanks to Deborah, Karl, and Jun for their patience in explaining some of the game nuances to me.

Objective

This is a great game for leisure time with friends, so there's no strict winning objective, except to kill time. If one must set an objective, it is to Win with the highest Level at game's end. Players can agree on end-of-game in a number of ways, including by clock time, round limit, or level target (e.g., Level 5, or 5 AM...).

Prerequisite Setup

Player composition

Game is best played by 4 to 6 players. It can't be played with less than 4, and more than 6 makes the game way too complex to be fun (in this author's opinion). The game is played with two teams, an offense and a defense, whose roles change dynamically throughout the game. With even number of players (4 or 6), the teams can be evenly split, and must seat in alternate positions. With 5 players, the offense team is formed ad hoc at bidding time by the initiator (defined below) and another player, and the rest comprise the defense team.

Card Setup

Use two decks of playing cards with both jokers, totaling 108 cards. At the start of each round, someone shuffles the cards, cuts the deck once, and sets aside a number of cards face-down (the hidden stack) from the bottom of the deck (rationale: the hidden stack comes from leftover cards after distributing the hands evenly):

The deck is then fanned out face-down for round-robin draw by all players. For more fluid play, players should organize cards-in-hand as they are drawn. The deck should distribute evenly.

Game Concepts

Basics

A game lasts several rounds, depending on end-of-game, and each round consists of many plays, until all hands are empty (i.e., all 108-<hidden> cards exhausted). The first round of the game starts at the base Level, 2, and also establishes the order of deal and attack (more on this later). A play proceeds with each player choosing one card from his/her hand and placing it face up on the table, in a clockwise order (more on this in the Game Play section). The initiator is the player who starts the card drawing, gets to swap cards against the "hidden stack" (explained in its own subsection below), and initiates the first play of the round. The players of the team that includes the initiator comprise the offense team, while the other players comprise the defense team. In each round, the offense team attempts to raise its level number while the defense team defends against the attempt.

Trump conveys the idea of overriding or winning. A card from the trump suit (a.k.a trump card) wins over cards from the other three suits. If multiple trump cards are played, the ranking of the card determines the winner. The ranking of the cards, from highest to lowest, are ordered as follows:

• Major Joker (JM), Minor Joker (Jm), L of trump suit (L<T>), L of other suits (L<O>), Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, ..., 2 (not LT).

For instance, if the trump suit is Spade (S), and the Level is 2, then the trump-suit and other-suit rankings are:

• Trump suit: JM, Jm, 2S, 2<O>, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3
  Other suits: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3

In other words, at Level 2 with Spade as trump suit, the 2 of Club, 2 of Heart, and 2 of Diamond are all considered to be part of the Spade suit, but one rank below the 2 of Spade and one rank above Ace. For another instance, if the trump suit in the next round turns out to be Heart (H) and the level is raised to 3, then the trump-suit and other-suit rankings are:

• Trump suit: JM, Jm, 3H, 3<O>, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2
  

  • (3<O>: 3 of Spade, 3 of Diamond, 3 of Club)

  Other suits: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2

Since two decks are used, every card comes in doubles, so a double is simply two of the same cards. Doubles of two or more consecutive cards form a tractor, e.g., A-A-K-K of Spade or A-A-K-K-Q-Q of Heart. Two cards are consecutive if they are immediately adjacent in rank as described above. As examples, at Level 2, JM and Jm are consecutive, so are Jm and 2<T>, as well as 2<O> and A; however, 2<T> and A are NOT consecutive, nor are K and J. Strategically, a tractor is a powerful play that can draw out many cards of the same suit. The only way to trump a tractor is with a higher tractor in the same suit, or a tractor in the trump suit.

Winning a Play

A play is won by the player whose card ranks highest compared to the other cards in the play. If some cards are in the trump suit and others are not, then the highest ranking card of the trump suit wins. If two players play the same card (e.g., 2 of Spade), then the first card played is higher. If a play began with a double, then only a higher double from the same suit, or any double from the trump suit, can win the play. If a play begins with a tractor, then only a higher tractor from the same suit, or a tractor from the trump suit, can win the play.

Bidding

In the beginning of each round, as cards are drawn, the players engage in the bidding phase, where they try to call the suit in which they each believe is his/her strongest. The suit-of-bid determines the trump suit. An override bid can be done only with a double. Double JM and Jm can also be used to call a trump suit, in which case a 5^th suit, consisting of JM, Jm, and all eight of the level cards, becomes the trump suit. [Rule variant: The override is usually done before the initiator swaps cards against the hidden stack, but players may decide to require the override after swap to make for a more challenging game. In the latter case, such an override action is sadistically referred to as 挖祖墳 (exhuming his/her ancestor's grave).]

Card Value and Score

The cards have a total value of 200 points, consisting of the 5s as five points, and the 10s and Kings as ten points. No other cards have a point value. Each team accumulates a score based on the value of cards won during the plays. For a team to advance its level number, the accompanied table shows the minimum score required, depending on whether the team is offense or defense. Practically, level advancement is determined solely by the score of the defense team.

[* Rule variant: The team that gets the full 200 points could be rewarded with a greater level advancement, such as 4 or 5.]

Hidden Stack

The hidden stack has a special purpose. At the beginning of the round, the initiator has the privilege of swapping out the same number of cards from her hand to affect game play as well as the chance of winning. At the end of the round, any point value in the hidden stack are worth double and goes to the team of the player who wins the final play.

Game Play

Initial round

In the initial round, all players start at Level 2.

1. Prepare cards -- shuffle, cut, hide, and fan.
2. Starting with a random player, each player draws one card at a time clockwise, and continue drawing until the deck is empty.

3. At anytime during the card drawing, a player can bid the trump suit with a level card. Valid bids at Level 2 are a single 2 of Spade/Club/Heart/Diamond. After the deck is empty, any player can then make an override bid, which is a double 2 of a suit. The winning bid determines the initiator as well as the trump suit, which all players should remember.

4. The initiator should restore the bid card to his/her hand, and prepare to swap cards-in-hand against the hidden stack.

After these steps, the game play for the round begins. [Rule variant: see the subsection on "Bidding" for variant rule on override-bidding.]

1. The initiator makes his/her first play from hand (see "Advanced Play" subsection for a 3-card play).
2. Then the play proceeds clockwise until all players have played card(s) once. The winner is the one who play ranks highest as explained before, and s/he gets to start the next play.
   • By convention, if any member of the offense team wins the play, then the cards are left in the center discard pile.
   • However, if any member of the defense team wins the play, then defense should set aside the point cards (5, 10, K) from that play to track the defense score.
3. Play proceeds in this manner until the last play, when everyone has put down his/her final card(s).

4. If the defense team wins the final hand, the player who wins the hand should check the hidden stack for point cards; any point value in the hidden stack counts double toward that player's team. If the final win is achieved with a double-pair, then the points count 4x!

5. Finally, tally the score of the defense team, and determine whether any level advancement occurs. Each team (individual if odd-numbered players) should track its own level number.

Follow-on rounds

In successive rounds, the initiator is no longer picked randomly nor by a bid win. Two cases are possible:

1. If the offense team won the previous round, then the clockwise-successive player becomes the new initiator for the following round.
2. If the defense team won the previous round, then counting in the clockwise order, the first defense-team player following the previous initiator becomes the new initiator for the following round.

All players still engage in the bidding phase at the beginning of the round in order to determine the trump suit. Once the trump suit is determined, the initiator gets to swap cards with the hidden stack and begin the round play.

Five Player Games

With five players, the game is a bit more complex because the offense and defense teams are not fixed a priori. The preparation for the game is the same as described before. However, after the bidding phase and the swap against the hidden stack, but before the first play, the initiator must call a card to identify the ad hoc partner. Since there are duplicates, the initiator should specify "the first," "the second," or "the other" (in the case where the initiator has one of the two called cards) appearance of the called card. For example, if the initiator wants to pair up with whoever plays the first Ace of Space, then she would call precisely that, "the first Ace of Spade," etc.

The person who possesses the called card (e.g., first Ace of Spade) should not reveal him- or herself just yet. This revelation step occurs as soon as the ad hoc partner plays the called card. Oftentimes, the partner may not know that s/he is the partner until the cards are played out.

When the offense team, composed of the initiator and the ad hoc partner, wins the round with a level raise, then both individuals raise their levels by the same delta, and the ad hoc partner becomes the next initiator. This method of choosing the next initiator continues for as long as the same offense continues to win. If the offense team fails, then the three players on defense are eligible to become the new initiator. If these three players all have different level number (e.g., 4, 5, and 6), then all three number cards can be used to bid the trump suit. The number that wins the trump suit bid determines the player that would become the new initiator. In the case where multiple players from the defense team have the same number (e.g., 3, 3, 5), and that number wins the trump suit bid, then the player with the winning level number that's clockwise-next to the previous initiator becomes the new initiator.

Advanced Play

The following telescoped 3-card play is allowed: When a player has A-A-K or A-K-K of the same non-trump suit and s/he is initiating the play, she can most probably win both plays in succession (a play using A [or A-A] followed immediately by a play using K-K [or K]). In such a case, the player may opt to telescope the two plays by playing all three cards at once. Note, however, that it is still possible for an opposing player to beat such a play, for example, if that opposing player has no card of the played suit and has a pair of the trump suit. In such a rare event, the initiating player must un-telescope the play as two separate plays.

Bliki Setup Complete!

2007.07.10

Sister prompted me to set up a blog software on the server. Since I've started using MoinMoinWiki, I decided to figure out how easy it would be to integrate blog support into MoinMoinWiki, a blend variously referred to as blog-wiki, bwiki, or bliki. If it doesn't work out, I would consider using Serendipity, just as George has done.

Searching the MoinMoinWiki website yielded a Blog.py macro, which is a JavaScript-based macro that displays a calendar for navigating blog entries. Unfortunately, the original authors of this macro have moved on to other things, and this macro was not being maintained. There were strange bugs with it, so I decided to attempt another macro that would support Blogs. This macro would essentially generate a Blogs front page, listing the most recent N entries, and showing the remaining entries in the archive collection. It would also provide a simple edit form to create new blog entries. Since I've not written Python in a long time, and I've never created a MoinMoinWiki plugin, I used Blog.py as a starting point. After about a day's worth of work, a Bliki.py macro is born! It takes two optional arguments, the first to specify the end-date for the Blog, and the second to specify the number of most recent entries to show.

Both my sister's Gourmet Scientist Blog and mine now use this Bliki Macro. There are a few additional features that would be nice to have, including a calendar for easier blog creation and archive listing by category. If you're interested in using it, you may download the attached file.

Thoughts on Credit Worthiness and Credit History

2007.07.08

A friend of mine asked me how come a credit card company would deny her request to increase credit line on a new account when, to her, she has had good history (6-7 yrs) and has a pretty good income right now. Should she be worried about identity theft? These are pretty good questions, and I have some thoughts on them. Just to be clear, I'm not a credit company employee of affiliate, but someone who's extracted some lessons from his experiences managing his own credit accounts.

Credit Worthiness

First off, credit line increase. From my understanding, credit companies usually evaluate one's credit worthiness based on a few important things, which can be roughly reduced to:

1. Has applicant paid and to what extent?
2. Can applicant pay and to what extent?

The first question is answered almost completely by the applicant's credit history (I say almost because credit history can never capture the full truth about one's history, but it suffices in most cases). The second question is answered by a couple of the standard questions on the credit application form:

• current employment
• current household income

It's possible that credit companies also use credit scores, but a good company wouldn't simply base their decisions on the scores, and would instead look at the credit history for what it's worth. (Credit score is most likely used in initial screenings when a company sends credit offers.) Using these information, the credit company decides the following for the applicant's credit account:

• credit limit: how much one can spend on that credit account

• annual percentage rate (APR): how much interest accrues when credit is owed past the grace period (usu. 25 days)

Thus, once a credit company has issued the applicant a credit card, it is unlikely that the company would increase the limit, unless new, positive information on credit-worthiness comes to light. This doesn't mean that hope is lost, as most credit companies will reevaluate one's account every six months to determine if the credit limit (and/or sometimes the APR) should be adjusted.

If the initial credit limit seems low, one might wonder, what made a difference? I don't purport to understand the complicated set of factors nor the complex decision process. However, I know that the following heuristics make a difference:

• A solid, long credit history

  • Solid means virtually _no_ late payments, and definitely no 30+ day past due; solid also means not just paying the minimum each month, as payment shows both your commitment as well as your paying power

  • 5 yrs is considered short, 7 is good, but the "average" length is usually considered, so if one has had a few accounts for 10 yrs, and an account recently opened, then the average credit length falls below 5 yrs
  • If the length of history is not long enough, then a credit company can opt to start low, and dramatically increase the limit when it evaluates the account the next time
• The ratio of total credit open to annual household income needs to be low
  • Look at home mortgage as an example; banks are willing to lend comfortably up to 85%; but this is lending against collateral, whereas a credit line is issued without collateral, so current and future income becomes a critical factor
  • If 85% debt is the limit for collateral lending, then one should expect to find far lower ratio for non-collateral lending, perhaps as low as 10% and not more than 33% (credit-to-income); i.e., if one's annual income is $30K and renting, then that person might easily get up to 3K of total credit (i.e., across credit cards), and should not expect to get total credit lines beyond 10K

Credit History

Regardless of one's principles and opinions about the use of credit, credit history is a fact of life, with strong potential impact on many important things in life, from house and car purchase to job employment. Add to that an increased risk of identity theft these days, I believe everyone should have some knowledge about the state of their credit history. The Fair Credit Act has made this somewhat low-cost, but the details of it can be tedious. Facts:

• There are 3 credit bureaus, which are variously used by credit companies.
  • I have found that Experian gets used a great deal

  • One should monitor records from all three bureaus

• Credit reports can be obtained for free, from http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ :

  AnnualCreditReport.com provides consumers with the secure means to request and obtain a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).

  • One does have to provide large amount of personal data, but this is used to verify that "you are who you say you are"
  • Every time a credit application gets denied, the applicant is entitled to a free credit report from the same bureau with which the credit company inquired on your credit history

• Credit scores are not part of credit reports, and those usually require additional fee (~$10/score)

For someone who has had person data (e.g., SSN) stolen before, I would advise signing up for basic credit monitoring, and I recommend Citi Group's Identity Monitor service (http://identitymonitor.citi.com/). They've been very helpful to me so far. One could sign up with Identity Monitor through its website for $12.95/mo, or perhaps through special membership deals associated with one's credit card for a lower price (e.g., 9.99/mo).

Another time, I might blog about my experience dealing with a potential identity theft.

Choosing the New Seven Wonders

2007.06.26

My sister told me about the 2007 New7Wonders effort: to globally decide the new seven wonders of the world by vote. The effort makes sense, as six of the seven ancient wonders are now gone. This also gives the world an opportunity to voice a set of new wonders, as well as brings the global community together to appreciate diversity. It was amusing to see the Egyptians protesting to exclude the Pyramids of Giza, but I totally support keeping the special status of the Pyramids of Giza.

Voting appears to be an effective mechanism, though I have to confess a bit of reservation over subjectivity and information availability. Personally, I'm not quite sure how I would go about selecting my seven, but I can start with what little I already know and the basic info provided on the voting website. In the end, I hope it all works out. Here are the criteria I decided to use loosely to determine my seven:

1. historical significance
2. architectural impact

3. a wonder element, i.e., is there something to wonder about it, is there mysteries

4. symbolism and cultural presence

5. personal connection, this includes the extent to which I feel (via memory impression) that family and friends have felt connection

The last criterion will also be used as the tie-breaker for me. So, after loosely applying these criteria (if I had more time, I'd do a weighted score, but that seems an overkill...), here are my top 12 choices ('/' means definites):

• Stonehenge (3000 BC)

• / Acropolis of Athens (450 BC ~ 330 BC)
• / Great Wall of China (220 BC, 1368 ~ 1644 AD)
• / Petra (9 BC ~ 4 AD)
• / Roman Colosseum (70 ~ 82 AD)
• Hagia Sophia (532 ~ 537 AD)

• Pyramid at Chichén Itzá (< 800 AD)

• Timbuktu (12th c)

• Angkor (12th c)
• Alhambra (12th c)

• Macchu Picchu (1460 ~ 1470 AD)

• Taj Mahal (1630 AD)

I had a tough time letting go of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, because of their symbolism (liberty) and presence (western civ). However, in the end, those did not make the cut of a wonder to me. I also generally ruled out statues because I generally don't find them impressive enough as a wonder (the Christ Redeemer could be an exception given its location). Now, let's find reasons to eliminate items...

• The Stonehenge has been around for a long time, has its "wonders", but why didn't it make the cut for the original ancient wonders? ok, so this is silly reason for eliminating it... but I want to choose something not so old
• Macchu Picchu is located in impressive geography, and demonstrated a great nation, but there's not really much of a structure, so I can't really give it an architectural assessment.
• Timbuktu has a rich history, but... no impressive buildings besides the fact that it contributed to the first university, etc.

Final seven after some more thinking:

• Acropolis of Athens (450 BC ~ 330 BC)
• Great Wall of China (220 BC, 1368 ~ 1644 AD)
• Petra (9 BC ~ 4 AD)
• Roman Colosseum (70 ~ 82 AD)
• Hagia Sophia (532 ~ 537 AD)
• Angkor (12th c)
• Taj Mahal (1630 AD)

Astronomy: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

2004.04.27

Talk by Dr. Michael S. Turner, Apr 27, 2004 @ 1630

• Speculated universe composition
  • Matter 4%
    • Elements 0.2%
    • Star 0.5%
    • Diffused gas ~3.5%
    • Black holes 0.0001%
  • Dark matter 33%
  • Dark energy 66%
• Einstein's theory: shape of universe depends on its total mass
  • Cosmic microwave background
  • Based on Wilkinson Anioscopy Map data on microwave (WMAP)
    • We're at the Goldilock critical mass
• Evidence of Dark matter
  • Its evidence is that we feel its gravity

  • (Zwiki?: Spherical bastard is a colleague who, from any direction, is a bastard)

    • Zwiki studied clusters of galazy and determines that the galaxies are held together by gravity, and so is a cluster, but the total gravitational field computed misses by a factor of 100.
  • Comes from the dark blotches in the WMAP
  • Dark matter/energy can be "visualized" by graphing the mass distribution from gravitational lensing
  • Vera Rubin observed rotation velocity of stars in galaxies, and found that the velocity remains fairly constant, even far out of the visible range of the galaxy...
    • A galaxy is immersed in dark matter, at a ratio of about 100 l-yr of galaxy in 1 Ml-yr of dark matter
• What IS dark matter?
  • There's not enough ordinary matter (only 4% of critical mass)
  • There's 33% of dark matter to account for...
  • Moose Diagram of Dark Matter candidates
    • Axional
    • Neutrino
      • May make up the same amount of mass as stars
    • Neutralino
      • Heavy neutrino
      • Could be the bulk of dark matter in universe
      • Weighs about 100 times of proton
      • Most wanted particle... a super-particle that is in a new family of super particles.
    • Baryon
    • (Unifying theory predicts new particles?)
• What is dark energy?
  • Quantum mechanically: nothing is not nothing (particle and anti-particle pair popping out and living on borrowed energy and borrowed time)
  • Nothing weighs something
  • The gravity of nothing is repulsive, by just about the right amount... 10^55... so we can't really calculate how repulsive it is
    • Einstein's theory embeds in it a fact that, sometimes, gravity may be repulsive
  • Speculation
    • It could be that nothing weighs something, and that's what's causing universe to speed up
    • If nothing really weighs nothing, then it could be a network of topological defect (elastic strings)
    • OR! We just don't know how gravity works! A new gravitational physics.
      • Maybe: "EMPTY" universe undergoes accelerated expansion.
      • If there's dark energy, then all kinds of possibilities exist, including stabilization (in critical mass universe) followed by continued expansion, restabilize, recollapse, or lead to "big rip."
• Notable quotes:
  • Eddington: "Experiment result should not be accepted until confirmed by theory."
• Some questions:
  • How is dark energy related to anti-matter?
    • It seems that they are not the same "thing", because Dr. Turner brought up one possible explanation of dark energy to be the energy of "empty space" as suggested by findings of the quantum phenomenon of particle-anti-particle pairs popping out and going away on borrowed energy and borrowed time.
  • Is dark energy one more step toward showing a connection between science and God?

--2004-04-27 15:42:00

Good work!

Hey Owen, wow, I'm sure glad one of us took notes. I had already forgotten half of that stuff. Tell me, is the math still wrong for the percentages of mass(4% + 33% 66% > 100%)-or am I missing something? I know you asked him that same question... Well, I probably should have had the guts to ask The Big Question. --Sean 2004-04-27 19:55:00