I play a Chinese checker online. It is called 4guo that requires 4 persons to play with across-table players as partners (similar to Bridge). What I want to talk about today is not on how to play this game but a very interesting phenomenon.
According to my playing records, I have played 3366 games since 1999 (I know, it is a lot). Among those, I won 1666 games, lost 1471 games, and tied 229 games. What have trigered me is that my score has been hovering between 15 and 25. My current score is 18. The rule is that +1 for a win, -1 for a lose, and 0 for a tie. Occassionally if one gets disconnected, it awards -3. That is why my current score does not equal to 1666-1471.
Throughout the 3366 games, my scores have been between 15 to 25. Isn't that statistically hard to believe? I can't figure out why but I know I can't alone determine it. It also depends on my partner and my opponents.
Through years, I have gathered the following "rules" in choosing my partners and oppoents. Perhaps, because of these "rules", I have had such stable scores?
1. For partners, experience is better than score. Between two players, John and Tom, John has a score of 300 and Tom has a score of -10. But Tom has played more than 1000 games whereas John has only 50. I chose Tom. The reason is from deplete literature of learning. The more games played, the more experienced the player, and better the player plays. This is probably the first mistake I made.
2. For opponents, I chose them with balanced scores. For examples, if John and Tom are sitting against me. I will quit. Why? Because I believed there got to be a reason why John wanted to play with Tom due to so big difference in their scores. One of the reasons is that they are friends so they may collude or cheat. This is probably the 2nd mistake I made.
Do they make sense? Why can't I improve my score to over 25? Is this really a stable equilibrium? I find it as fascinating as the game itself.
Since early May I have been enjoying the best benefit of my profession - summer break. Looking at my calendar now, I have meetings filled up already for next week. I cann't deny it anymore although I claim I am still in denial that the summer is OVER!
4 months I have been staying at home. I had done a lot of work and had a lot of fun with my little boy.
Well, time to face the reality - I have to start working next week.
As much as I feel sorry about that, my wife said to me:"give me a break, you only need to teach on Wed. night".
Still, that is a lot of work, comparing with nothing in the summer!!