7354/19874
Free pass for most of today as the kids were off with their grandparents - I still had to negotiate the tricky early morning and bedtime and missing their mum, but had a good chunk of time to myself. My aching hip meant my plan for an 8km went out the window (or rather stayed inside the house) but I got to watch some telly and read some books and go to the supermarket (getting in and out of the car was the most painful part of the day). I played some UNO and have some advice for UNO players as a lot of you are making some dumb mistakes on the app. The only edge that you have in the game is to try and remember what colours other players are out of or likely out of, but the game moves at such a pace that that can be difficult, so I am only mildly pissed off when people change the colour to one that the person with one card left probably has or might even have. But people challenging the play of the plus four card (which you can challenge if you think the person playing it still has some cards of the previous colour) are way out of control. They seem to think, in general, that everyone who does that is trying to trick them, regardless of situation, when in fact it very rarely happens. If you can’t work out the likely times then you’re better off in the long run if you never challenge, but if everyone has plenty of cards then there’s no reason for anyone to play the plus four unless they need to. If someone is about to win and a plus four is played by someone with a lot of cards, then yeah, give it a challenge, especially if you’re the one with one card, but that’s about it. If someone has two cards left and plays a plus four, why the fuck would you challenge? They’re not going to play the plus four before just getting rid of the card of the same colour. And often if you’re paying attention, you’ll have seen them playing all the cards of the previous colour and if they’ve just played a 0 or a 1 then they’ve likely run out.
The worst one though is the people who challenge a plus four after someone has played it after picking up a card. What the fuck is wrong with you? If they had a playable card why would they pick up a card? In the hope of getting a plus four and then tricking you into thinking they didn’t have one? If they play a plus four after picking up a card, then in all reasonable scenarios they are not bluffing you. Accept your four cards you prick and stop taking another two. Though early in the game there might be an argument that having loads of cards can be an advantage, so maybe take 6 if you want to have a good selection to play from. I am just asking you to think a little bit about the logic of the situation. You’ll save yourself picking up a lot of cards. I have got pretty good at predicting when people will wrongly challenge.
Anyway, bit of a technical entry for those of you who don’t play the UNO app, though you should. But for the love of God play it properly. I don’t know why I want to tell idiots that they are playing wrong, because it makes it easier to win. It just amazes me that you can be playing and not have picked up that basic tactic.
I’m the real idiot though because I play it thinking there is enough skill involved to mean you can be victorious. It’s mainly the luck of which cards you get and your opponents get, but it’s still thrilling when you ride out a bad hand and somehow make it and there’s the odd chance to play your end cards with a bit of flair and skill. My favourite bit is trying to work out whether when playing a change colour card on you penultimate card that you change to a colour you need or if you reckon someone will change it. Occasionally you can wrong foot someone to play the colour you need. When that happens you will never have felt so alive,.
Let no one say I wasted my day off.
