DonOmite!

Amazing how the loonies all come out on the weekends to play cards in the Zone.

One of the defining characteristics of these people is they take everything personally.  You know the type, they lose their cool and threaten and cry when they are low and you hit them with the queen. “THAT JUST BOUGHT YOU A SLOW GAME!”  That is one of their cries. Then they stall. One loser was doing it even tho he was low still.  *shaking head*

Tonight I played 4 games with my low man.  I was down in the 1900′s and every game was the same.  People sliding against high, dumping on high, etc etc. Not just me. But that makes it very hard to win especially when the dealer goes for you also.  Out of 17 hold hands I took the queen 12 times.  That has to be the worst I’ve ever seen even for the zone.  I would get like the widow, or the married, or A/Q. 

Oh well. I went up higher and won 4 games to make up for the lower ranks.

Once again I am shaking my head at the nut jobs playing hearts online.  The stallers are always good for some fun if you have the time.  The other day I had a staller so I stalled too.  At one point nobody clicked on the “force player to play” button so we sat for almost 15 minutes waiting for me to play.

In the end the original staller gave up and left.  That is usually how it works out if you have the time to wait them out.  They can’t handle people who stall on them because they are no longer in control.  You are.  Of course by the time he left the other 2 had also left so it was me versus 3 bots.   I kicked butt of course.

That brings me to the real point here.  Want to really mess with somebody?  Quit while you are ahead of them.   This works in the MSN Zone.  Why?  Because a bot is ranked at 1600.   So if it beats them, which it will if you are winning and quit at the last second, they lose to a bot.   It is really damaging if you are lower than them too because the win over you gets them almost no points but that loss to the bot nails them big time.  Unless of course you are all less than 1600.

I have to wonder about people and the game of hearts.  For one thing, if you are playing in the MSN Zone or similar, there is no money on the game. So lighten up. Yeh yeh. I get a tad frustrated by the people who play so stupidly that you wonder if they are doing it on purpose.

Some of the top ways to lose at hearts:

1. Slide on high man when you are not low man – this is a total loser move. But it happens all the time. 2nd or 3rd will actually slide on high man. What does this gain them? Nothing except a loss.
2. Lead spades to low man – low man is to your right, and you keep leading spades. He gets rid of those pesky Ace and king or gets to dump the queen on somebody who has the A or K.
3. This should be #1.  Make it personal. Somebody plays stupid and you target them instead of low man.  You are never going to win if you don’t target low man.

Look, you are there to relax and have fun. Don’t get so tied in knots about the way others are playing. Are they stalling? Quit. Unless you have all the time in the world. Then you can wait them out. If you are playing for ranking, is the rank worth the aggravation? Nah. If you are any good you can make it up on another game.

Just remember, sometimes you are going to lose. The dealer has it out for you. Seriously. If you play in the Zone you know what I mean. Unless you are a crappy player who the Zone doesn’t have to target.