Subject: Another, but new, manifestation of the dealer switching games on me

Date: Thu Jan 9 00:24:34 2014
User: TNmountainman
Message:
After a long (several hours) break in today's WWC (w6x5), I (as TNmountainmanMUDstains) came back to close out/give up on a game I left open this afternoon. As expected, I gave up quickly, and then tried to start a new run, as I still had time for another (potentially successful) attempt to try and recover the lead I had lost in the intervening time. So....I ran off a few quick games, but then noticed something funny about the "Congratulations" page. It said I had X number of games remaining to catch Mastermind. That shocked me, because I hadn't recalled seeing him above me in the list I had only several minutes earlier checked up on. Soooo......having been burned before, I looked, and sure enough, the dealer had switched games on me, from winnable 6x5 to regular 6x5. See the list and times (hope it formats intelligibly): 1/8 10:36 pm 6x5 6683-5 Winnable 4:31 Won 1/8 10:31 pm 6x5 9126-5 Streak 2:03 Won 1/8 10:29 pm 6x5 6630-5 Streak 3:16 Won 1/8 10:26 pm 6x5 17203-5 Streak 2:00 Won 1/8 10:23 pm 6x5 18666-5 Streak 3:09 Won 1/8 10:20 pm 6x5 30864-6 Winnable 6:07 Lost 1/8 11:36 am 6x5 25793-6 Winnable 6:29 Won So after completing and losing at 10:20, I immediately played and won the next game, but the dealer had bizarrely switched to dealing me regular deals. This is different and distinct from the phenomenon I've reported several times in which upon switching nicks, the dealer switches from winnable to regular, or vice versa. But I'd guess it stems from the same source. I don't want to come off sounding like Rob and Wendy, but it's an annoying little glitch there. I'm not expecting Denny to fix it - just noting it.

Date: Thu Jan 9 07:24:17 2014
User: hotnurse
Message:
I had a very similar experience this week. During the horrendous weather we had a couple of power losses, although they only lasted a minute or two. I was playing the Threat and had been dealt a tough 6x5. After one of the outages my power came back and I was prodding along, finally cracking the toughie...only to realize that my variant had switched to the regular 6x5 instead of the tournament variant...grrrr!!! Not really a biggie once you know to watch for it, but I don't remember this happening before.

Date: Thu Jan 9 09:58:11 2014
User: CubicSprock
Message:
This has been happening for as long as I can remember (10+ years). I've noticed it in tournaments many times.

Date: Thu Jan 9 11:20:16 2014
User: Denny
Message:
What exactly do you see, Cubic? Tournament are not winnable, right? Denny

Date: Thu Jan 9 13:29:19 2014
User: WRAC
Message:
I had the same problem hotnurse described for many years. Every time there was a Windows crash or Internet outage (far more common 10-15 years ago), I would be switched from tournament mode to streak mode when I restored my automatically saved game. (This caused me to quit a lot of 9x3s and such, lowering my winning percentage, not that I really cared.) The funny thing is, the problem stopped about 4 or 5 years ago. I thought Denny fixed it.

Date: Thu Jan 9 14:25:08 2014
User: CubicSprock
Message:
I've seen what WRAC described, when my connection crashed during a tournament game, when I logged back in I was now in streak mode. The current game counted appropriately for the tournament, but the mode had changed so next time I hit the play button a game came up in streak mode of whatever variant the last tournament game was played in. I just learned to always check the game mode box before starting a new game if I got kicked out for some reason. Disconnections (and my tournament play) have become so rare recently that I haven't noticed it in at least a few years.

Date: Thu Jan 9 14:58:27 2014
User: Denny
Message:
Ah, misunderstood. Thought is was the old winnable vs. normal bug. Yeah, I don't think I've ever attempted to maintain streak vs. tournament mode state. Denny

Date: Thu Jan 9 15:03:37 2014
User: CubicSprock
Message:
I think it is similar. When disconnected during a game, after reconnecting it always assumes you are in normal streak mode. This is whether you were in winnable, normal, custom, or tournament mode before the disconnect. I think the game that was in progress is logged appropriately, but I'm not positive on that for all winnable/normal.

Date: Thu Jan 9 15:04:40 2014
User: hotnurse
Message:
For me, it's not such a big deal since we aren't doing the ratings, but it is annoying when you are concentrating on a tough game, finally solve it and realize you ahve been switched to streak mode. Power outages are not that uncommon with my internet-dish-service and bad weather.

Date: Thu Jan 9 15:26:01 2014
User: BuzzClik
Message:
hottie -- Can you answer a question for me? It's a bit of a tangent, but I am curious about your dish-internet service. We have Directv, and they provide our internet access as DSL through an arrangement with Verizon. It is my only option, and it is painfully slow. (I was spoiled by Comcast in a previous location, and it was blazing!) What sort of speeds to do you get? Using the benchmark below, our "speed" is between 512K and 1M.

Link: PCPitstop bandwidth speed check

Date: Thu Jan 9 16:14:54 2014
User: hotnurse
Message:
Buzz, using the link you provided, this is what I got: Download 19.708 mbps, upload 2.35 mbps, ping/latency 791. It's fairly fast, but not as instantly as fiberoptic. The cost is $35./mo for the first year then $55./mo after. The only minor problem is when we have a heavy downpour or built up ice/snow on the dish we will be lose our connection. A few days ago we had to sweep the snow off with a broom...luckily our dish is only about 6" off the ground. It wasn't very long ago when we had dial-up; my brother called it my wood burning computer.

Date: Thu Jan 9 17:51:40 2014
User: BuzzClik
Message:
I am so jealous. sigh.