Subject: "Winnable Challenge" thread revived?

Date: Thu May 12 14:40:44 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
made it to 320k...so close to 1st, then blew it on a 10x1...thought i was in cleanup mode and turned out not to be the case!

Date: Thu May 12 16:21:35 2016
User: free@last
Message:
That is quite amazing, CS. I can't even reach 100k!

Date: Thu May 12 19:37:14 2016
User: TNmountainman
Message:
CubicSprock Message: made it to 320k...so close to 1st, then blew it on a 10x1...thought i was in cleanup mode and turned out not to be the case! Uh....that's quite a score for someone with a goal of 100,000. And you quite probably/possibly *were* number 1 without you-know-what.

Date: Fri May 13 04:22:22 2016
User: Goosey_Goosey_Gander
Message:
Well done TN. I am working my winnables streaks up WITHOUT using cards but have a long way to go.

Date: Fri May 13 05:45:12 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
well I put in a nice hour taking some 10x1's to school and have my streak back up to 55...so back to 326k, just shy of catching wasjun for 1st

Date: Fri May 13 08:40:04 2016
User: Goosey_Goosey_Gander
Message:
I am only at 26.8 but enjoying the challenge of playing only with my head and getting to be a better player for it.

Date: Fri May 13 13:08:18 2016
User: free@last
Message:
I think CS is shooting for 1,000,000 which requires a minimum avg. streak of about 51.

Date: Fri May 13 13:55:46 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
woot, 1st place, 352k :-) One million is a lofty goal, but I have thought about it. Probably something like this would be what I'd go for. Streaks of 80 in 10x1, 9x2, 8x3 Streak of 50 in 7x4 Streak of 45 in 6x5, 5x8 Streak of 20 in 4x10 I know these are achievable as I've done them or better in the regular variants (save 9x2 and 10x1, but for those 2 my best streaks ended due to unwinnables not user error). Getting them all at the same time will of course be the biggest challenge...which is why I hesitate to play the 4x10...it really isn't at all enjoyable for me due to the tedium of having to hover over cards in order to see their suit.

Date: Fri May 13 14:02:55 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:

	10x1	9x2	8x3	7x4	6x5	5x8	4x10	Total	Tot %	Player
1	7.6	7.5	7.5	5.7	5.7	5.8	4.4	352,249.4	100	CubicSprock
2	8.5	6.6	8.2	4.0	6.4	5.1	5.7	344,231.4	97.724	wasjun
3	5.5	7.3	9.5	6.8	4.9	5.7	2.2	158,988.0	45.135	TitanicTony
4	6.6	6.2	6.3	5.4	3.5	4.5	3.6	77,906.3	22.117	WRAC
5	5.3	5.7	3.2	4.9	4.4	4.8	4.7	45,468.6	12.908	ElGuapo
6	3.9	4.8	4.1	5.0	3.2	5.6	4.1	27,797.7	7.891	free@last
7	4.8	5.0	5.8	4.5	1.0	3.5	4.2	9,190.0	2.609	Goosey_Goosey_Gander
8	2.2	6.5	5.5	3.0	3.2	3.3	3.0	7,492.2	2.127	TNmountainman
9	3.5	3.5	4.1	2.4	2.2	2.4	1.7	1,149.7	0.326	Dokmokm
10	4.0	5.1	2.4	2.4	2.4	1.0	1.0	299.8	0.085	pretense
11	1.0	1.0	2.4	3.3	3.3	3.3	3.3	296.4	0.084	Mastermind
12	2.2	2.0	2.8	2.6	1.0	1.0	1.0	33.5	0.010	nosEmarie
13	2.2	2.0	2.8	2.6	1.0	1.0	1.0	33.5	0.010	nosEmariE
14	3.9	2.8	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	2.6	29.0	0.008	dcn21
15	1.0	1.0	5.0	5.1	1.0	1.0	1.0	25.5	0.007	Serphina
16	1.0	1.0	3.0	3.5	1.0	1.0	2.2	23.2	0.007	HillarySellout
17	1.0	1.0	5.3	3.3	1.0	1.0	1.0	17.5	0.005	Darkosi
18	4.4	3.6	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	15.7	0.004	JackK2016
19	1.0	1.0	1.0	2.2	1.7	2.0	2.0	15.5	0.004	Longstroke10
20	4.7	2.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	9.4	0.003	FairyGrandma
21	1.0	1.0	1.0	2.4	1.0	3.6	1.0	8.8	0.003	CrookedClinton
22	1.0	7.4	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	7.4	0.002	gilbertgame27171
23	4.7	1.4	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	6.6	0.002	MrBarron
24	2.6	1.7	1.4	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	6.5	0.002	skipperocky
25	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.7	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.7	0.002	Belle

Date: Fri May 13 16:40:58 2016
User: Goosey_Goosey_Gander
Message:
Why hover over cards? I don't have to, only the aces suits are hidden and I quickly determine what they are. I blow up the screen big for 4x10 for sure.

Date: Tue May 17 15:10:38 2016
User: free@last
Message:
WRAC joins the 100k club!

	10x1	9x2	8x3	7x4	6x5	5x8	4x10	Total	Tot %	Player
1	8.7	6.6	8.3	4.1	6.4	5.1	5.7	369,012.9	100	wasjun
2	7.6	7.6	7.5	5.7	5.7	5.8	4.4	364,042.6	98.653	CubicSprock
3	5.5	7.3	9.5	6.8	5.0	5.7	2.8	205,252.6	55.622	TitanicTony
4	6.6	7.4	5.8	5.4	3.6	5.0	3.6	100,406.0	27.209	WRAC
5	5.3	5.7	3.9	5.0	4.5	4.8	3.6	44,825.0	12.147	ElGuapo
6	4.6	4.8	4.1	5.0	3.2	5.6	4.1	32,890.7	8.913	free@last
7	4.0	4.0	4.6	3.0	2.8	3.0	2.0	3,732.9	1.012	Dokmokm
8	2.2	6.6	5.7	3.2	1.0	3.6	3.0	2,837.2	0.769	TNmountainman
9	2.8	5.3	5.9	2.0	1.4	3.7	1.0	937.1	0.254	Goosey_Goosey_Gander
10	4.0	5.1	2.4	1.0	2.4	1.0	1.0	122.4	0.033	pretense

Date: Tue May 17 20:11:26 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Thanks for the shout-out. I've been sitting on it for a few hours, knowing I'm just one loss away from a major tumble. :-)

Date: Wed May 18 10:17:41 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
WRAC wrote, "I'm just one loss away from a major tumble. :-)" Yup, you are ahead of me now. :-) One loss each from wasjun and TT and you'll be in 1st!

Date: Thu May 19 06:54:38 2016
User: TitanicTony
Message:
Yep, "just one loss away", and it almost happened yesterday: Congratulations! You Win Game #: 9x2 31618 Game stats: 46/1/2.17% Difficulty: 10 (Elapsed: 5:31, BIG lol!) Streak: 67 Today: 15

Date: Thu May 19 10:28:20 2016
User: TitanicTonys_deckofcards
Message:
My backs are still sore from that one!

Date: Sat May 21 18:19:55 2016
User: Dokmokm
Message:
Just looking at today and the havoc on the 10 x 1 games, including myself, are Saturdays generally harder than other days of the week, or did a number of us just come up against a number of difficult games.

Date: Wed May 25 17:00:06 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
free@last, love your spreadsheet! I'm wondering if you could add a column for highest score yet attained. For example, right now Sprock is around 84,000... which will quickly bounce back into 6 digits once he gets his next 9x2 streak going. Anyway, I know he got close to wasjun before crashing, but I don't know if he passed her/him. So... if you could add this, it would be awesome!

Date: Thu May 26 10:02:25 2016
User: free@last
Message:
That would be awesome but I don't think possible. If someone hits a milestone, my advice is copy/paste it here.

Date: Thu May 26 10:38:45 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
I realize the spreadsheet doesn't update after every win (or loss), but what if you inserted a column C, initially set to column B, and then reset to column B if (column B > column C) but otherwise left unchanged. This wouldn't guarantee getting the highest score, but at least it would be the highest seen score. What do you think?

Date: Thu May 26 13:59:07 2016
User: free@last
Message:
Hmmm. I think that could work for a fixed set of usernames. Let me look into it.

Date: Thu May 26 14:13:31 2016
User: free@last
Message:
Nope. -------------------- Error Circular dependency detected. -------------------- Feel free to copy the spreadsheet (I think It is copyable) and experiment. :)

Date: Thu May 26 14:14:36 2016
User: free@last
Message:
Meanwhile, the current state...

	10x1	9x2	8x3	7x4	6x5	5x8	4x10	Total	Tot %	Player
1	8.8	6.7	8.3	4.1	6.5	5.2	5.8	398,426.8	100	wasjun
2	5.6	8.2	10.2	6.9	5.0	5.7	3.5	319,387.9	80.162	TitanicTony
3	7.0	7.0	6.1	5.5	3.6	5.0	3.7	110,119.3	27.639	WRAC
4	6.2	5.3	4.7	5.2	4.0	5.7	4.2	76,319.5	19.155	free@last
5	3.3	5.7	5.6	5.0	4.5	5.1	4.6	55,426.2	13.911	ElGuapo
6	8.1	1.4	1.0	6.4	6.4	5.9	4.5	12,368.1	3.104	CubicSprock
7	3.9	3.5	2.4	2.4	3.0	4.5	3.0	3,240.0	0.813	Goosey_Goosey_Gander
8	2.6	4.9	5.3	3.9	3.6	1.0	3.0	2,873.2	0.721	Dokmokm
9	1.0	4.8	6.0	3.6	1.0	4.0	3.6	1,496.3	0.376	TNmountainman
10	2.0	1.7	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.4	1.7	67.9	0.017	rws33315
11	3.3	3.3	2.4	1.0	2.4	1.0	1.0	66.0	0.017	pretense
12	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.7	2.2	3.9	2.8	42.4	0.011	snoverdavid
13	5.0	4.9	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	24.5	0.006	JackK2016
14	1.0	1.0	5.4	3.7	1.0	1.0	1.0	20.1	0.005	Isabella
15	1.0	1.0	1.4	2.4	2.0	2.2	1.0	15.5	0.004	Longstroke10
16	4.8	2.6	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	12.7	0.003	FairyGrandma
17	9.5	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	9.5	0.002	Klepp
18	1.0	8.4	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	8.4	0.002	gilbertgame27171
19	1.4	4.7	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	6.6	0.002	Punster
20	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.8	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.8	0.001	Belle
21	1.0	5.5	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.5	0.001	slofstra
22	5.4	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.4	0.001	T1-T3
23	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.2	1.0	1.0	1.0	5.2	0.001	Serphina
24	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	4.6	4.6	0.001	Mastermind
25	4.6	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	4.6	0.001	Rubsh69

5/26/2016 14:14:00

Date: Fri May 27 20:10:01 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Hmm. The circular dependency sounds fatal. It suggests you need a cell that's either a value or a formula, depending on whether you're reading it or updating it. Oh well, I'll play with it if I get motivated, but I'm no expert. Anyway, it's still a great spreadsheet!

Date: Sat May 28 09:04:02 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Congratulations to CubicSprock on a new daily high of 109 in winnable 8x3, smashing the old record by 30 games!

Link: Past Daily Winnable 8x3

Date: Sat May 28 16:02:09 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
Thanks WRAC. Beat the winnable record by a good bit, but felt I needed to beat the regular 8x3 record of 97 to make it really mean anything :-)

Date: Sun May 29 14:18:54 2016
User: free@last
Message:
That was tough.

	10x1	9x2	8x3	7x4	6x5	5x8	4x10	Total	Tot %	Player
1	8.8	6.7	8.4	4.2	6.6	5.3	5.8	425,492.1	100	wasjun
2	5.7	8.3	10.2	6.9	5.1	5.7	3.7	365,640.9	85.934	TitanicTony
3	8.2	3.3	10.5	6.4	6.8	5.9	4.5	328,636.0	77.237	CubicSprock
4	6.4	5.7	4.8	5.2	4.2	5.7	4.6	100,812.8	23.693	free@last
5	2.0	5.7	5.6	5.0	4.5	5.1	4.6	33,423.3	7.855	ElGuapo
6	7.1	1.4	6.5	5.6	3.7	4.7	3.9	24,770.0	5.822	WRAC
7	4.2	4.9	6.1	3.2	1.7	4.5	3.6	11,165.8	2.624	TNmountainman
8	2.0	3.7	3.2	3.0	1.0	4.8	3.5	1,179.4	0.277	Goosey_Goosey_Gander
9	3.0	1.7	5.5	4.1	3.9	1.0	1.0	454.5	0.107	Dokmokm
10	3.3	3.3	2.4	2.4	2.4	1.0	1.0	161.7	0.038	pretense

5/29/2016 14:16:00

Date: Sun May 29 15:00:49 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Welcome to the 100,000 club! (If I'm allowed to do that, having crashed out of it earlier today...)

Date: Sun May 29 15:35:32 2016
User: free@last
Message:
Thanks WRAC! I don't know how much more I've got in me but I'm certainly going to find out. :)

Date: Sun May 29 17:57:01 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Yeah, I don't know either. I got to 141,210.9 today, which I mention because I may well never see that number again. Then again, with luck, I might hit 200K, but I suspect wasjun and CubicSprock are out of my league. Tony plays by different rules (which is okay - he admits it), so I don't consider myself to be competing against him. Anyway, best of luck to you - maybe we'll do better than we think!

Date: Mon May 30 06:32:47 2016
User: TitanicTony
Message:
Hey WRAC: I don't just "admit it", I "advocate it"! I'm just tryin' to do my best, which means (and has always meant) "using tools" and "taking notes"!! I really don't get this (arrogant) "brains only" attitude!!! I realize that a lot of you guys are smarter than I am, and also that I'm no longer as smart as I used to be! If I'm careful, I think I can make it to half a million!

Date: Mon May 30 19:57:45 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
My apologies, Tony - "admit" was not a good word. It suggests I was accusing you of something, which I wasn't. We still play by different rules though. :-) Play on - maybe you can a make a million!

Date: Mon May 30 21:33:06 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
I well realize this is routine, everyday stuff for you serious streakers, but I never thought I'd stare at a game for over 15 minutes (probably longer, as the game timed out on me) before making a single move. Game #: 9x2 1175 Game stats: 131/7/5.34% Difficulty: 10 Elapsed: 18:34 Streak: 52 Today: 52 That was actually more satisfying than the vast majority of my tourney wins... although I doubt I have the patience to make a habit out of it. :-( It's a fun game if you enjoy the ones that appear unlikely to be winnable at first glance (and second, and third...) Thanks again to free@last for the spreadsheet that motivated me to do something like this. CubicSprock, please wait at least an hour before bringing me back to Earth by reporting you solved it first try in 1:37. Thanks, dude!

Date: Tue May 31 09:03:29 2016
User: free@last
Message:
I've had a couple like that, WRAC. The worst, though, is after the 15 minute stare, the grueling 5 minutes of play, the feeling of accomplishment as the "Win" pop-up displays, ready to Cut/Paste... Game stats: 131/131/100% Nevermind. <slinks away>

Date: Tue May 31 09:51:51 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
"CubicSprock, please wait at least an hour before bringing me back to Earth by reporting you solved it first try in 1:37. Thanks, dude!" Close! I should've timed myself and slowed down a little at the end :-) Game #: 9x2 1175 Game stats: 137/9/6.57% Difficulty: 10 Elapsed: 1:34 Streak: n/a Today: n/a

Date: Tue May 31 10:26:01 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
CubicSprock: Well, at least I'm not surprised! free@last: I've had that experience too. I'm finding that I'm slowing down as my streaks get longer, being more and more careful to ensure that I haven't miscalculated. This has the apparent effect of making the games seem harder than they otherwise would... at least to me.

Date: Tue May 31 13:14:26 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
@WRAC I didn't feel very confident going with my approach, and I certainly would have taken longer if I had a 50+ game streak on the line, but with nothing at risk, I really wanted to try and win it in 1:37 or under :-)

Date: Wed Jun 1 15:42:08 2016
User: TitanicTony
Message:
Congratulations to CubicSprock who is now on 547217.5!!!

Date: Wed Jun 1 22:50:58 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
thanks, got up to 672,920 before crashing my 7x4 streak.

Date: Thu Jun 2 08:51:04 2016
User: TitanicTony
Message:
Gee, bad luck CS! I guess that means that I'm (temporarily) back in 1st place! Still, that was a *fabulous* win in the WWC (w7x4) yesterday!!!

Date: Sun Jun 5 14:22:05 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:

	10x1	9x2	8x3	7x4	6x5	5x8	4x10	Total	Tot %	Player
1	8.5	6.4	11.2	8.0	7.3	6.2	4.6	1,010,341.0	100	CubicSprock
2	5.8	8.3	10.2	7.7	5.1	5.8	4.2	482,634.9	47.769	TitanicTony
3	9.0	6.8	8.4	4.2	6.6	5.3	5.9	444,788.9	44.024	wasjun
4	6.3	7.9	6.7	5.7	3.6	4.9	4.0	134,591.9	13.321	WRAC
5	4.6	6.0	6.3	3.6	4.6	5.2	4.7	70,027.0	6.931	ElGuapo

6/5/2016 14:21:00

Date: Sun Jun 5 14:48:45 2016
User: TitanicTony
Message:
That's FANTASTIC!! I'm still working on my first half-million, lol! Maybe by Christmas I might make a million???

Date: Sun Jun 5 15:14:09 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
This is - so far - the hardest game I've solved on my first try (without stumbling on to the correct path with an intuitive guess): Game #: 9x2 21222 Game stats: 1/1/100.00% Difficulty: 10 Elapsed: 23:02 Streak: 62 Today: 5 I've encountered tougher games in tournaments, but those took several to many tries. This one *might* even take CubicSprock multiple tries, although I wouldn't bet on it. This competition has been an enlightening experience, mainly revealing to me just how good CubicSprock is. Speaking of whom, congrats on a million! Remember, the first million is the hardest (at least computationally).

Date: Mon Jun 6 05:39:08 2016
User: Goosey_Goosey_Gander
Message:
Either you guys/gals are using some kind of help or you are much better players than I. Since I stopped using cards/notes or any kind of help other than my feeble brain I find it impossible to get any meaningful streaks going in the difficult 6 "winnable" variants. I congratulate myself when I win game after game that has a 20% or 30% win percent and then bang, a game pops up like this one: 6x5 winnable, level 5. #3216. 0/45. Zero wins in 45 tries.

Date: Mon Jun 6 08:44:27 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Yeah, I hear ya on 6x5. Assuming your streak isn't that long (and mine rarely is), I think it's more time efficient to lose games like this quickly and start over! As for 3216-5, I just dove right in (saving my limited brain power for streak games) and got it on the 4th attempt.

Link: 6x5 3216-5

Date: Mon Jun 6 14:20:05 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
In the original winnable challenge thread, free@last wrote: "When you bring up the webpage, it takes a few seconds for it to load all the data. I don't know how often it refreshes the data (and can't figure out how to force a refresh)." Refreshes are oddly timed, to say the least. If I haven't opened the sheet in a few hours, I'm almost guaranteed to get the latest data. Other times, I might have to wait as much as an hour. Have you tried this? https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/docs/_etGV4m2VeY (link copied here in case it's too long for the input box)

Link: auto update/refresh with IMPORTHTML

Date: Mon Jun 6 14:27:04 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Earlier today, I was within 4,000 best of my highest score when I crashed my 8x3 streak of 44. (CubicSprock obviously has nothing to fear from me.) 8x3 13661-9 I'm reluctant to look at it again in case I missed something obvious, but others are welcome to put me into my misery!

Link: 8x3 13661-9

Date: Mon Jun 6 14:56:59 2016
User: CubicSprock
Message:
I think you missed something obvious. Though it looks like you've almost gotten back to that streak length already. Game #: 8x3 13661 Game stats: 2/1/50.00% Difficulty: 9 Elapsed: 1:26 Streak: n/a Today: n/a

Date: Mon Jun 6 16:10:31 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Thanks, CS. I think I'll spare myself the agony of seeing just how obtuse I was...

Date: Mon Jun 6 16:53:46 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
A new personal high of 143,132.3! Looks VERY puny compared to CubicSprock. :-) |- | 10x1 | 9x2 | 8x3 | 7x4 | 6x5 | 5x8 | 4x10 | Total | Tot % | Player |- 1 | 8.7 | 6.6 | 11.2 | 8.1 | 7.3 | 6.2 | 4.6 | 1,056,929.9 | 100 | CubicSprock |- 2 | 5.8 | 8.3 | 10.2 | 7.7 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 4.4 | 498,238.4 | 47.140 | TitanicTony |- 3 | 9.0 | 6.8 | 8.4 | 4.2 | 6.6 | 5.3 | 5.9 | 447,954.7 | 42.383 | wasjun |- 4 | 6.4 | 8.0 | 6.8 | 5.7 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 4.1 | 143,132.3 | 13.542 | WRAC |- 5 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.3 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 5.2 | 4.7 | 70,027.0 | 6.626 | ElGuapo |- 6 | 6.7 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 4.7 | 20,844.9 | 1.972 | free@last |- 7 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 6.4 | 4.1 | 1.0 | 4.8 | 3.3 | 2,099.6 | 0.199 | TNmountainman |- 8 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1,333.1 | 0.126 | Dokmokm |- 9 | 5.9 | 5.7 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 929.5 | 0.088 | JackK2016 |- 10 | 2.8 | 4.2 | 2.8 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 475.2 | 0.045 | Goosey_Goosey_Gander

Date: Mon Jun 6 16:56:57 2016
User: WRAC
Message:
Oops! I see now I should have copied the opening and closing braces. Just to test...

	10x1	9x2	8x3	7x4	6x5	5x8	4x10	Total	Tot %	Player
1	8.7	6.6	11.2	8.1	7.3	6.2	4.6	1,056,929.9	100	CubicSprock
2	5.8	8.3	10.2	7.7	5.1	5.8	4.4	498,238.4	47.140	TitanicTony
3	9.0	6.8	8.4	4.2	6.6	5.3	5.9	447,954.7	42.383	wasjun
4	6.4	8.0	6.8	5.7	3.6	4.9	4.1	143,132.3	13.542	WRAC
5	4.6	6.0	6.3	3.6	4.6	5.2	4.7	70,027.0	6.626	ElGuapo

6/6/2016 16:55:01