Subject: Second Wind

Date: Mon Dec 24 14:55:53 2018
User: Kaos
Message:
Is there a Freecell equivalent to a second wind in sports? Wikipedia has a nice definition of second wind where there is some type of transformation when what used to be hard seems to get easier. I've noticed this can happen in a Freakout, Threat, or the Masters, where there are some slate of hard games that seem to be eluding solution from everyone at the end of the tournament when all of a sudden someone bursts out of the pack and solves a number of them in a short period of time. I've been caught on the wrong end of this in many events. The usual culprit for me seems to be WRAC, getting what seems to be a second wind, but it can also be ValpoJim, kenwa, or ElGuapo (who just cruised by both WRAC and me in the Saturday Freakout). I'd wonder about calicokid also but he's usually so far in front of everyone early that it is hard to tell if he later slows down and then catches a second wind or just keeps solving away. I was on the good side of the second wind phenomenon back on the December 2nd Masters: https://www.freecell.net/f/c/tourgames.html?;199464 when I managed to solve games 19, 20, & 26 in a burst of just four or five attempts in total at the end when earlier attempts at those gamesall seemed to be going nowwhere. So, I'm curious to know if I'm just delusional or if other player notice the same thing can happen to them?

Link: Second wind definition at Wikipedia

Date: Mon Dec 24 16:25:25 2018
User: joeygray
Message:
I dunno about second wind per se... but I do notice (for me) that there's a short period maybe after winning a few games when I seem to be "seeing everything": I know where the troubles are and the best base plan for clearing them, or I see quickly there aren't any troubles, and I am just not making those suit mistakes or color mistakes. It's the zone. It never lasts. Either I have to go honeydo something else... or I notice I missed something I wasn't missing ten minutes ago (and hopefully before a fatal move has been made although is also annoying to have to dig out from a disaster of one's own making)... or I snooze off... Anyway, I wish I knew a way to keep the zone.

Date: Mon Dec 24 19:18:42 2018
User: kenwa
Message:
Well Kaos, in the Threat tourney, I have to say that I didn't have any wind at all - certainly not a second one! - Congrats on another fine win.

Date: Thu Dec 27 16:19:02 2018
User: WRAC
Message:
I don't think I have a second wind so much as I have a tendency to get stuck and spend way too much time on a single game (e.g., 8x3 28072-10 in the 12/23 Masters or 7x3 23387-9 in the 12/22 Freakout) after which I go back to solving games at my normal pace. Speaking of the 12/23 Masters, Kaos, great win - very impressive!

Date: Fri Dec 28 13:01:23 2018
User: ElGuapo
Message:
I certainly have days when I feel able to tackle Freakout-type games, and other days where I'm just not feeling it. I don't remember now how the 12/24 Freakout played out at the end, but it was fun playing with you guys.

Date: Tue Jan 8 05:23:05 2019
User: HopDiriDiriDattiriDittiriDom
Message:
It does happen when streaking as well. Today I was playing my regular 8x4 and won a game easily in 1:39 which appears to be not so easy according to the stats.

Link: screen shot

Date: Sat Jan 12 17:58:47 2019
User: calicokid
Message:
I don't think I experience second winds in tournaments very frequently. What usually happens in my case is I try to knock out the easy games in short order, and then only give the harder variants a cursory glance initially. As the tournament wears on, I give the harder games more attention, in hopes of getting them out of the way. That's why I usually get passed at the end in harder tournaments. The only time I think I have genuinely experienced a "second wind" is when I step away from a hard game, and come back after a couple of minutes and everything just falls into place. Almost like I gave my eyes a little break.

Date: Mon Mar 11 01:53:33 2019
User: Kaos
Message:
WRAC shot from 5th to 2nd in today's Master's in the last few minutes of the tournament: 3/10 7:54 pm 6x4 28963-6 Tournament 0:58 Won 3/10 7:53 pm 6x4 26185-8 Tournament 1:24 Won 3/10 7:51 pm 7x3 5562-10 Tournament 1:26 Won Solving the 7x3 after several attempts looks to be a springboard for WRAC to solve a couple of 6x4's in an extremely short period of time on his first attempt for each. For myself, solving 8x2 29606-7 (which had already been won by three others), kicked me into gear to solve 6x5 25506-8 and 7x3 32453-8 in just three total attempts: 3/10 7:47 pm 7x3 32453-8 Tournament 2:42 Won 3/10 7:45 pm 7x3 32453-8 Tournament 0:28 Lost 3/10 7:44 pm 7x3 24406-11 Tournament 0:46 Lost 3/10 7:43 pm 6x4 25506-8 Tournament 0:04 Lost 3/10 7:43 pm 6x5 25506-8 Tournament 2:36 Won 3/10 7:40 pm 8x2 7008-10 Tournament 0:38 Lost 3/10 7:40 pm 7x3 32453-8 Tournament 1:48 Lost 3/10 7:37 pm 8x2 29606-7 Tournament 3:13 Won At least for me, I can say solving one tough game at the end of a long tournament provides a strong kick for solving more.

Date: Mon Mar 11 08:04:05 2019
User: roo
Message:
Kaos, I presume you won on 2nd December 2018. That information removes one of the unknown Masters winners! Do you remember the full details - number of games and time? The discussion board is another place to look at, when time allows. Second wind - sort of, like others have mentioned above - when you stop banging your head for 20 minutes over some game that everyone else has won and get back to it later and solve it in 1:30!

Date: Thu Apr 4 19:00:20 2019
User: Dr.Bombay
Message:
Today's Spelunker and it is WRAC once again catching fire after trailing calicokid and me throughout the entire time: 4/4 4:18 pm 6x4 26277-6 Blind 1:32 Won 4/4 4:16 pm 7x3 4754-7 Blind 1:54 Won 4/4 4:14 pm 7x4 833-10 Blind 3:25 Won That's solving two tough games in a very short period of time.

Date: Thu Apr 4 19:19:25 2019
User: WRAC
Message:
Thanks for not mentioning my 8 failed attempts at 7x4 833-10 before solving it. Let's just keep that our little secret, shall we? Oh, and let's also not mention how you two have been clobbering me lately. Good, now that I'm enjoying the illusion of being better than I actually am, I must say that was one of the most interesting 7x4s I've ever played... although I'm sure neither of you would have had too much trouble with it on your better days.

Date: Thu Apr 4 21:58:38 2019
User: Dr.Bombay
Message:
I think there were at least a dozen ways to play that 7x4 but I kept cycling through the eleven ways that were dead ends. I’m sure if I would have figured it out the endorphin rush would have let me solve that 7x3 in a minute and change too😏

Date: Thu Aug 1 05:21:39 2019
User: HopDiriDiriDattiriDittiriDom
Message:
I was playing my first 7x4 winnables today. A 53% game took about my 5mins and then another %59 game only about 1min: 8/1 5:08 am 7x4 16746-5 Winnable 1:09 Won 8/1 5:06 am 7x4 27957-5 Winnable 5:06 Won 8/1 5:01 am 7x4 16767-5 Winnable 1:13 Won That cannot be that %6 difference that makes so much difference.