News about World of Card Games, the website for card players who love Spades, Hearts, Euchre, Gin Rummy, Double Deck Pinochle, Twenty-Nine, 3-5-8 (aka Sergeant Major), and Go Fish!
Get news about updates on Facebook, and Twitter.
Some Euchre players may be interested to know where they stand in their win/loss statistics at World of Card Games. If you don't want to know, stop reading now! ☺
In
September of 2015, I computed the win ratio for Euchre players who had
completed at least 100 games. I used the numbers that produce the
"Absolute win/loss ratio" shown under your "stats" link. Below you will
see the distribution of players by win percents. There's one player who has managed to attain a win
ratio of > 70%. There are 15 with win ratios between 60-70%... most players come in around
40-50%, which I still think is really very good (especially because that's where my stats stand!).
distribution of players by win percent
Personally,
I don't care about my statistics at all. Well, maybe a tiny bit,
because I do look at them once in a blue moon. But when I'm playing, it
is just for fun. This is what matters to me most.
There is some speculation about just how good you can get with your statistics; how much of Euchre is a matter of luck,
and how much is skill. Some people think the best you can do is
somewhere around 66%... and these statistics support that idea.
Registered players can now "replay" a hand of Euchre at World of Card Games!
At the end of each hand, you will see the image of a floppy disk appear next to your avatar. It looks like this:
replay Euchre hand history
When you click on that icon, a file will be downloaded to your computer. The file contains a link to the replayer at World of Card Games. When you paste that link into your browser address bar, you will be taken to the Euchre replayer at World of Card Games. With the click of a button, you are taken through every step of the hand, with all the cards shown.
A few weeks ago, I modified the Spades layout so that cards would be fanned more widely. I'd already done this for Hearts, at the request of a player who was having trouble playing cards using a stylus on a tablet.
After the change, several players wrote to tell me that they liked it better the previous way! Now you have a choice (in Hearts and Spades only): you can "Fan Cards Wider" or more compactly; it is up to you. The screenshots below demonstrate how to do this: Just uncheck "Fan Cards Wider" in the Settings panel. This panel appears when you click your user name in the upper right corner:
default card fanning
compact card fanning
In the screenshot, you see another new setting. You can now select which card games you want to see in the "list of tables". If you never play Go Fish, and don't want to see it in the list, just uncheck that box in the "List of tables" user setting.
Double Deck Pinochle was recently introduced at World of Card Games. Immediately, I got some reports of performance issues with the game when played on Internet Explorer! I believe I have fixed this. If you had trouble before, give it a try and let me know if you still have trouble.
I also got comments that the cards in DD Pinochle are usually sorted with the high cards to the right. I've changed the game accordingly. I hope it will not be too confusing to beginners who may have become accustomed to the old sort order!
Also for DD Pinochle: if you click the "Show Meld" button, you are now shown the total of your meld:
Show Meld view now displays total meld points
This should speed up the bidding process. Please remember that when clicking the "Show Meld" button, you are only shown melds in your hand that do not require a trump suit to be chosen. This means you will not see "royal marriages" or "runs". It would get confusing showing runs - what if you had a run in two different suits? It's the same for royal marriages.
I've made some elements of the "Meld View" larger. This is what you see once trump has been chosen. Here's an example:
Previously, all types of melds were listed to the left of the "mini-cards", even if you had none of those melds. Now, as you can see, meld types are shown only if you have them. For example, in the screenshot above, Guest #48 has 1 run, 1 clubs marriage, and 1 kings around. Aces around, etc., are not listed because she has none. Please let me know if you have any trouble with this new, larger format.
I've had a few players suggest that it would be nice if more than one private table name could be stored. For example, a player might have one private table name that they share with their family, and another with a group of friends. Wouldn't it be nice if they could see both private tables in the "list of tables"?
Now they can! Caveat: you must be registered for this feature to be available to you.
First, click the Options button to bring up your options settings, and click the "(more)" link next to your primary private table name:
more link
This brings up a new small panel. You can enter up to 4 different private table names here:
Up to four extra private table names allowed
In the example above, a player has selected private table names 'my family' and 'my friends' for Double Deck Pinochle. If they click directly on the Double Deck Pinochle game panel from the home page, they will go directly to the 'my family' table - because this is their "primary" private table name. But if they click on the "list of tables" link in the lower left corner, they will see any private tables with those two names:
You have some control over who you play with at World of Card Games.
If you are a Registered Player, you can choose to play with other Registered Players only by setting your table option that way. It works like this: Click the "Options" button for the game you are interested in playing - e.g. Hearts:
the Options button
Next, check the "Registered Players Only" checkbox. (You may be less selective, and click the "Exclude New Users" checkbox, too. That way you'll be choosing to play with people who have played a few games at the site - this often keeps out the riff-raff.)
Now you will be seated with Registered Players Only
You can fine-tune your preferences at the level of individual players, too.
Suppose you've found a player whose playing style you really like. You want to be able to remember them very easily, without keeping a huge list of names. In this case, I recommend "liking" them. Click the "like" icon which appears to their right:
How to "like" a player
Liked players always appear as a star in the "list of tables":
When you hover your mouse over the star in the list, you will see the person's name. You can manage your likes by clicking on your user name - you will see a list of liked players, and the date when you "liked" them.
You can also "dislike" a player. Suppose someone has been rude to you, or you dislike the way they play. In this case, click the red/white x icon to their left:
Doing this doesn't immediately kick the player from your table. However, once you leave the table, you will never be seated with them again. They will never show up in your "list of tables", either. It is as if they do not play at the site, from your perspective.
You can manage your "disliked player" list by clicking on your user name, shown in the upper right corner of the screen - scroll down to view your list of liked players, disliked players, and players whose chats are hidden:
Manage Likes and Dislikes list
Currently, you may "like" and "dislike" up to 500 players. If you find you reach the limit, you may want to drop a few older ones off the list. In particular, if you've disliked a lot of Guests, the older ones may no longer even come to the site, and there's no point in keeping them on your list.
As usual, there's a tutorial to get you started (click on the "Tutorial" button to the lower right of the Double Deck Pinochle panel on the main page). You might also want to read my Double Deck Pinochle page for beginners.
If you have not played this game before, you may want to play with robots first, to get comfortable before playing with real live humans.
I've tested the game quite a lot, but there could be bugs. If you try the game and find any problems, please let me know by sending an email to me - marya@worldofcardgames.com - or leave a comment here.
