(As usual, please maximize your screen at this time.)

Editors Note: As many of you may have noticed, the value of Silverfox Industries has taken a nose-dive on the market recently.   This, of course, is due to the recent charge of insider trading that is currently being fought in the courts.   I deny the charges explicitly; in fact, I will prove that I was outside at the time.   My attorneys assure me that the charges will be proved untrue, but as a hedge, theyre hoping to get the same jury that OJ got.

On a related note, we are happy to report that the sexual harassment charges brought by Arnold, the copyboy, have been thrown out of court.  It seems that Arnold was being harassed due to having sex in the supply closet, and the judge ordered him to replace all the supplies that he ruined in the process. 

Please refer any further questions regarding these matters to my attorneys, Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe.

Thank you

Phil Hunt

Editor-in-Chief

******************************************************

Editorial of the Week

(As usual, the following applies only to five-handed, pick-a-partner.  We have given up all efforts to educate those who insist on playing other games, and wish them well in the future.  We do hope they learn all they can concerning their chosen professions, and can only add one tip.  Always ask your future customers, "Would you like Fries with that??"

Luck (and other absurd notions)

This week were going to discuss luck and the role it plays in our favorite pastime. We kick the term about quite a lot on our little chatsite; "gla" and "wow, sure was lucky tonight".  We tend to mention it a rather often. Oh sure, luck has a lot to do with everything, but I have to put a different spin on it. (Hell, I put a different spin on everything, don't I?)

Depending on luck to win in sheepshead is like saying you'd rather be a lucky driver than a good one. Do any of us go out onto our crowded streets hoping to be lucky, or do we depend on our skill as drivers and our ability to think ahead? Every motorist worth his salt is always anticipating, always expecting the unexpected; in other words, avoiding the avoidable. It youre doing 70 mph down a two lane highway, every car that passes you going the other way is two, maybe three feet away from ending your life and killing every passenger in both cars, but do we say we were lucky everytime we safely pass a car on the highway?? I don't think so.

You see, if you place all your faith in luck, you have to understand that luck runs in two directions. There's just as much bad luck out there as good; hell, maybe even more. In other words, you have the same chance of being dealt three sevens and three eights as you do in drawing Royalty Row. If luck were the diference between winning and losing in Sheepshead, those who insist that the luck of the draw is the major factor in the game would be sitting right around 20% in the win column. In fact, many of you who insist on luck being so important are exactly around 20%. Yup, five players, and you win one in five games. Everything works out nice and neat that way. We just take turns being lucky and getting the best hand, and we take our turn winning, right?

WRONG!!!  The difference between the player relying on luck and the really good players is the trick or two they take in every hand, and the hand or two they win in each game, and the game or two they win because they THINK!!  Throwing cards out on the table willy-nilly without putting any thought into it is like aiming a car instead of driving it.

Let me give you a few examples: within 24 hours of this writing I saw a man lose a hand by throwing the opposition the 10 of diamonds on a queen of Clubs lead, then giving his partners the Jack of Clubs on the very next hand.  As it turned out, he was out of trump at that point, and the picker won the hand with 63 points. I didn't say anything at the time, but I was certainly tempted.

I checked his stats (ratings simply reflect how youve done in the last 10 or 12 games and should be ignored; the real story is in the stats) and saw that he had won 171 games out of 836 played. Made sense.....he was playing without thinking. He was simply throwing cards out and winning his 20%, rarely taking a point he shouldn't have, rarely winning a trick without a power card and rarely winning a game by a point or two.

At the same game, a gentleman was sitting to my right with a 1586 rating (no great shakes, I'm sure we'd all admit) but playing shrewdly. I watched his play for a game or two then checked his stats......he had just won his 300th game and he had played a tad under 900 games. WOW, this was a man who knew what he was doing. My stats have reflected a 30% win ratio for quite some time, and I knew how much thinking must have been going on to accumulate 300 wins short of playing 1,000 games, so we began chatting and his thinking reflected my own so closely, I thought I had met my mental doppleganger.

He agreed that most players put little thought into their card playing, just following suite and occasionally winning with a lot of power cards, but then he mentioned how "luck has a lot to do with it." I disagreed immediately and let him know why.....his winning at the rate he was reflected a skill level well beyond the range of luck. Being victorious at nearly a 35% clip indicates that luck has nothing at all to do with his play. If he were to simply accept his normal 20% and win a few extra due to luck he would be lucky to be at 25%, let alone 35%. In other words, he was an extremely skilled card player and wasn't even aware of it. He attributed his winning to being lucky instead of realizing that thinking his way around a card game was the reason why he was winning with such regularity.

As most of you know, I have a knack with numbers and I love determining the difference between average and exceptional. Let me give you an example; the difference between a 250 hitter in baseball, or an average player, and a three hundred hitter, is one hit per week. Yup, over six months and 500 at bats, the difference between the two is 25 hits (and a whole lot of money.)  Since they play approximately 25 weeks, that works out to one little Texas leaguer per week, one little infield hit that you run out, one seeing-eye dinger that finds its way between first and second. In other words, the really good hitters run out everything. The good hitter takes advantage of his skills by playing hard and taking everything the opponent gives him.

The same thing applies in Sheepshead. Let me give you another example; my lucky friend emptied his hand of small trump during a game of loners simply to be able to schmear to his partners when the time came. I'm not talking about dumping small trump on a queen lead; I'm talking about throwing them away on a trick his opponent had cut with a jack and he could just as easily thrown away a worthless fail, but thinking ahead, he threw the trump to assure him the opportunity to play an ace or ten on a trick that one of us were sure to take later in the hand. Smart thinking, don't you agree?

I discussed it with him and he told me it was just the way he was taught.

Well, he had some great teachers, no doubt about it. Lots of little things enter into using your head; things like emptying your hand of the called suite instead of playing points on a led fail early in the hand. I see it all the time; a suite gets led that someone cuts and if he's your partner, you immediately throw points on the trick. Oh sure, schmear is great, but have you ever stopped to think how many more points you could have had if you had thrown the stupid seven of the called suite and been able to cut the called suite which came right back at you? I see it all the time....throwing away the 10 or ace of trump instead of a jack. So what if it happens to be the smallest trump in your hand....save those points until you determine who the partner is and have some say in where you place those all-important points.

Relying on 'luck' can dig some very deep holes; let me tell you about a hand I lost recently that had everything to do with 'luck', and I don't mean the good kind.  I picked with the three top swings, plus the ace and ten of diamonds, buried 15 and kept the seven of hearts.  The called suite was promptly led and cut, but the thing I noticed was that two of my opponents were pouring schmear on the trick and the result was their getting over 40 points on the first trick.  I wasn't worried considering the power in my hand, but after getting the next trick - which consisted of 15 points - I came back with my power.  Do I have to tell you what happened......the two players with all the schmear had no trump in their hands.  I was collecting all the sevens and eights in the game from them, and three leads later, I threw out the ace which promptly became their property when the only jack left took the trick.  I actually lost with a hand that would win 99% of the time. 

   As I said, luck can swing in two directions.  But there is no question that I would take a hand like that everytime .....and I would pick everytime.  And I would win most of the time.  Did 'luck' have anything to do with it??  Yeah, I guess you could say that, but it certainly wasn't GOOD luck.

So in the future, if you get into a game with me, don't bother wishing me "good luck", OK??  If you play the game with the thought that luck has anything to do with it, you keep it, because you're going to need it.  If you play the game relying on luck rather than skill, I only have one thing to say.......

Good Luck.

The Editor

***************************************

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR DEPT

(This Department will be referred to in the future as the "Dear Schmear" Department.)

Dear Schmear:

   Who the heck is this guy, "Nosmo King??"  He seems to be buying up everything in the country.  Everywhere I go, I see his name on doors and walls and windows; who the hell is he??

George W. Shrub

ItinkImfeelinalil, Ill

Dear George;

   We're not sure, but we think he's related to that Emer Gencydoor, the guy that owns all the yellow school busses.

*************************************

This weeks Provie Tip

(Brought to you by the Schneider Goo Removal Service of

Meohmeoh, MI

Remember our motto:

"No Goo is Good Goo"

"Listen, son......I'm not trying to hurt your little feelers or anything, but do you really think it's a good idea to lead trump back to the picker  after you cut the called suite??  I mean, think about it for a minute, OK?  After all, this is the third time I've had to mention this, so maybe you could

JUST MAYBE NOT DO IT AGAIN!!

Cuz the next time,

I'm gonna get really upset,

you understand me??

ya *&*%*& idiot!!

***************************

Editors note:  (Wow, there sure are a lot of Editors notes in this paper!!

   It's been brought to our attention that many of you are living with countless banners and ads and pop-ups and pop-unders and various other obnoxious types of advertising on this magic box, and it behooves us to offer a solution.  If you simply install one of the following utilities in your computer, they will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

************************************************************************

Editor's note:  (Damn, not another one.)

I know I invited all of you to enjoy our website, http://silverfox231.tripod.com, but now I have to ask you not to visit unless your life depends on it.  Since I'm too damned cheap to pay for added space, I am only allowed a certain amount of time per day on the site, and it has become so popular that I can't even get on myself for editing purposes, etc.  So, feel free to stop by and say hello, but no fair spending all day reading, OK?  Print the damned thing out if you must, but leave me a little elbow room, if you don't mind.

(We apologize for the delay in this latest edition, but as most of you know, summer time is a busy time of the year for me, and this summer has been no exception.  I am currently involved in restoring a kitchen that some dogs ate and building a deck for a friend, along with building 5 or 6 chessboards for those of you who have requested them, so my time has been carefully appropriated.  I've barely enough time to play our favorite game and I'm getting tired of reading "where the hell you been" every time I log on.  Actually, I feel like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, so cut me some slack, OK?  I'll try to be a little more punctual with the next one, I promise.

Thanks

Phil