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My guessing method
http://www.scaratings.com/newScaratings/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=28		 Page 3 of 5
Author:  -BO- [ Wed Mar 10, 2010 4:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you believe your method is successful more than 25% of the time in BTT and 20% of the time in CD, you should quit playing BT and use that time to search for the Loch Ness Monster.

Although Foo's response above was greatness.

BO
Author:  zog741 [ Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
-BO- wrote:
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you believe your method is successful more than 25% of the time in BTT and 20% of the time in CD, you should quit playing BT and use that time to search for the Loch Ness Monster.

Although Foo's response above was greatness.

BO


I think that BO is the Loch Ness monster. :mrgreen: (Just kidding!) :)

Actually, I'm in basic agreement with BO, but there is one thing to be said about having some sort of guessing method: at least you are answering something rather than wasting time and points fretting over what is outside your control.

-- RWM
Author:  spotes [ Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
My guessing method is a simple five-step system:

1. Read hundreds of trivia books and reference materials
2. Play tens of thousands of BT games
3. Play in and write hundreds of live trivia events
4. Watch countless television trivia game shows
5. Hope that some of it sticks.







Or hit #3...Image :mrgreen:
Author:  FrankC [ Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
spotes wrote:
My guessing method is a simple five-step system:

1. Read hundreds of trivia books and reference materials
2. Play tens of thousands of BT games
3. Play in and write hundreds of live trivia events
4. Watch countless television trivia game shows
5. Hope that some of it sticks.







Or hit #3...Image :mrgreen:


You got it right. I missed several questions tonight because I did not hit 3. :P
Author:  NellyLunatic1980 [ Mon May 03, 2010 6:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
Here's a guessing method that I picked up from Dayton: If all of the choices are names of people, guess the person with either three names or the longest overall name.
Author:  tommyk [ Tue May 04, 2010 1:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
NellyLunatic1980 wrote:
Here's a guessing method that I picked up from Dayton: If all of the choices are names of people, guess the person with either three names or the longest overall name.


I use that one a lot when I can't get my hands on any chicken entrails.
Author:  richte09 [ Wed May 05, 2010 1:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
I still go "when in doubt pick 3" and "2 hasn't come up in awhile" :)
Author:  Cloudy [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  BIGDOG is absolutely right...!
bigdog216 wrote:
If it's a music question, always go with the artist or band you've never heard of.

If Richard Thompson shows up as an answer, it's Richard Thompson.


BIGDOG is absoletely right...! I would expand on this idea to include all questions, where people's names are the answers. If you have no idea, but have heard of 4 of the people, and there is one name up there you have never heard of, it's going to be right 80% of the time. (No scientific, statistical, or intelligent research went into my 80% of the time assertion.) Try it, and I think you will be amazed how often it works.

p.s. Damn, I should have posted this, before BIGDOG stole my thunder.
Author:  Cloudy [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:55 pm ]
Post subject:  A few of JESSE's ideas...
JESSE has studied guessing methods more than anyone I know. One of his ideas is to go with the name that has initials in it. Another JESSE idea is to go with the answer that has some kind of punctuation in it.
Author:  Cloudy [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:30 pm ]
Post subject:  The Longest Answer...
Yeah, everyone knows about "The Longest Answer" guessing method, even though it doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. However, this is my reason not to give up on it.

Some underpaid peon at NTN has to pound away on the keyboard all day putting those questions and answers in. I would think that this person, when having to type in distractors for a question with movie title answers, would be more likely to choose something like "The Jerk" than "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" as a distractor. Eight clicks instead of thirty-one. If one choice is extremely longer than the others, I think going with it is still probably a good idea.
Author:  -BO- [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A few of JESSE's ideas...
Cloudy wrote:
JESSE has studied guessing methods more than anyone I know. One of his ideas is to go with the name that has initials in it. Another JESSE idea is to go with the answer that has some kind of punctuation in it.

And every second of that study was useless.

BO
Author:  spotes [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A few of JESSE's ideas...
-BO- wrote:
Cloudy wrote:
JESSE has studied guessing methods more than anyone I know. One of his ideas is to go with the name that has initials in it. Another JESSE idea is to go with the answer that has some kind of punctuation in it.

And every second of that study was useless.

BO


Well sure.
But was it as worthless as that time at TP II when he found out that I also played the SHMEKL board and asked me if I knew what it meant.
sigh...
Author:  Cloudy [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:30 am ]
Post subject:  I never should have used the word "Studied"...
-BO- wrote:
Cloudy wrote:
JESSE has studied guessing methods more than anyone I know. One of his ideas is to go with the name that has initials in it. Another JESSE idea is to go with the answer that has some kind of punctuation in it.

And every second of that study was useless.

BO


I never should have used the word "Studied", so I will have to backtrack a little, and try to better explain what I was trying to say.

(All of this is predicated on the assumption that simply playing trivia is not a waste of time.)

I don't think JESSE actually wasted any time at all coming up with his guessing ideas. I don't think he ever made an actual study of the answers. My feeling is that he just experienced gazllions of questions, and after playing all day, every day, over the years he gradually saw patterns in the answers. (I probably should have used the word "Nearly" a couple times in the last sentence.)

His "go with the alcohol answer" idea, works pretty darn well.
Author:  Cloudy [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:51 am ]
Post subject:  I think I know...
spotes wrote:
-BO- wrote:
Cloudy wrote:
JESSE has studied guessing methods more than anyone I know. One of his ideas is to go with the name that has initials in it. Another JESSE idea is to go with the answer that has some kind of punctuation in it.

And every second of that study was useless.

BO


Well sure.
But was it as worthless as that time at TP II when he found out that I also played the SHMEKL board and asked me if I knew what it meant.
sigh...


I think I know... In Yiddish, "Schmekel" means a small coin found in pocket change. Right...?
Author:  spotes [ Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: I think I know...
Cloudy wrote:
spotes wrote:
Well sure.
But was it as worthless as that time at TP II when he found out that I also played the SHMEKL board and asked me if I knew what it meant.
sigh...


I think I know... In Yiddish, "Schmekel" means a small coin found in pocket change. Right...?


Close.
You could certainly find one in a pocket.
:mrgreen:
Author:  FrankC [ Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: I think I know...
spotes wrote:
Cloudy wrote:
spotes wrote:
Well sure.
But was it as worthless as that time at TP II when he found out that I also played the SHMEKL board and asked me if I knew what it meant.
sigh...


I think I know... In Yiddish, "Schmekel" means a small coin found in pocket change. Right...?


Close.
You could certainly find one in a pocket.
:mrgreen:

Schmekel is the same as a schmuck.
Author:  Cloudy [ Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Saul Bellow is almost always...
Saul Bellow is almost always the wrong answer. For years, when I had no idea, if Saul Bellow was one of the answers, I always went with him, and it was always wrong. I finally figured out that Saul Bellow was an answer that could always be ruled out.

You guessed it, the next time I saw an author question, and Saul Bellow was one of the answers, I picked somebody else. Yep, that time Saul Bellow was the right answer. However, that was just one time out of dozens. I still say, steer clear of Saul Bellow, when you don't know.

p.s. Saul passed away in 2005, so if the the question is about new literature, definitely do not go with him.
Author:  Cloudy [ Mon Jan 16, 2012 4:18 am ]
Post subject:  Never listen to someone, who shouts out an anwwer, who...
Never listen to someone, who shouts out an answer, who doesn't have a game box in his/her hands, and swilling down a drink at the bar. For every one time they are right, your "no idea guess" will be right many more times. If you change your guess answer to what they yell out, you will be sorry most of the time.
Author:  -BO- [ Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Never listen to someone, who shouts out an anwwer, who..
Cloudy wrote:
Never listen to someone, who shouts out an answer, who doesn't have a game box in his/her hands, and swilling down a drink at the bar. For every one time they are right, your "no idea guess" will be right many more times. If you change your guess answer to what they yell out, you will be sorry most of the time.

I could say the exact same thing about shouters with a box in their hands. :D
Author:  MitchWolf [ Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never listen to someone, who shouts out an anwwer, who..
-BO- wrote:
Cloudy wrote:
Never listen to someone, who shouts out an answer, who doesn't have a game box in his/her hands, and swilling down a drink at the bar. For every one time they are right, your "no idea guess" will be right many more times. If you change your guess answer to what they yell out, you will be sorry most of the time.

I could say the exact same thing about shouters with a box in their hands. :D


I did that on an occasion or two on Spotlight, BO. Shout out an answer that I thought I am sure of, then its was the first one gone and messes everyone's game. So I am GULTY AS CHARGED......LMMFAO
Author:  zog741 [ Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never listen to someone, who shouts out an anwwer, who..
Cloudy wrote:
Never listen to someone, who shouts out an answer, who doesn't have a game box in his/her hands, and swilling down a drink at the bar. For every one time they are right, your "no idea guess" will be right many more times. If you change your guess answer to what they yell out, you will be sorry most of the time.

As in everything else in life, "that depends". If I really don't know what the answer is, and am not on a team, I'll probably listen. And my experience has been that in that situation, it's worthwhile to listen. I won't hear a correct answer 100% of the time - not even close - but it will be more reliable than my guesses.

If I do have a strong hunch, I frequently stay with that hunch even when a strong teammate thinks the answer is something else, so I certainly should stay with that hunch against the total stranger with no trivia box.

-- RWM

(Tonight, after I made the above comment, I think Cloudy's friend came over to Rookies. He had no box, had his beer in hand, was slightly drunk, and kept blurting out answers, almost all of them obviously incorrect. I ignored his suggestions while privately wishing for him to shut the hell up.

Still, I think whether to listen to someone without a box depends on the situation and also the person giving the answers.)
Author:  Hunk [ Sun Apr 15, 2012 7:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
Without reading all of the previous 71 posts to make sure I'm not duplicating, we at Varsity Grill and Bar/Hooter's/Applebee's Capital Circle in Tallahassee, FL always pick the longest answer when we're not sure. Always pick fish, bird, Madonna, Shakespeare, or Napoleon.

Seriously, what is the root of the word? Shaskov for example would be Russian or Polish, not Japanese, Chinese, or English. Most of the time we just say, "I have no idea" and move on to the next question.
Author:  -BO- [ Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
For those hacks who think a certain number choice comes up more frequently than others, are you aware that BT now randomly scrambles the answer order throughout the network to eliminate using the mobile PM to cheat?

Without this crutch to lean on, I'd say the numerologists won't be able to crack 10k in CD now.
Author:  FrankC [ Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
-BO- wrote:
For those hacks who think a certain number choice comes up more frequently than others, are you aware that BT now randomly scrambles the answer order throughout the network to eliminate using the mobile PM to cheat?

Without this crutch to lean on, I'd say the numerologists won't be able to crack 10k in CD now.


Number 3 still works fo me.
Author:  -BO- [ Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: My guessing method
FrankC wrote:
-BO- wrote:
For those hacks who think a certain number choice comes up more frequently than others, are you aware that BT now randomly scrambles the answer order throughout the network to eliminate using the mobile PM to cheat?

Without this crutch to lean on, I'd say the numerologists won't be able to crack 10k in CD now.


Number 3 still works fo me.

And over the long haul you'll be right exactly 20% of the time.
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