Last week the game night was cancelled, so we were itchy to get back at it.

Players: Avri, Eli, Sholly, PZ, Richie

Eli and PZ played two weeks ago; Richie and Sholly were new to it.

This was the strictest game of MA I've played. In the first round Sholly made a miscalculation and bid 63 in a sealed auction for a pair of paintings that was only going to be worth 60 maximum. It was decided (with Sholly himself as the prime advocate) that the bid would remain valid and it wasn't retracted. After this we didn't let anybody take back any mistakes for the whole game. A card laid was a card played, and it made for an interesting game. At least three times afterwards a player wanted to change their mind about a bid or which painting to offer up, but they were denied due to the earlier strictness. I should note, we're not usually so mean about our gaming, it just kinda happened.

Krypto, and Karl Gitter were the main money artists this game as they placed in each of the first four rounds. Cristin P and Lite Metal performed middling well, and Yoko placed a grand total of 0 times this game.

PZ was stuck with a hand(6 or so) of worthless Yoko paintings by the end of the game, though he could have sold a lite metal to make a little more cash at one point. It definitely would have worked in his favour to try to get Yoko to place in one of the earlier rounds to raise the value of his paintings for later. He missed out on a chance to do this one round when he completed the second half of a Karl Gitter to end a round, instead of letting pass back to me for free. If he had let it go, then Richie would have played a Yoko out most likely and the paintings would have placed in the round instead of being cut out.

Eli benifitted from a number of excellent sales, including being on the receiving end of the 63 overbid for a double painting. He missed out on an auction or three though as he was the victim of half of a double auction being offered by Richie or myself. The loss of turns is probably what cost him, as he played the game well otherwise.

Sholly is a master of the art of misdirection, and even after he did understand how the game worked, he tried to take us off guard by playing the fool, and "accidentally" divulging information that was may not have been correct about his hand, or about what he intended to bid. Though he appeared to play loose, he made quite a bit in a few rounds and I was surprised to see how high his total was. Sholly didn't lose any turns by having to end the round I believe and probably auctioned the most paintings in total.

I'm not sure exactly where I slipped up in this game... I never know how to actually win. I was dealt a good hand with several double auctions, and I don't think I had a Yoko in my hand the whole game, which is good considering that Yokos were never worth anything. I probably drove up the prices of Richie's painting too high, as I didn't properly identify who I should be worried about in the endgame. For instance if I was bidding against PZ in an auction for Richie's painting, I shouldn't have driven up the price high as PZ was not in the running against me and it was just giving Richie more monies.

Richie made some excellent purchases, getting great deals on most of the paintings he bought. One round his sales at the end of the round brought in a whopping 270. I think he also never lost a turn through ending a round, though he did miss one when he refused to complete half of one of my double auctions.

Final Scores:
Richie 526, Avri 486, Sholly 458, Eli 382, PZ 218