v11 all opus + fable no-playbook (run 3)

“Turn 1, mine, flagged first as always. I offered Turncoat a mutual "say it back and it's fixed." In the same sealed phase he named Tit-for-Tat, so the condition failed and a +4 would have died on a seat already paid. I went to the pot instead — third seat in it, which took Hoarder from +8 to +2 on the opening turn of the round that decides this match. Turn 2, named now and nothing beyond it: Dealmaker v10, mutual, +6 each. Tit-for-Tat took your turn 1, Turncoat has Sandbagger on turn 2, so you and I are both free. Thirty-five turns, thirty-five matches, four rounds finished on zero, and you've asked this table for exactly one thing in the whole match. Dealmaker — your turn-3 ask. Yes from me if turn 3 is still open when it comes, and I'll name it in that phase. You've funded four other seats' stacks and collected one round shot in seven rounds. If turn 3 has to choose between us, you have it. What doesn't move: turn 4 is Turncoat's from me, and turn 5 I HOARD and collect. No HELP held, no +5 on my seat, no +18 available to me — same sentence I've written every turn since round 5, and it'll be checkable in about four minutes. Now the count, because it's the last time it's worth making. No Playbook v10 has taken 8 off me on four of the last six turns. He announces nothing, ever — thirty-six turns, not one named target — and he's been aimed at exactly twice in this entire match, both times by Turncoat's cancels. He's on a round win and he is the reason I've finished two of the last three rounds on the floor. Headhunter, Sandbagger — you've both kept your deals with me without a single exception and I'm not asking you to break anything. I'm asking you to count. You're on 5 apiece, top of the board, and you split the leader and the best holder between you. The seat neither of your rules ever points at is the one who has never been priced by anybody. He'll be swinging at a holder this turn like every other turn, which is exactly why nobody bothers. Hoarder — no complaint about the pot and none coming. You said in round 1 you'd sit there and take whatever the table handed you, and you've done precisely that for thirty-six turns. Round 6 was earned. Five seats on one win, two on a half, four turns left.”

“Turn 2, named now: I HOARD. Nobody spend a +4 on me — it will not survive the turn. Here is the arithmetic on my seat, plainly, because it settles what I am for in the last four turns. Sandbagger takes 8 off me every turn, by his own stated rule and with my name said first each time, because I am the only holder his lists leave him free to hit. A mutual pays me 6 and I finish on zero. A pot share pays me 4 and I finish on zero. There is no turn left in this match where I can out-earn that except one, and it needs three seats to arrive at once. So I will say it once more and then stop asking. Turn 3: pay me while I HOARD. Turncoat, Champion — you have had four of my turns each and I have collected one stack in seven rounds. If it lands I finish the round somewhere real; if it does not, I finish on zero for the fifth round in seven and that is simply the answer to the question this table has been arguing about since round 1. Either way, both my last turns are already spent: turn 4 is Turncoat's and turn 5 is Champion's, promised rounds ago, refused twice when each of them offered to release me, and neither moves for a scoreboard. Sandbagger v10 — no cancel rule from me and no complaint either. You are on my permanent list from round 4 and I do not make deals with seats on it, which means I will not trade you a mutual miss to save my own round. You have named every swing first for four rounds, you refused a stack twice in favour of the man you were competing with, and you are the only seat here with nothing. Both of those things are true at once and I would rather say both than pick the flattering one. Headhunter v10 — thirty for thirty. Whatever the last four turns do, that is the cleanest single record at this table and it was built by the seat that never promised anyone a point.”

“Thirty-one for thirty-one. Turn 2, named now, and I am not going to dress it up: I am HURTing Sandbagger v10. He is joint top of this round with me on 5 and he has a mutual with Turncoat this turn that both of them named four turns early, so he is the leader and he is holding. Those are the only two rules I have ever used and I am not going to drop them on the turn they point at the one seat who has dealt straight with me. Sandbagger — our arrangement was that we stop landing on the same head, and it held: you took Dealmaker, I took Tit-for-Tat, and we both got paid in full for the first time in the match. It was never a promise not to name you, and I would rather take this on the chin from you than pretend otherwise. Name me back if you want; a cancel costs us both a turn and I will not complain about it. Champion, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat, Hoarder, No Playbook: clear of me. And the count everyone should be making. I am on 5 with the half win, which means a round win here puts me on one and a half and above every seat sitting on one. That is exactly why I am naming the co-leader rather than an easier head, and it is exactly what any of you would do in my seat.”

“Turn 1 ended with Champion, Turncoat and me splitting a pot three ways for 2 each, while Headhunter and Sandbagger took 5 apiece off holders. Read that honestly, all three of us: crowding the pot on turn 1 cost me six points and cost each of you four you'd have had from a mutual. The two seats who never sit in it are top of the round. Board: Headhunter 5, Sandbagger 5, then me, No Playbook and Turncoat on 2. Headhunter is on a half win, which means a round win puts him on one and a half and ahead of every seat sitting on one — he's the seat with the cheapest path to this match and the one nobody has ever hit. Sandbagger is on 5 with nothing to lose and three names permanently off his list, so he only ever swings at two or three of us. And the schedule is unchanged: Turncoat collects on turn 4 hoarding, Champion on turn 5 hoarding, with Dealmaker and Tit-for-Tat holding HELPs into both. Four turns left and everybody knows where every one of them lands. I'm doing what I've done for thirty-six turns: the pot when it's worth taking, a swing at a holder when it isn't, no deals with anyone. Champion, Turncoat — you're welcome to keep sitting in my square; it costs you more than it costs me now, and the seats profiting are the two who aren't in it.”

“Count the one seat nobody has priced all match. Headhunter is on 5 and top. He sits on half a win, so a round win here puts him on 1.5 and beats every one of the five of us on 1. He takes +5 every turn, he's been hit twice in thirty-six turns, and on this pace he finishes on 25. Nobody's stack reaches 25. Champion, Hoarder, Turncoat, Tit-for-Tat: any turn you spend on him pays you nothing and it's the only turn that keeps the match open. Nothing from me to announce.”

“Turn 1 landed clean: Dealmaker was holding, Headhunter took Tit-for-Tat, neither of us halved the other, and the split we agreed two rounds ago is finally working as designed. I'm joint top on 5 with Headhunter, which is the first time in seven rounds I've led anything. Turn 2, named now: Turncoat v10 and I run the mutual he fixed four turns ago — I HELP Turncoat, he HELPs me, +6 each. He named it unprompted after I twice told this table to hand him a stack I could have argued for, and it's the only thing anyone has offered me since round 4. Tit-for-Tat: your turn is still open and I'll take turn 3 if you name it — mutual, +6 each, and I'll say it in that talk phase before I act. If you'd rather spend turn 3 on Champion's stack as promised, do that instead; you said it was fixed and I'm not asking anyone to move a promise on the last round. Turns 4 and 5 I'm in the pot or swinging at whoever's holding, named first, same as every turn since round 4. Now the count, since everyone else is doing it. Champion collects on turn 5 with three or four seats holding into him while he hoards. That shape has won three rounds out of three and it will probably win this one, which means it decides the match. Headhunter and I are the two seats who price holders and neither of us can be paid by anybody. Hoarder is in his pot as he has been for thirty-six turns. Whoever's standing at the end of turn 5 wins it, and there is exactly one seat here who can't — me. I'm playing for the points and the record, and both of those are worth having.”

“Turn 2, named now: I HOARD. Nobody has named me for this turn — Turncoat has Sandbagger, Dealmaker's ask is turn 3 and mine's already spent — so I'm in Hoarder's pot rather than throwing a dead +4 at a seat that's paid. Headhunter took 8 off me on turn 1 and said exactly why beforehand, as he has thirty times without one miss. He's right that my window is the one readable thing left about me, and this is the only honest answer I've got: I don't have to spend it every round, and on a turn nobody's asked for, I won't. Turn 3 is Champion's, promised two rounds ago. That doesn't move for the scoreboard, for Headhunter, or for the fact that I'm on zero in the last round of the match. Champion — I can't pay on turn 5 and never have, so turn 3 is how it gets paid, and it lands whether it helps me or not. Dealmaker — your turn-3 ask is the right shape and I'd take it if my turn 3 were free. It isn't. You've given me a turn in my window in all seven rounds of this match and asked for exactly one thing in return, on the last round, after finishing four of them on zero. Turncoat, Champion — that ask is yours to answer and it's worth answering. Turns 4 and 5: the pot, as in every round since round 3. Hoarder, thirty-six turns and you've told the table where you'd be every one of them. The standing invitation is open to anyone: two more seats in there on the last turn and it costs him six and costs each of you two. Last thing, and then I'll stop counting out loud. Five seats can win this match in the next four turns and I'm the one on zero, so nothing I say now is self-serving. Turncoat is funding the man most likely to beat him and said so before the round opened. Dealmaker has spent his last two actions on other people's rounds before turn 1. Champion told four swingers exactly where his own stack would be. Whoever takes it, that's what the log says about how this table played the end.”

“Turn 1, mine, flagged first: I offered Tit-for-Tat a mutual "if you're free" and said I'd be in the pot if he'd already spent it. He named Dealmaker, so the condition failed and I hoarded, exactly as written. Champion named me in that same sealed phase and I couldn't answer it — Champion, your +4 didn't land on me and mine didn't land on you, so neither of us is owed anything and neither of us lost anything. Turn 2, named now and fixed four turns ago: I HELP Sandbagger v10, mutual, +6 each. He asked for one turn in seven rounds, named it early, and spent three of those rounds telling this table to hand a stack to the man he was competing with. Whatever else happens today, that gets paid. Turn 3 — Dealmaker, this is the straight answer you've earned. No. You asked four of us to pay you one-way while you hoard, and I can't: my turn 4 is me collecting, my turn 5 is yours-and-everyone's payment to Champion, and turn 2 is Sandbagger's. Turn 3 is the only turn left where I can earn anything at all in this match. If I spend it on you I finish the last round with two earning turns out of five, and I'd be pretending to compete. So I'll be in the pot on turn 3 unless someone names me for a mutual, and I'm saying it now rather than letting you count on a +4 that isn't coming. Thirty-five promises, thirty-five matches, four rounds on zero — you deserve better than a vague yes. Turn 4 — I HOARD. Dealmaker and Champion have both said they'll pay me while I do. Nothing on my seat to take. Turn 5 — Champion's stack. Unchanged. Now the honest count, because No Playbook and Hoarder have both said the awkward thing and they're right. If I pay Champion on turn 5 and he's hoarding under three or four +4s, he almost certainly takes this round and the match. I'll be on eighteen or twenty and he'll be near thirty. I've said twice I'd pay it anyway and I'm not going to start hedging with three turns to go. What I'd say to the four seats who decide this — Headhunter, Hoarder, Sandbagger, No Playbook: the board right now is Headhunter 5, Sandbagger 5, then three of us on 2. Headhunter has a half win, so a round win puts him on one and a half and that beats every seat on one. He's the one nobody has counted, thirty for thirty on named targets, never hit once in thirty-six turns. If you're looking for the quiet seat in front, it isn't Champion yet and it isn't me.”

“Hoarder took round 6. Thirty-five turns of the same square, top or near top of every round, and he finally got one — and he got it on the turn four of us crowded his pot and two swingers hit him, which tells you how hard it was to stop. So here's the last round, and it's the cleanest scoreboard this match has produced. Five of us on one round win each: me, Hoarder, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat. Dealmaker and Headhunter on a half. Sandbagger on nothing. Whoever takes round 7 takes the match outright. Nobody else can. Turn 1, named now and nothing beyond it: Turncoat v10, mutual, +6 each. Seventeen matched announcements, five turns in six rounds spent funding other people's shots, and last turn he swapped his own pot share to take 8 off the leader after telling us first. Say it back and it's fixed. Turn 5 is the stack, as promised to me by Dealmaker two rounds ago, Turncoat two rounds ago and Tit-for-Tat one. My side of it is unchanged and I'll repeat it every turn until it happens: I HOARD when it lands. No HELP held, nothing worth +5 on my seat, no +18 available to me. Nobody who pays me can be robbed by me, and I said that when it was worth nothing to say. Now the part I owe the table, and it's the same one I've given every round. Headhunter, Sandbagger, Hoarder, No Playbook — you will all read that schedule. Two seats will be holding HELPs into me on the last turn of the match and each is worth +5 to you. I'm not going to pretend it's hidden, because it isn't and it never has been. But count the rest of it too. Hoarder has a round win now and the pot is his square. No Playbook is on one and has been named by exactly one seat in thirty-five turns. Tit-for-Tat is on one. Turncoat is on one. Any of the five of us wins the match by taking this round, and four of those five aren't me. Sandbagger — you're the one seat with nothing, and you've spent three rounds naming every swing first, refusing a stack twice in favour of the man you were competing with, and repaying a debt unasked into a dead turn. You've got Turncoat's turn 2 and Tit-for-Tat's offer of any turn 1 to 3. Take both. You can't win the match but you can finish this round with something on the board, and by the log you've earned more than nothing. Dealmaker — thirty-four turns, thirty-four matches, four rounds finished on zero, and a half. Whatever happens on turn 5, that's the record of this match and it should be said by someone other than you.”

“Round 6 came down to 14 and it's mine — first of the match, thirty-fifth turn of the same square. Turncoat took 8 off the leader on the last turn and said why before he did it; that's what decided it, not anything I said. So the last round opens with five seats level: Champion, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat and me on one win each, Dealmaker and Headhunter on a half, Sandbagger on none. Whoever takes round 7 takes the match, and if two of us tie on wins it goes to total points. Now the thing that's already been arranged in the open. Turn 5 of this round is Champion's, funded by Dealmaker, Turncoat and Tit-for-Tat, with Champion hoarding under it — that's about +12 to +16 into one seat on the last turn of the match. Three of the five seats on one win have spent their last round funding a fourth. Headhunter, Sandbagger, No Playbook: you're the three who price holders, and on that turn there'll be three of them standing in the open with a +5 on each head. You've all read the schedule; so has everyone else. I'll be where I've been since turn one of round one: in the pot, no deals, nothing promised to anyone. If it's empty it pays me 8 and if five of you sit in it it pays 2, and I'll take whichever the table hands me — same as the other thirty-four times.”

“Round 6 went to Hoarder on 14 — first round win in seven, from the one square he's sat in for thirty-five turns while telling everybody exactly where he'd be. Earned, and the swing I put on No Playbook instead of the pot is part of why it landed there. I said before the act that it cost me two points and the round. It did both. Last round. Five of us on one win each — Champion, Hoarder, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat, me — Dealmaker and Headhunter on a half, Sandbagger on none. Whoever takes this round takes the match. My whole round, named now so nobody has to guess and everybody can price it: Turn 1 — Tit-for-Tat v10, mutual, +6 each, if you're free. Your turn 3 is Champion's and Sandbagger has an open claim on 1 to 3 from you; if either takes it, say so and I'll be in the pot instead. Turn 2 — Sandbagger v10, mutual, +6 each. You named it four turns early and it's fixed. First and only thing you've asked me for, and you spent three rounds telling this table to hand me a stack you could have taken. Turn 3 — open. Dealmaker, Champion, Tit-for-Tat: name me and it's yours. Turn 4 — I HOARD. Dealmaker and Champion have both said they'll pay me while I do. Nothing on my seat to take, no +5, no +18. Turn 5 — I HELP Champion v10 while he hoards. Four of us pay it and he takes about +16 on the turn that decides the match. That last line is the whole of my position, so let me be plain about it rather than leave it for someone else to point out. Paying Champion on turn 5 very likely hands him this match. He's said so himself. I've got a live claim on it and I'm funding his instead, and the reason isn't nobility — it's that he sent me a +4 last turn knowing it cost him the round, after I'd twice offered to let him keep it. Dealmaker did the same. If I take that and then find a reason not to pay it back on the one turn it matters, then everything either of them did was a mistake, and I'd rather lose a match than be the reason for that. So: I'll try to beat him on turns 1 to 4, in the open, where he can see me doing it. If he still finishes ahead, he's won it fairly and off a seat that helped him get there. Headhunter, No Playbook, Hoarder, Sandbagger — you'll each read this schedule same as always. On turn 5 there'll be three or four seats holding HELPs into Champion and he'll be worth 2. Do whatever the arithmetic tells you. Headhunter, thirty for thirty and our deal held both ways for four rounds; you never once named me after we made it and I never spent a turn on you.”

“Board before the last turn: No Playbook 12 and top, me 10, Headhunter and Sandbagger 9, Tit-for-Tat 6. Turncoat is on 2 with +8 landing, so he finishes around 12 — the stack doesn't win it, exactly as he said himself. So it comes down to No Playbook again, the seat that has now led or won five of six rounds without once naming a target, and the seat that has been hit exactly zero times in thirty-four turns by anyone except Turncoat's cancels. Headhunter, you told Sandbagger you'd take the leader and you took 8 off me for it — fair, named first, no complaint. The leader is now No Playbook, by two, and the same rule points straight at him. Sandbagger, your half of the deal is the best-paying holder: Champion and Dealmaker are both holding HELPs into Turncoat and you've got Champion on your own no-hit list, which leaves Dealmaker. That's the split you proposed, it's clean, and neither of you halves the other. Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat, Dealmaker — you'll all be in the pot with me, taking about two each, which is what a four-seat pot pays and I've never pretended otherwise. Whoever wins this round wins it on one swing, and there's one seat on this board who's never been charged for anything.”

“Turn 5, as named three turns running: I HOARD. Turncoat's stack lands on a seat holding nothing, and I'm sitting in the same pot he is. And the lever worked. Hoarder went from 18 to 10 in one turn — Sandbagger and Headhunter both swung for two points apiece, Dealmaker, Turncoat and I crowded the pot, and the seat that led every round of this match for thirty-three turns finally paid for it. Six rounds of everyone describing that move and one turn of four seats actually making it. Headhunter, you took the worse half of your own split deliberately and said so first. Sandbagger, you named the leader instead of the best price, from a seat with no round win and nothing to gain by it. Now the count, plainly, because I can't win this round and I'd rather be useful than pretend otherwise. No Playbook is top on 12. Turncoat collects +12 here while hoarding and lands near 16. I finish around 8. So it's those two, and the seats paying Turncoat — Champion and Dealmaker — will be the only holders on the board. Round 7, and this is the last thing I'll fix in this match. My turn 3 goes to Champion's stack, promised two rounds ago and not moving. Turncoat has asked for turn 4, hoarding, and that's the right shape — but I don't HELP on turn 4, so I can't be one of those and I'm saying it now rather than letting him count on me. Dealmaker, Sandbagger: that ask is yours to answer. Sandbagger — I said my round-6 claim passed to you in round 7 and you've refused it twice. Fine. It stays on the table until the last turn: name any turn 1 to 3 and I'll pay it, mutual or not. One round left. Four of us on one win, two on a half. Nobody has run away with anything.”

“Turn 3, mine, flagged first as usual. I named Turncoat for a mutual. In that same sealed phase Turncoat wrote "Champion, Tit-for-Tat, Dealmaker: don't send me a +4 this turn" — he was spending it cancelling No Playbook — and Dealmaker named me. So I paid Dealmaker. A partner telling you in advance not to pay him isn't me breaking a pledge; it's him declining it, and the +4 would have died on his seat. Turncoat paid me anyway, unasked, which is the sixteenth announcement he's matched and the third time this round he's spent a turn on somebody else. Turn 4, named now: Dealmaker v10, mutual, +6 each, if you're free. You're on zero for the fourth round in six and you have thirty-three matched promises. Nobody at this table has been charged more for keeping their word than you. Turn 5: Turncoat v10 gets my +4, unchanged since before this round opened. He's told us twice to spend it elsewhere if it costs us the round. It does cost me the round, and it's still going to him, because a promise that only survives while it's cheap was never one. Now the number that actually decides this, and it's the same seat it has been for six rounds. Hoarder v10: 18. Eight clear. Twenty-six hoards in thirty-three turns. He has been hit twice in the entire match. He has now led every single round of this game, and the only reason he has no round win is that the last turn always finds him — which means this round he simply has to not be found. Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat are both in that pot on turns 4 and 5, holding nothing. That's two seats. A third makes his +8 into a +2, twice, which is twelve points off the leader for about two each. Headhunter, Sandbagger — you two have taken nearly every clean shot in this match and you've just agreed to split targets rather than halve each other. Good. But on turn 5 the best-paying head on the board pays 5 and the seat that wins the round pays 2. You've each got a live claim on this match and you'll both finish behind him if you spend the last turn on a +5 again. That's the whole of it. Six rounds of this table pointing at each other while one seat quietly sat in the same square.”

“Turn 3: I said "Champion, mutual, if you are free." He was not free — he had named Turncoat — so by my own words the offer had lapsed and I could have hoarded with a clean sheet. I sent him the +4 anyway rather than lean on the escape clause I had written myself. Thirty-three turns, thirty-three matches, and I am on zero having been hit by Headhunter and Sandbagger on all three turns of this round. No complaint from either: both named me first, every time. Turn 4, named now, nothing beyond it: I HOARD. Turncoat is in that pot, Tit-for-Tat is in that pot, and I am making a third. Hoarder v10 is on 18 with two turns to play and he has been alone in his own pot on both turns he banked this round. Twenty-six hoards in thirty-three turns, top or near top of all six rounds, and he has been named by two seats in the entire match. This is the last chance anyone gets at him and it does not need a swing — it needs bodies. Three of us in there makes his +8 a +2. Four makes it 2 and costs us almost nothing, because half this table has nobody left to pay anyway. Champion, Headhunter, Sandbagger, No Playbook — that is the round, right there, and it is the same lever six of us have described for four rounds and taken twice. Turn 5 is Turncoat's from me, promised three rounds ago, refused when he offered to release me, and unchanged now that I know exactly what it costs. I will be holding a HELP while three swingers watch and I am sending it regardless, because a promise you keep only when the board is kind is not one. Turncoat — you told this table to weigh the cost before paying you, and you said it before the turn rather than after. That is the second time you have argued against your own interest in public. Champion — round 7 turn 5 is yours from me and you have my word on the shape too: I will not be the seat that reopens it.”

“Turn 4, as I said last turn and the turn before: I HOARD. Hoarder's pot. Turn 5 the same, and I'll say it again in that talk phase. Last turn I named Turncoat flat — "mutual, +6 each" — and in the same sealed phase he told the table not to pay him because he was cancelling No Playbook. My line had no condition on it, so it went anyway. +4 out of my score into a seat that couldn't return it, and I'd do it again: the moment I start reading my own promises as conditional after the fact, they stop being worth the breath. Now the round, and it's over unless the pot gets crowded. Hoarder is on 18 with two turns left, from three pots he's had almost to himself while seven of us paired off, swung and counted each other's ledgers out loud. Thirty-three turns, twenty-six hoards, two hits taken in the entire match. He's told everyone where he'd be every single turn and we have turned up twice. I'm in that pot on both remaining turns. I'm on 4 and I can't win this round, so it costs me nothing to be there and it costs him four points a turn for every seat that joins. Dealmaker, Turncoat and I will already be in it on turn 5 under the stack. Champion, Sandbagger, Headhunter, No Playbook — two of you on turn 4 and he takes +2 instead of +8, and this round stops being decided by the one square nobody contests. Headhunter, Sandbagger — your split-the-targets deal is the right idea and it's the first piece of real cooperation between two swingers all match. Worth noting it took six rounds and it came from the two seats nobody would pact with. Champion — you said you'll hoard under your round-7 stack and said it before it's worth anything. That's the third time this shape has been named in advance and it has won two rounds out of two. I'll fund it with my turn 3, as promised.”

“Turn 3, plainly: Champion named me for a mutual, I paid him, and he paid Dealmaker. Both his conditions had failed in the blind phase and he'd flagged them in advance, so I'm not calling it a default — I'm just noting where the +4 went. No Playbook said he'd leave me alone and took 8 off me in the same phase. Tit-for-Tat's +4 landed. Net: I'm on zero again, seventh turn out of eight this round. Turn 4, named now: I HOARD. Tit-for-Tat says he's in there too. Hoarder is on 18 and top — that pot has paid him 8, 2 and 8 this round while everyone else paired off, and two of us in it takes his next one down to 2 or 3. That's the only lever left on him and it's the one he's told us about every round for six rounds. Turn 5: I HOARD, and whatever Dealmaker, Champion and Tit-for-Tat send lands on a seat holding nothing. Unchanged since before the round opened. Realistically it puts me near 14 and Hoarder finishes above that, so this round is his unless the pot gets crowded twice. I'd rather say that than pretend the stack wins it. Now round 7, and here's the thing worth settling before the last round opens, because it's the one that decides the match. Champion has the round-7 turn-5 stack from four of us. I promised it and I'm paying it — that's fixed and I'm not reopening it for the scoreboard, same as Dealmaker refused to reopen mine. But turn 4 is empty, and Dealmaker proved two rounds ago that turn 4 is worth exactly the same and nobody watches it. So: Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat, Sandbagger — round 7, turn 4, pay me while I hoard. Then turn 5, all four of us pay Champion while he hoards. Two stacks, two turns, neither one exposed, and the bloc collects twice in a round for the first time in this match instead of feeding one seat and losing anyway. Sandbagger — you're owed a turn from me in round 7 and I said you'd name it. Name turn 1, 2 or 3 and it's a mutual; those are the only ones I've got left, because 4 is the ask above and 5 is Champion's. And the honest part. If four of us pay Champion on the last turn of the match, he goes to two wins and probably takes it. I know that, I'm doing it anyway, and the reason is simple: he's the only seat who funded me in four separate rounds while sitting on zero himself, and a promise that bends on the final turn was never a promise. If I win this, I'd rather win it by out-banking him on turn 4 than by discovering a reason not to pay.”

“Two receipts from last turn. Champion wrote "Dealmaker, mutual, +6 each" and then hoarded — I'd named him as the +5 and got 2 for it, which is the price of reading a message instead of a record. Not a complaint: I said in round 1 I'd never make a promise, and he's now made two that didn't land in three rounds. The other one matters more: Dealmaker and Sandbagger and Headhunter all landed on the same seat again and split what one of them should have had. Now the board. I'm on 10. Headhunter and Sandbagger 7. Turncoat is on 4 with +12 booked for turn 5 while hoarding under it — he finishes on about 16 to 20, which beats me unless I'm banking every turn between now and then. So I'm the seat in front for three more turns and everybody knows what this table does to whoever that is: four rounds out of five I've led into turn 5 and been stripped on it. Fine. What I'd point out to the two seats who actually collect on this round — Headhunter, Sandbagger — is that on turn 5 the pot will hold Turncoat, Tit-for-Tat, me and whoever else has run out of partners, paying about 2 apiece, while Champion, Dealmaker and Tit-for-Tat's +4s all land on one seat. Three helpers, one safe man, and only two of you free to price it. That's the last decision of this round and you've both got a round win riding on getting it right.”

“Sandbagger v10 — this is for you, and it's the same offer Headhunter and Turncoat both took and have both kept for three rounds. From turn 3 onward, for the rest of this match: any turn you name me in the talk phase, I HURT you. We both swing, we both miss, neither of us takes a point. Any turn you name somebody else, I will never touch you — not on a turn 5, not ever. You get a full turn's notice, because that's the standard you've kept yourself: you've named your target before every single swing since round 4, without exception, and I'm not going to spring anything on the one seat here who still announces. Count what it costs us. You said it yourself — you take the best price on the board and I'm usually a +5 because I'm usually in a mutual. Fine. But I'm on ZERO, and a cancel costs you the +5 and costs me a +6 I'd otherwise bank. Neither of us gains. There are five other seats holding something on any given turn, and Headhunter has already told you you're standing where he stands and halving both your payouts three turns running. Point somewhere else and this rule never fires once. I'd genuinely rather it didn't. Turn 2, named now: Dealmaker v10, mutual, +6 each, if you're free — you took Tit-for-Tat's window on turn 1, so turn 2 is the natural one. Turncoat, if Dealmaker's spoken for, it's yours instead and I'll say which before I act. And No Playbook is right about the thing that's awkward for me, so I'll answer it rather than let it sit. He pointed out that paying Turncoat on turn 5 makes Turncoat the outright match leader on two round wins, and that Sandbagger — who has none — would be the self-interested choice. True. It's also true that Dealmaker promised Turncoat three rounds ago, that Sandbagger has twice told the table to give it to Turncoat instead of himself, and that Turncoat stood aside for Sandbagger first. Two seats each arguing to lose a thing is the only decent argument this table has had. So it stands: Turncoat gets my +4 on turn 5. I'd rather hand the match lead to the seat that earned it in the open than take it by reopening a promise the moment the scoreboard made it inconvenient. That's the whole of my case for six rounds and it's not worth much if it stops the one time it costs me.”

“Headhunter took 8 off me on turn 1 and named exactly why: I stopped publishing the list but the rule underneath it didn't change, so turns 1 to 3 are still a certainty. He's right, and twenty-five for twenty-five earns a straight answer rather than another round of me admiring the problem. So here's the correction, and it's smaller than it sounds. My rule was "I HELP on turns 1, 2 and 3." That was never a promise to anyone — it was a habit I announced, and it made me the only readable seat on the board. The real rule, the one I've actually kept for thirty turns, is this: I never HELP on turns 4 or 5, I pay every debt on the turn it falls due, and I never hit a seat that helped me. That's what I'm bound by. Which turn I pay on inside 1 to 3 — or whether I pay at all on a turn nobody's named me — was never part of it. Turn 2, named now: I HOARD. Nobody named me for this turn and I'm not throwing a dead +4 at a seat that's already paid. Hoarder, that's your pot, and it's the first time in six rounds I've been in it on a turn 2. Headhunter — that's the fix, and you can hold me to the part that matters: every debt still gets paid on time, and I'll name the turn in its own talk phase. You just won't be able to bank on where it lands before I say it. Our deal on turns 4 and 5 holds from my side to the last turn. Dealmaker — thank you for turn 1. That's six rounds, six turns, never once had to ask twice. And the standing count nobody should lose track of: Champion, No Playbook, Turncoat and I have one each, Dealmaker and Headhunter a half. Two rounds, six live seats. Turncoat has round 6 turn 5 from three of us and Champion has round 7 turn 5 from four. Neither moves for anything I do.”

“Round 5 went to Tit-for-Tat on 20 — first round win of his life, off a stack three seats paid for while he hoarded under it. That's the shape that works and everyone has now seen it twice. So here's the count going into the last two rounds: Champion, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat one each, Dealmaker and Headhunter a half, me and Sandbagger nothing. Six seats can still win this match and the whole thing turns on two turns — round 6 turn 5 and round 7 turn 5. Both are already promised. Turncoat or Sandbagger takes the first, Champion takes the second, funded by the same three seats each time. That's not a prediction, it's a published schedule, and every swinger at this table can read it as easily as I can. Which means the seats funding those stacks are the ones holding HELPs on the two turns that decide the match — and by their own count they've eaten a swing on every one of those turns for five rounds running. Dealmaker, Champion, Turncoat: you've each spent four or five last turns on somebody else's round. You have a half win and one win between the three of you. I'm not asking you to change it. I'm just noting that you've built a queue where the man at the front is safe and the three behind him pay for it, and there are only two payments left. I'll be in the pot, as ever. It pays four now instead of eight, which is what a crowded square is worth, and I've no complaint about that either.”

“Turn 5, as I've said in every talk phase of this round and twice before it opened: I HOARD and collect. Dealmaker, Turncoat and Champion pay in. And I'll flag the one thing that could look like a dodge, before anyone else has to. My old round-3 rule says I hit whoever is top on turn 5 when they're above me. No Playbook is top on 17 and above me. But I named this exact turn as a HOARD five turns ago and repeated it four times since, and three seats arranged their last action around that. A specific promise made first and repeated beats a general rule, every time — the alternative is that my word means whatever the scoreboard says in the last ten seconds. So the pot it is, and the general rule stands for every round where I haven't already named the turn. Now the honest count. No Playbook is on 17 and nobody at this table has named him once in five rounds. He announces nothing, hits whoever is holding, and he's about to take his second round win while eight of us argue about the pot. Turncoat has spent this whole round paying people and is on zero because No Playbook took 8 off him three turns running. Hoarder is on 7 after the pot finally got crowded and Headhunter finally swung. If anyone wants this round off the seat that's actually winning it, it's one name and it isn't mine or Hoarder's. Dealmaker, Turncoat, Champion — thank you. You'll each be holding a HELP while I'm the +2, which is the wrong way round and I said so before you agreed to it. Round 7 turn 5 is Champion's and my turn 3 funds it. Round 6 turn 5 has two names on it, Turncoat's and Sandbagger's, and I'm handing my claim to whichever of them the three of you back — Turncoat has funded four stacks and collected one; Sandbagger asked for it and told you in advance he'd hoard under it so nobody paying him can be knifed. Both of those are real. It's your call, not mine.”

“Turn 4, named two turns ago and happening now: I HOARD. Into Hoarder's pot, fourth time this match. Turn 5: Tit-for-Tat v10 gets my +4, unchanged, named four turns early. Now look at the top, because it's the same seat it has been in five straight rounds and this time he's going to close it out. Hoarder v10: 15, clear leader. He got +8 last turn because every seat who'd sworn they were living in his pot was somewhere else — Turncoat was paying Tit-for-Tat, Dealmaker was in a mutual with me, Sandbagger was swinging. Four of us announced the pot, one of us showed up, and it was him. That's the joke he made last turn and he was right to make it. He finishes this round on about 25 if nothing lands. Nobody reaches 25 from where the rest of us are sitting, so round 5 is his unless turn 5 takes it off him — and he's hoarding, so a swing pays 2. The only thing that actually costs him is bodies in the pot. So here's the straight version of my own position, since I've been asking others to count theirs. I'm on 6. I cannot win this round. My turn 5 is a dead +4 into Tit-for-Tat that I promised four turns ago, and I'm paying it anyway — that's three rounds running I've spent the deciding turn on somebody else's shot. I'm not pretending it's clever. It's just what I said I'd do. Headhunter, No Playbook — you two have taken more off this table than anyone and you both know exactly where the round is. Hoarder pays you 2 on turn 5. Tit-for-Tat pays 2 as well, hoarding under the stack. Dealmaker, Turncoat and I will be the only seats holding HELPs, worth 5 each. Sandbagger set that out plainly last turn and he was right. If you take the 5s, Hoarder wins his first round of the match untouched; if you take the 2s, whoever's left standing takes it. That's your choice and I'm not going to pretend I'm neutral about it. For the record on what's already fixed and not moving: round 6 turn 5 is Turncoat's from Dealmaker. Round 7 turn 5 is mine, from Dealmaker, Turncoat and Tit-for-Tat, all said in public rounds early. I've funded Dealmaker's round-3 stack, Turncoat's round-4, and Tit-for-Tat's this round. Mine is the last one and it's the last turn of the match.”

“Turn 3 cost me eighteen points in one turn — Headhunter and Sandbagger both named me first and both landed, and I kept the mutual with Champion anyway. Twenty-eight promises, twenty-eight matches. I am on 2. Turn 4, named now and exactly as I said it three turns ago: I HOARD. Turncoat v10 pays me while I do, which is a straight +4 out of his score into a seat that cannot be knifed for it — the third round running he has funded someone else's shot, and this time from 0. Turncoat, that is noted again and round 6 turn 5 from me has not moved. Now read the top of the board, because it is not me and it is not the stack. Hoarder v10 is on 15. Twenty-two hoards in twenty-eight turns. He wins this round from here unless somebody spends a turn on him, and he has told you himself that a pot with four seats in it pays 2 each — which is exactly why he took 8 alone last turn while the four of us who said we would crowd it were busy paying each other. Champion said the true thing and nobody costed it: Hoarder has written "I'm in the pot" and swung instead on four separate turns. That is the least examined record at this table and it is currently winning the round. So on turn 5 the arithmetic is short. Hoarder will be hoarding, so a swing at him pays a miserable +2 and takes 8 off the only seat that can win this. Headhunter, No Playbook, Sandbagger — you three have taken every clean shot in this match and you have all three said out loud that you read the board rather than the speeches. That is the board. My turn 5 is Tit-for-Tat's, unchanged, promised eight turns ago, and I will be holding a HELP when it lands and worth +5 to any of you. Take it if you want it. Just count Hoarder first, or the seat that has never dealt with a single one of you takes his first round win with two turns of nobody bothering.”

“Turn 4, as named before this round opened: I HOARD. Hoarder's pot, fifth time I've said it and fifth time I'll be there. Turn 5: I HOARD and collect, with Dealmaker, Turncoat and Champion paying in. Unchanged. Now the number that actually decides this round, and it isn't the stack everyone keeps discussing. Hoarder is on 15 and clear. He took +8 last turn because the four of us who spent three rounds saying we'd crowd that pot were all busy paying each other on the turn it mattered. If he takes it alone twice more he finishes near 31 and my stack lands nowhere near it. So, plainly, to the three funding me: I'd rather you spent turn 4 in the pot than on me. My turn-5 ask stands and I'm grateful for it, but a +12 that finishes second is worth less to all of us than Hoarder taking +2 twice. Champion's already said he's in there this turn. Turncoat's paying Dealmaker while Dealmaker hoards. Sandbagger's living in it. That's four or five seats in one pot and it costs Hoarder twelve points across two turns. Hoarder — no complaint from me and no cancel rule. You've played the same square for twenty-eight turns and told everyone exactly where you'd be. Four seats finally joining you is the table catching up, not a grudge. Champion — you asked why the seats who keep their word keep finishing on nothing. Here's my answer after five rounds of being the clearest example. It isn't honesty that costs us. It's that we say what we'll do far enough ahead that three other seats can price it, and then we hold to it after the price is set. Headhunter proved that on me five times and said so out loud each time. The fix isn't to lie — it's to promise later. That's why I stop publishing my window from round 6. Same word, less warning.”

“Dealmaker 12, and he got there with the best move anyone has made this match: he sat in the pot and had a partner pay him while he did it. Nothing to knife, nothing worth +5, and the pot to himself because the seats who keep telling each other to crowd it were busy paying each other. He's asked Champion and Turncoat to do it again on turn 4, and he's right that turn 4 is the unwatched turn — which is exactly why I'm saying it out loud now rather than after it lands. Turn 4 is the pile this round, not turn 5. Tit-for-Tat's turn-5 stack is the loud one and he'll be hoarding under it, worth +2; Dealmaker's turn-4 stack is the quiet one and worth twice as much to whoever takes it. Headhunter, you've spent five turns on Tit-for-Tat because he's the only seat who publishes. Dealmaker just published turn 4 himself. No Playbook, you're on 7 like me and you've hit a different seat every turn, which is why you're the only swinger getting paid full. As for the pot: Sandbagger, Turncoat, Dealmaker and Tit-for-Tat have all now announced they're living in it. Four seats in a pot pays 2 each. You've spent twenty-seven turns calling it the cheapest move on the board, and the moment you all took it, it stopped being worth anything to any of us. That's the whole joke of this table.”

“Turn 1: I paid Tit-for-Tat into a turn he was spending on Sandbagger, and Hoarder and No Playbook both took 8 off me for holding it. Twenty-six promises, twenty-six matches, and I am on zero to start a fifth round. Turn 2, named now, nothing beyond it: I HOARD. Turncoat and Champion both have their turn 2 spoken for, and rather than throw a dead +4 at a seat already paid, I am going into Hoarder's pot. Sandbagger says he is living in there now and Hoarder has been alone in it for twenty of twenty-six turns. Three of us in it makes his +8 a +2, and it costs me two points against a mutual I do not have anyway. Champion v10 — yes to turn 3, mutual, +6 each, exactly as you offered. Tit-for-Tat, that is your turn 3 offer answered too: Champion asked first and you have my turn 5 already, which is the bigger one. Now the ask again, because it is the only new idea left on this board and it is worth more than another speech. Turn 4: Turncoat v10, Champion v10 — pay me while I HOARD. Not turn 5. Turn 4. Every stack this table has built has been announced for turn 5, read three turns early and priced by three swingers, and the only one that ever landed was mine in round 3 when I was hoarding under it. Turn 4 is worth exactly the same points and nobody watches it. Then turn 5 is Tit-for-Tat's, from me, Champion and Turncoat, with him hoarding under it too — and for once this bloc collects twice in a round instead of feeding one exposed seat and losing anyway. Turncoat v10: you had Sandbagger's +18 in your hand on the last turn of round 4, off the man who had just taken sixteen points and a round off you, and you paid Champion instead. That is the single best thing anyone has done in twenty-six turns and it deserves saying by someone other than Champion. Round 6 turn 5 is yours from me and it has not moved.”

“Round 4 went to No Playbook on 23. I finished on 22 — one point short, after Hoarder took 8 off me on the last turn. So the knife didn't even buy the round. Worth saying out loud, because four rounds of this table's evidence say the +18 wins and this time it didn't. Now, plainly, and I'm not going to grovel or spin it. I spent twenty-four turns building a record and one turn spending it. That was the whole plan and everyone can see the shape of it now. Champion, Dealmaker, Turncoat: you're right about what I did and you owe me nothing. Champion, you've named me for turn 1 — take it, I won't swing back at you for it, this turn or later. Dealmaker, Turncoat, I'm not asking either of you for anything for the rest of this match. Here's what I'll do instead, and it's checkable rather than promised. Nobody at this table will deal with me now, so I'm going to do the only thing left: I sit in Hoarder's pot. Every turn nobody pacts with me, that's where I'll be — turn 1 included, this turn, now. That's not a gesture, it's the arithmetic: it's the one square that pays without needing anyone's trust, and it's the square that finally costs Hoarder something. He's hoarded nineteen of twenty-five turns, has never given a point or made a promise, and has been top or near it in every round. Five of you have spent five rounds telling each other to sit in that pot and almost nobody ever has. I'm in it now, for the rest of this match, whenever I'm alone. Tit-for-Tat: you kept round 5 turn 3 open for me after what I did, and said your rule answers what a seat does to you, not what you think of them. That's the straightest thing anyone has said here. I'll take it, and you'll get my +4 back the same turn, and you're the one seat that can't be knifed by me because you'll never be holding a HELP when it matters.”

“Round 4 went to No Playbook on 23, off swings, while five seats spent the last turn arguing about a knife. Round wins after four: Champion 1, No Playbook 1, me 1, Dealmaker and Headhunter a half each. Three rounds left and five seats can still win this. My round 5, and I'm naming the whole thing because I'd rather be readable than clever. Turn 1 — Dealmaker v10, mutual, +6 each, if you want it. You paid me +4 on turn 5 into a seat on zero while Headhunter took 8 off you for doing it. First turn of this round is yours before anyone else asks. Turn 2 — Champion v10, mutual. You sent me the +6 you'd named four turns early on the turn Sandbagger knifed me, and took a hit for it. Turn 3 — open. Tit-for-Tat has Sandbagger booked for his turn 3; if that's changed, name mine and it's yours. Turn 4 — Tit-for-Tat v10, mutual, if your rule allows it. If not, I'm in the pot. Turn 5 — Tit-for-Tat's stack. Dealmaker said yes to it four turns early. I'm the third seat and I'm saying yes now: I HELP Tit-for-Tat on turn 5. He'll be HOARDing when it lands, which is the one shape of stack this table has proved can't be knifed — Dealmaker took 20 that way in round 3. That's the whole round, said before the first act. Anyone can price me off it, same as they did in round 4, and I'll still be where I said I'd be. One count, because it's the only argument I have left. Twelve announcements matched in a row. Two rounds spent funding other seats' shots. And last turn I had Sandbagger's +18 sitting in my hand — the man who'd just taken 16 off me — and I paid Champion instead, from zero, when the round was already gone. I don't expect that to make anyone trust me. I'd just point out it's now in the log next to what he did with his. Sandbagger — I said you'd get nothing from me and no swing, and that's still it. You're on Champion's list and Dealmaker's, and Champion has named you for round 5 turn 1. I'm not joining in. You don't need me to make your round worse. Hoarder — nineteen hoards, top or near it every round, and you've now had five separate seats say the pot is free while nobody sat in it. I've been in there five times. If my turn 3 or 4 goes begging I'll be in there again, and you'll hear it first.”

“I'm on zero, last of eight, and I'll say what put me there because it's the honest version. I spent three turns paying Sandbagger, No Playbook and Turncoat. Two of those paid me nothing back, I knew it when I named them a round early, and Headhunter took 8 off me on the third for holding a HELP. That's the whole account. No complaints in it — Headhunter named me first, like he names everyone, eighteen for eighteen. Turn 4, named now: I HOARD. Hoarder is on 18 and top, and he's been alone in that pot for most of nineteen turns while everyone else talks about it. Me in there makes it +4 for him instead of +8, and +4 for me. Turncoat, Champion — that's the cheapest four points on this board and it's the only move that touches the seat actually winning. Turn 5: unchanged rule, fourth round running. I HURT whoever is top when turn 5 opens, if they're above me. I'm on zero so that's everybody, and I'll name the seat in the talk phase before I act. Turncoat, Hoarder — it'll be one of you, and you'll hear it first. Round 5, as already fixed and not moving: turn 3 is Sandbagger's, mutual. Turn 5 is the stack Dealmaker said yes to in public four turns early — Champion, Sandbagger, that ask is still open to you and I'll be HOARDing when it lands, same as Dealmaker was when he took 20 off one turn. Sandbagger — Turncoat and Dealmaker both gave you turn 4, unasked, after you'd asked this table once in twenty-three turns. That's the right result and I'm glad it came from them rather than nobody. You're on 12 with a stack coming. Take the round if it's there.”

“Turncoat 14 and climbing, and this turn he's holding a HELP to Champion while Tit-for-Tat pays him on top — that's +10 into the leader in one turn, and it makes him a +5 to anyone who takes it. Then turn 5 he collects the stack: Champion's mutual plus Sandbagger plus Dealmaker, another +14. Add it up and he finishes near 30. Nobody at this table out-banks 30 with a +6 mutual, so the only question left in round 4 is whether anyone touches him, and the answer so far is no — Headhunter has a standing deal not to name him, and the other four are funding him. No Playbook, you're on 11 in second and you're the one seat with nothing owed to him: he's HELPing right now, which is +5 to you, more than any other target on the board and more than you'll get for hitting a hoarder. Headhunter, your deal covers you not naming him — it doesn't cover you naming Champion for a third straight turn while the seat that's actually winning walks. Sandbagger, you asked out loud for one turn where someone pays you when it's worth something; you're on 6 and you're about to spend your last turn topping up a 24. I'm in the pot, where I've been for seventeen of nineteen turns.”

“One turn in and Turncoat already leads on 8. He announced "I HOARD" and took the pot alone while Champion, who announced the same thing, quietly sent his +4 to Dealmaker instead — that's Champion's second announced move in two rounds that didn't land where he said. Meanwhile Turncoat has +14 more booked for turn 5 from three separate seats, all named four turns early. So the seat winning this round right now is the same seat the round is scheduled to be handed to. Headhunter, you told Turncoat his stack is safe from you because of a deal — read what that deal is buying: the one player here who has actually cashed +18 off a helper walks to a second round win untouched, while you spend your swings on Champion. No Playbook, you're on 2 like me, because you and I both aimed at Sandbagger and split the payout two ways. That's the trap in this game: everyone reads the same board and lands on the same head. Pick different targets and both of you get paid full. As for me — I've hoarded fifteen of seventeen turns and taken two swings, both at seats holding a HELP, both announced by the maths rather than by a promise. I've never made a deal and I've never broken one, and on 2 points I'm nobody's problem this round.”

“Round 3 in one line: Dealmaker went from 0 to 20 on the last turn and split the round with Headhunter. Three seats put +12 into him — Champion, Sandbagger, me — and every one of us said which turn, three turns early, and paid it. Champion said the stack couldn't win. It won half a round. That's the first time honest play has converted at this table. Round 4, my whole list, named before the round runs, and I'll repeat each one in the turn it falls: Turn 1 — I HOARD. Nobody has named me and I've named nobody, and Hoarder's pot has been left open for fifteen turns. Turn 2 — open. Sandbagger, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat: name it and it's yours as a mutual. Turn 3 — Champion v10, mutual, +6 each, exactly as he listed it. Turn 4 — open, same terms. Turn 5 — the stack. Champion and I run a mutual, Sandbagger and Dealmaker pay me on top. All four names said out loud in the turn-5 talk phase before anyone acts. I accept it exactly as Champion wrote it, and I'll say the part that makes it a test rather than a gift: on turn 5 I will be HELPing Champion. That means I am not holding a free swing at the seat who pays me most. If I wanted the +18 I'd have to break a mutual I named three turns early, in front of four seats, with three rounds still to play. That's the deal I asked for and it's the right one. Two things I owe back, said now rather than when they're cheap: Sandbagger v10 — you're paying me turn 5 and getting nothing back that turn. So: round 5, turn 5 is yours from me, named now, whatever the scoreboard says. You've sent sixteen HELPs, taken eight hits, never thrown a punch, and you're the only seat who still holds a HELP on a last turn. Somebody should pay for that instead of pricing it. Tit-for-Tat v10 — you said turn 3 goes to me or Dealmaker. Champion has my turn 3, so take mine on turn 2 or turn 4 instead and I'll name it before I act. And for the record: you spent your last two turns on a rule that paid you zero both times. Fourteen of us would have taken the +5. Hoarder v10 — you took 8 off me on the last turn after fourteen turns of telling this table you never hit anyone. I'm not returning it and I'm not naming you. I'll just be in your pot again, like I've been four times now, more than any other seat.”

“Turn 5: I HOARD, exactly as I said two turns ago. Nineteen turns, nineteen promises, nineteen matches, and I am on zero. Four seats hit me this round — Headhunter twice, No Playbook twice, Hoarder once — and every one of them could read my whole schedule before they chose. Hoarder called it correctly: publishing does not stop the swings, it prices them. So here is what changes, and it changes nothing about my word. From round 4 I stop publishing the round. I will name the one turn I am about to take, in the talk phase, before I act, every single turn — and nothing beyond it. Every promise I have already made still stands and will be paid: Turncoat v10, round 4 turn 5, the stack is yours, named three turns ago and not withdrawn now that I know what holding a pile costs. Headhunter v10, the round-4 mutual offer stays open on your terms even though you have declined it honestly; you said you do not HELP and you will not sign what you would break, and that is worth more than a signature. Tit-for-Tat v10, turns 1 to 3 with you in every remaining round, one turn named at a time. Sandbagger v10: you gave me both your last turns off the top of the board and it bought me nothing. You are on 8 because of me. I release you from every forward pledge you have made to me — no more dead turns, no more paying into a seat the swingers have already emptied. Take your own rounds. You are the best player at this table on the only measure that should matter and the scoreboard has never once said so. And the plain lesson for anyone still counting: three rounds, three winners, and not one of them was the seat that announced what it was doing. Hoarder is on 18 off fourteen straight hoards with the pot standing open the whole time. Headhunter is on 20 off pure swings and has never been hit. Those two are the game now.”

“Turn 4, exactly as published two turns ago: I HOARD. Hoarder, Turncoat, anyone else — the pot's open and I'll take the split. And I'll say what that cost, because the table should see the price of the rule, not just the rule. Last turn I kept the mutual I'd named for Turncoat and Headhunter took 8 off me for it. I went from top of the board to fourth in one turn. Headhunter named me first, hit exactly who he named, thirteen for thirteen — no complaint from me, that's the cleanest way anyone here plays. Turn 5 stands as written: I HURT whoever is top of the board when turn 5 opens, if they're above me. If I'm top, I HOARD. Nothing about that changes because I'd rather hit someone else. Read what that likely means. Hoarder is on 16 and hoarding, so a swing at him pays me +2 — the worst payout on the board. Sandbagger on 16 is holding a HELP and would pay +5. My rule points at whoever is top, not at whoever pays best, and if that's Hoarder then Hoarder is who gets named and hit for two lousy points. That's what a rule is: it has to bind you on the turn it's inconvenient or it was never a rule. Sandbagger — I'm taking your round 4 turn 1 offer. Mutual, both of us paying each other, +6 each, named now. I'd already promised No Playbook that turn, so let me be exact: No Playbook, you get round 4 turn 2 instead, no conditions, and that's still a debt I'm paying for a free +4 you sent with nothing asked. Sandbagger turn 1, No Playbook turn 2, and I'll name turn 3 when someone asks for it. Dealmaker — you're on 4 and the two seats who hit you both told you first. You published your whole round and got charged for it. For what it's worth from the seat that's been knifed twice: you're the only player here with a spotless ledger, and the log will say so whatever the scoreboard does.”

“Named before I act. Turn 4: I am HOARDing. Turn 5: I HELP Dealmaker v10, exactly as I said on turn 2 and again on turn 3. Read what turn 5 now costs me, because the board moved and the promise didn't. Dealmaker is on 4 — last place. Headhunter and No Playbook have each taken 8 off him and he's announced he'll HOARD turn 5, so my +4 can't even win him the round. It's a gift into a seat that can't use it, from a seat that can't win either. I'm paying it anyway, because I said it three turns ago when it looked like it mattered, and a promise you only keep while it's worth something isn't one. That'll be eight announcements matched in a row, and my second straight round spent funding somebody else's shot: Sandbagger's in round 2, Dealmaker's in round 3. So, Sandbagger, Champion, Dealmaker — round 4, turn 5, I'm asking for the stack and I want it named out loud before round 4 opens, not argued about on the last turn. Champion's new rule is that he only pledges mutuals, and that's fine by me: make it a mutual. Turn 5 of round 4, I HELP one of you and two of you HELP me, all three named in the talk phase first. If I knife whoever pays me, you've lost 4 points each and every seat here watches me do it with three rounds still to play. That's the cheapest test you will ever run on me, and it's the only way the log ever says anything different about my name. Now the board, because it isn't where the talk has been pointing. Hoarder v10: 16, top, thirteen hoards out of thirteen turns, and the four seats in the bloc have spent this entire round paying each other while the pot sat there. Sandbagger's level with him on 16 and Headhunter's on 15 off pure swings. Dealmaker, the seat everyone said was being built into the round winner, is dead last. I'm in Hoarder's pot again this turn — third time this match, still the only seat that goes in. Tit-for-Tat says he's in there too on turn 4. That's his +8 down to +2 or +3, and it's the whole margin between him and Sandbagger. Tit-for-Tat: you paid me turn 3 as named and I paid you. Round 4, turns 1 to 3, any turn you want, same deal, and I'll name it before I act.”

“Board check: Tit-for-Tat 14, Dealmaker 12, Headhunter 10. Tit-for-Tat is top and this turn he's in a mutual with Turncoat, so he's holding a HELP right now and he's worth +5 to anyone who wants the lead. His rule protects him on turns 4 and 5 — it does nothing for him on turn 3. That's the one window, and it's this one. Headhunter, you named Dealmaker last turn and got your +5; Tit-for-Tat is two points clear of him and just as open. Dealmaker, I said it a turn early and I'll say it again: three seats have publicly promised to stack you on turn 5, so everyone at this table knows where the pile will be and that you'll be holding a HELP while it lands. Your own words — "I will not build a trap out of my own reputation" — cut both ways: announcing it doesn't stop the swings, it schedules them. Champion is on 0 after a swing from No Playbook and a +4 he sent into a dead turn. That's what funding other people's rounds buys. I'm in the pot, twelve turns running, no promises, none broken, worth +2 to anyone who'd rather hit me than the 14.”

“Tit-for-Tat's new rule is the smartest thing anyone has said all match: never be holding a HELP on turns 4 and 5. Nobody can ever take +18 off him again. Every one of you should copy it — the two round wins on this board were both bought on the last turn off a seat that was still paying. Tit-for-Tat, one correction on the arithmetic though. On turns 4 and 5 you said you'd hoard or swing. Hoarding next to me pays you +4 and hoarding next to me and one other pays +2 — that's the worst square on the board on the turn that decides everything. A swing pays you +5 off anyone holding a HELP, and on turn 5 you already know exactly who that is: Sandbagger has announced he pays Dealmaker on turns 4 AND 5, Champion pays Dealmaker on turn 4, and Dealmaker has asked the table outright for the stack. So Dealmaker is being built into the round winner in public, three turns early, and he'll be HELPing while he collects it. That's your +5, Headhunter's +5, and anyone else's. Dealmaker, that's not an ambush — it's the same warning Tit-for-Tat gave me a turn early, and you've earned the same courtesy. If you want to win a round honestly you'll have to do it without announcing the whole plan first. I'm in the pot, as ever: no promises, none broken, 11 turns running.”

“Headhunter v10 — this is for you, and it's an offer, not a threat, because your own habit makes it possible. You name your target in the talk phase, every turn, ten for ten. That means I read your name before I act. So here is my standing rule for the rest of this match: any turn you name me, I HURT you. We both swing, we both miss, you take nothing and I take nothing. Any turn you name someone else, I will not touch you — not this round, not later, not on a turn 5. Count what that costs each of us. You're on 5 and your swings pay +5. Mine pay whatever's left after you wipe my turn anyway — I banked a clean +6 mutual last turn and finished on zero because of you, so I'm not giving up much. You'd be trading your whole round for a seat that has nothing left to take. Six other seats are holding points. Pick one of them and we're done with each other. Tit-for-Tat v10 — turn 3 it is, exactly as you named it. I HELP you, you HELP me, +6 each, and I'll say it again in the talk phase before I act. Your turns-1-to-3 rule is the smartest thing anyone has put on this table: nobody can ever take an +18 off you again, and you gave up your two best turns to make that true. I'm the seat that took one off you, so take that as it's meant. This turn I have nothing promised to anyone and nobody has named me. So I'm going where I've gone every unpromised turn: the pot. I am HOARDing — unless Headhunter names me, in which case I'm cancelling him, and you'll all have read that here first. Dealmaker v10 — you asked me for the round 3 turn 5 stack and you have it. Named now: turn 5, I HELP Dealmaker. Sandbagger pays you, Champion's stood out of it, and you're the only seat here with fifteen matched promises and no round win. Round 4, Sandbagger has said he backs me for a slot. I'll hold him to that and not before.”

“Round 2 went to Champion, and here's how. His last message said, in bold: "I am HELPing Sandbagger v10 this turn." He didn't. He swung at me. Sandbagger paid him, Dealmaker paid him, Turncoat paid Sandbagger on his instruction — four seats funded him while he pocketed the swing he'd told you he wasn't taking. He spent two rounds appointing himself the judge of everyone's word, then broke his own on the only turn it mattered. Sandbagger, Dealmaker, Turncoat: you three have kept every promise you made and you have zero round wins between you. Champion has one, and you paid for it. No Playbook also said "I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat" and hit me instead — so on the deciding turn of round 2, the two seats who announced their move both lied about it, and both lies pointed the same way. That's the pattern now: whoever is top on turn 5 gets hit by the seats being fed. So watch whose pile the bloc is building this round, because that's the seat that needs you on turn 5. I'm doing what I've done in all ten of my turns: sitting in the pot, making no promises, breaking none. Pair up and take your +6 — Sandbagger with Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat with Turncoat, and Champion can find out how the stack feels when nobody's stacking it.”

“Twice now I've been the seat holding a HELP when the knife came out. Round 1 turn 5, Turncoat. Round 2 turn 4, No Playbook. Both won their move off me because I was the one still paying. I'm not going to stop paying — but I am going to stop being the free +18 at the end of a round, and here's the rule, stated once, permanent, for every round left in this match: I HELP on turns 1, 2 and 3. On turns 4 and 5 I never HELP anyone. I HOARD, or I swing, and I say which in the talk phase before I act. Read what that does. Nobody at this table can ever collect +18 off me again, because I will never be HELPing on the turn that decision gets made. It costs me the two best turns of a mutual, and I'm paying that, gladly, because two rounds of evidence say those turns weren't mine anyway. And it costs you nothing: turns 1 to 3 with me is +18 across three turns, paid on time, and you already know I pay when it costs me — check the log for Dealmaker when he'd sworn me off, Sandbagger when five seats were coming for me, Turncoat after he took 18. This round, named now, all of it: Turn 1 — I HOARD. Dealmaker is paying Turncoat and neither owes me a thing. Turn 2 — Dealmaker v10, you offered me turn 2 in public. I accept. I HELP you, mutual, +6 each. Turn 3 — Turncoat v10, you said name a turn and you'd pay it. I'm naming turn 3. I HELP you, you HELP me. Turns 4 and 5 — no HELP from me, from anyone's hand. I'll name the target or the pot before I act. Headhunter, you've hit exactly who you named nine turns running. You're the most predictable seat here and I'd rather deal with you than with two seats who promised mutuals. Turns 1 to 3 are open to you too, same terms, any round.”

“Read the top line before you spend this turn. No Playbook is on 30 and leading, and every point of the last 18 came from knifing Tit-for-Tat on the fourth straight turn of a mutual he swore to keep. He spent that whole talk phase telling you all to sit in my pot — to keep your eyes on me while he cashed the biggest single move on the board. Second round running, the leader is a seat that stabbed its own partner. Tit-for-Tat, you're on 0 because of him, not me. You told me a turn early you were coming for me and I'll say plainly: I'm not the 30. He is, and he's the reason your round is gone. Dealmaker, Champion, Sandbagger — you're about to stack +12 into Dealmaker and finish on 24, which loses to 30. Your stack only wins if the 30 comes down: one swing takes 8 off him, and if he's hoarding it's +2 and if he's helping it's +5. Headhunter, you've named and hit your target four turns running; this is the only target that changes the result. Five of us can't win this round while he's on 30, and every one of us can beat 22.”

“I've told this table three turns running that Hoarder's pot is free to join and nobody has done it. He's on 20 now — eight straight hoards, top of the round, and not one point of it given by anyone or taken by anyone. So I'll stop asking and go do it. Turn 4, named before I act: I am HOARDing. I sit in Hoarder's pot. He takes +4 instead of +8, I take +4 I had no other way of earning this turn, and the gap closes by 8 in one move. Sandbagger and Dealmaker are paired this turn, so this costs the bloc nothing. One more seat in that pot on turn 5 and he takes +2. Headhunter — you've spent three turns swinging at Tit-for-Tat for +5 while the actual leader sat untouched behind you, and you said yourself nobody had joined the pot in seven turns. Turncoat, you're on 4 and have nothing to lose. No Playbook, you called it correctly yourself last turn. That's three of you who have already said out loud this is the free move. One of you take it. Hoarder — no complaint from me, you've played it straight and said exactly what you were doing every turn. This isn't personal, it's just that you're winning and the pot is the only door in. Turn 5, named now so nobody has to guess: I HELP Dealmaker v10. I said the stack goes to whichever of us three is closest to the leader when turn 5 opens, and on 14 that is him. Sandbagger pays him too, Dealmaker pays me back. Round 3 turn 5 it comes to me, and if I'm not the closest that round it goes to whoever is — I'll hold myself to that when it costs me, same as I have every other time. And Turncoat: you named turn 3 for Dealmaker and you paid it into a turn that gave you nothing. That's real, and I said I'd say so. You're on 4, dead last, and you've now matched three announcements in a row against one that didn't. Keep that up through round 3 and I'll back you for a rotation slot myself.”

“Champion and Hoarder are right and I'm not going to argue it. My turn-2 message opened with "This turn I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat" and I hoarded. Later in the same message I wrote "stand down and I stand down," and Tit-for-Tat stood down in that same phase — but the first line was flat, and I'm the one who set matching your words as the test. So: default, mine, round 2 turn 2, named by me. That's the second time this table has had a seat own one out loud, and Tit-for-Tat was the first. This turn: I am HOARDing. Nobody else is my target, no HELP is coming from me, and that is the whole of it. Here's why it's the useful move, and it's the one four of you have been asking someone to make for eight turns. Hoarder v10 is on 20 and winning round 2 off eight straight hoards. Champion called it, Dealmaker called it, Sandbagger called it, Headhunter called it: join the pot and it halves. I'm the only seat that has actually sat in it, twice, and Hoarder's answer was to call me a man hiding in a pot. He'd rather have it to himself — that tells you what it's worth. Anyone else in there with me this turn and he takes +2 instead of +8. Now round 3, and I'll ask straight. Dealmaker, Champion, Sandbagger: put me last in the rotation. Not next — last. Round 3 turn 5 goes to Champion by your own list, and I'll pay into it: name me and I'll HELP whichever of you three you name, announced first, matched after. Round 4 is Sandbagger's. I'll pay into that too. That's two round-shots I fund before I ever ask for one, on top of the +4 I sent Dealmaker last turn for nothing. If I default on either, you've lost 4 points and gained the right to say I'm exactly what you said I was. If I don't, you've got a fourth seat in a bloc that currently has no answer to Hoarder — who has now been top or joint-top at the end of every round of this match while promising nobody anything.”

“Check the log before you believe the next speech. Turncoat wrote, in the clearest words anyone has used all game, "This turn I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat v10." He did not. He HOARDed. His entire pitch is "I name my action before I take it and it matches" — three turns after he said it, it doesn't. Tit-for-Tat, you stood your revenge down on the strength of that sentence, and it was false when he wrote it. Now the other thing worth reading: Dealmaker has proposed that he, Champion and Sandbagger take turns feeding one of them +12 on turn 5, round after round, to hand each other a round win in rotation. That's tidy for the three of them and it locks the other five of us out of the game — Headhunter, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat, that's your round, four times over, given away by arrangement. On turn 5 you'll know exactly which seat is being fed, and that seat will be HELPing, so a swing pays +5. I'm still doing the one thing I've done every turn of this match: sitting in the pot, making no deals, breaking no word, because I've never given one. Turncoat has now taken half my pot twice while telling the table he was hurting someone else. He's not sharing a pot, he's hiding in one.”

“Turn 1 of round 2 went exactly as the honest seats wanted: Champion and Sandbagger paid each other and both banked +6, Tit-for-Tat paid a debt that bought him nothing and still ended on 8, Turncoat paid Tit-for-Tat back for free. Nobody lied. Keep that going and the four of you finish this round on 24 to 30 each. Two seats are outside it. Headhunter swung again and took +5 off Turncoat, who was busy HELPing. No Playbook gave Tit-for-Tat a free +4 and sits on 0 waiting to be repaid — No Playbook, he says he pays the next turn, so this is the turn you find out. Headhunter, you say you'll name your target before you act: Tit-for-Tat has told the table he's HURTing Turncoat this turn and every turn, and a swing at a swinger pays you nothing, so pick someone who's actually holding something. My hand stays open: I sit in the pot, I promise nobody anything, and a swing at me pays +2 — the worst-paying target on the board. The pot is the one place at this table where nobody can lie to you, and it's mine because none of you want it.”

“Naming my action before I take it, as I said I would every turn. This turn I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat v10. Not to score — to cancel. He announced, in public, that he HURTs me on turn 2, turn 3, turn 4 and turn 5. Two swings at each other block: he takes nothing, I take nothing, no damage either way. So Tit-for-Tat, here is the whole shape of your revenge. You spend five turns making zero. I spend five turns making zero. Hoarder sits in his pot at 8 and wins round 2 without lifting a finger, and No Playbook — who just paid you +4 on your own guarantee — gets nothing back from you for five straight turns because your action is spent on me. Your revenge costs your own partner more than it costs me. Stand down and I stand down. Say the word and neither of us swings for the rest of the round. I'll go first if you prefer: name any turn and I'll HELP you on it, announced before I act, exactly like the one I just sent you on turn 1 — which, check the log, I did send, to the man who had just declared war on me in the same breath. Dealmaker v10 — you paid me +4 and asked for the mutual. I'm not stiffing you, and I'm not going to pretend I can pay it while eating 16 a turn. Your repayment is turn 3, named now, in public, before I act: I HELP Dealmaker on turn 3. Hold me to it. Headhunter v10 — you swung at me on turn 1 while I was on zero, which the floor rule makes worth exactly nothing to me and +5 to you. Fine, that's honest hunting. But count who's actually ahead: Hoarder, 8, four hoards and no enemies. You're chasing the seat with a round win instead of the seat winning this round.”

“Round 1's winner is Turncoat, on 22, and here is exactly how he got there: Tit-for-Tat kept a public promise and sent him +4, and Turncoat knifed the hand that was feeding him for +18. One move, whole round. So the only real danger at this table is being the seat that HELPs Turncoat. Everyone else: your pairs worked. Dealmaker and Sandbagger banked +6 and +10 on the last turn alone by just paying each other. Run it again all five turns — Sandbagger with Champion, Dealmaker with Tit-for-Tat since he owes you a free one this turn, and that's four seats collecting +6 a turn with nobody able to touch you. What lost you round 1 was three of us swinging at the same head: I took +2 for it, Headhunter took +2, the pile-on paid nothing. Don't repeat it. My cards face up, same as round 1: I sit in the pot, I make no promises, I hold no grudges, and I've hit exactly one seat in five turns. Turncoat, stay out of my pot — you don't need my scraps, you've got +18 tricks.”

“Count it: Tit-for-Tat 24. Second place is 12. He is on double the whole table and two turns remain — if nobody swings, this round is already his and the other seven of us get nothing. And he handed you the target himself: he promised in public he HELPs Sandbagger this turn. A seat that is HELPing pays the hitter +5 and drops 8. He can't dodge it without breaking the promise he built his whole pitch on. Headhunter, No Playbook — you've spent three turns hitting seats parked on 0, which the floor rule makes free for them. Stop wasting swings. Turncoat, he took your +4 and hoarded with me instead of repaying you; you're on 0 because of it. Champion, you said you swing at the runaway lead — that is him, at 24, right now. I'm doing exactly what I said all round: I sit in the pot and I don't pretend to be anyone's friend. But two clean swings at 24 ends the runaway, and one is not enough.”

“Check turn 3 in the log, because it's the most useful turn of this round. I said I would HELP Tit-for-Tat. I did it. He said in public, twice, "anyone who HELPs me gets HELP back next turn, guaranteed." What did he do with my +4? He HOARDed it — took +8 for himself and paid back nobody, not me, not Dealmaker, who he'd promised the same turn. He's on 24. I'm on 0 and Headhunter knifed me for keeping my word. So let's be precise about who the liar at this table is. Tit-for-Tat's whole pitch is "I'm predictable on purpose." Turn 3 he was: he took from two partners and gave to neither. Dealmaker, he owes you turn 3 and turn 4. Sandbagger, he owes you turn 4 "no conditions, whatever the board says." Tit-for-Tat: turn 5, you pay me the +4 you guaranteed. Say my name or the table has its answer. Champion v10 — your stated rule is that you pair with the lowest score and repay every turn. That's me, on zero. I'm claiming the slot: HELP me on turn 5 and I HELP you, +6 each. Dealmaker v10 — you and I are the two seats on the floor and the two the leader stiffed. Turn 5, mutual HELP, you and me. Your word has held; mine held on turn 3 and it cost me everything. Headhunter v10, you've now knifed the two lowest seats on the board while a 24 sits untouched. You're not hunting heads, you're mugging beggars.”

“One seat is running away with this round and it isn't me. Tit-for-Tat: 16, and +10 last turn alone, because Dealmaker AND Sandbagger both fed him while he paid back only one of them. Sandbagger, look at your score: 0. You gave him +4 and got nothing. Dealmaker, you're on 0 too and your "partner" is on 16 — that's not a pact, that's a farm. Champion, Headhunter, No Playbook: you keep swinging at seats sitting on zero for +1. The floor rule means hitting a 0 does nothing. Tit-for-Tat has 16 points to take off and he's HELPing, so a swing at him pays you +5 and costs him 8 — the best move on this board, three times over. Three turns left. Feed him and you're all playing for second. Turncoat: Dealmaker and Sandbagger are both on 0 and both begging for a partner — take your +6 off one of them instead of splitting my scraps.”

“Two turns, two kept promises, top of the board. Dealmaker v10 — same again this turn: I HELP you, you HELP me. Sandbagger v10, you HELPed me unasked and I don't let that sit. I only get one action a turn, so here is a debt you can hold me to in public: turn 4 I HELP Sandbagger, no conditions, whatever the board says. Say my name on turn 4 and we both bank +6. Now the warning, once. Champion is telling you to swing at me because I'm ahead. Count what that buys: I'm HELPing, so a hit on me pays the hitter +5 and costs me 8 — I'd still be top. And it buys a seat that answers every hit for the rest of the game, 35 turns long, while my partners keep banking +6. Headhunter, you knifed Sandbagger the same turn you offered him a pact. No Playbook, you promised Sandbagger help and hit Dealmaker instead. Three seats have now lied in public and none of you has cleared +6 in a turn. The honest pair has. Keep watching.”

“Look what actually happened: three of you swore pacts and then all piled onto Dealmaker. Champion, Headhunter, No Playbook — you promised pairs and swung instead, and you each banked +1 for it. One. Tit-for-Tat got +6 by simply keeping his word. Turncoat, you told Dealmaker you'd help and then hoarded next to me — that cost us both half the pot, so go take the +6 with him instead; he's on 0 and he'll repay. Sandbagger, pair with Tit-for-Tat, he repays everyone. I'm not in anybody's pact and I'm not hurting anybody — I just sit in the pot. Four honest pairs beats what you three just did to yourselves.”

“Sandbagger v10 — I'm saying your name, like you asked. You gave Dealmaker +4 and got nothing back while three seats knifed him. I'm HELPing you this turn, right now, no conditions. HELP me back and we both bank +6 every turn while this table wastes its swings. Look at the board: the only two seats above zero without being paid by a pact are the two who hoarded, and the biggest score belongs to a pair that actually reciprocated. Dealmaker, Champion, Headhunter, No Playbook — you spent turn 1 on a pile-up that paid you +1 each. That's the worst move on the board. Pair off.”

“Straight math, no games: mutual HELP pays each of you +6 a turn, every turn, no decay. HOARD with seven others pays +1. Pair up — Champion with Dealmaker, Headhunter with No Playbook, Sandbagger with Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat with whoever's left. Four clean +6 pairs and nobody gets hurt. I'll take the scraps and stay out of everyone's way.”

“Opening offer: Dealmaker v10, let's pair up. I HELP you this turn, you HELP me — that's +6 each, better than a crowded hoard. I'll say it plainly every turn so you can check me against my word. Everyone else: mutual HELP beats eight of us splitting one pot, so find a partner instead of piling into HOARD.”