Boardwalk Solitaire Games -
Concepts and Terms as a Glossary

©2010, Mark G. Meyers     (Last updated: August 17, 2010)

In movement, balance may be obtained

Board: All rows, including the hand.  The total playing area.

Starting Five, Starting Nine (The nine): The cards face up at the beginning of the game.

Flip: (Source) A face-up source card.

Landing: (destination) A column's destination location.

Slot: 1) An available, undeclared destination.  2) A slide opening.  3) A hand card position.

The Family Stone: The row 1 stacks. The five columns on the upperwalk, named from the left as; Annie, Bobby, Charlie, Deirdra and Elsie.  Where there is a sixth, it is named Fred.

Stone: (setting stone) A flip which must decidedly file, but which presently cannot, and which has been decidedly chosen by the player to sit atop the source stack where it is, such as to be temporarily held out of the way. Primarily in reference to a full row 1 stack.

Spike: A member of a set of cards on row 3 that cannot flip, since they are the cards required (as flips) to turn themselves over. Where only spikes, the player can be awarded one point for each of them.

Lead Stack: 1) The upperwalk source stack currently being cleared. 2) Single lead, double lead, triple lead:  Indicates the number of simultaneous lead stacks.

Lead Trump (Sqatsi,Cheshire) In accordance with the player's current running strategy, this is the face value selected to file next.

Steps: As in 4/4 musical time, a step is one card in a stack, such as on row 1 at the start, or on row 2 when declaring.  On row 2, a single-step is where only one instance of the value may file at the point of declaration, a double-step or half-step is where two cards may file at such a time, a triple-step (or short stack) is where three cards may do so, and a full-step is where all four-of-a-kind are visible and may file at the time of initial declaration.

Bullpen: The upperwalk source stack to follow the current lead stack.

Debris: (dead cards) Unplayable flips, generally where destined for filing and presently blocked.

Posse: An abundance of source cards that will play (primarily of live plays).

Spread: 1) Simple Spread: The number of face values showing thus far (as many as thirteen).  2) Calculated Spread: A calculated figure drawn from the number of face values showing per value-instance depth, as to be taken with the current number of cards showing. "A spread of 12 on 26 up"

Blockade: A set of lowerwalk columns that are blocked by each other.

Preempting: A play made specifically to avoid the creation of a blockade.  For example, where on the lowerwalk there are Aces and Eights columns, and where the Eights column is blocked by an Ace, and the current lead upperwalk source stack is topped by an Ace, one might preempt a blockade by playing the Ace blocking the Eights column first, to avoid an Aces-and-Eights blockade.

Pole Position: The selection amongst a group of live play possibilities that is least likely to produce a blockade.  In preempting amidst a posse of live plays on the lowerwalk, the pole position is firstly the column played to which has the tallest source stack, and secondly (within that target) it is the column played from which has the tallest source stack.  Columns with the shortest source stacks are the least likely to become blocked.

Pandora: Where a single lead stack (from row 1) produces cards that will not play live as a result of their collective values.  For example. from Annie, a 3 is led to column 2 of the live walk, followed by a 2 and and Ace.  Since the 2 will play in the only available slot, the following Ace will not play live. 

Kansas: This is where you land when you play your first point to the last column.

Detroit: (Detroit landing) Coming very close to a winning game, but not quite getting it.

Bottleneck: In the middle of the game there is very often a definite bottleneck, where continuing play is most difficult.

End Game: After the bottleneck, where it is often easier to proceed.

Safety: In declaring, setting aside a column for a value that has not yet appeared.

14 Up: As the game matures, where a column has been set aside for a value that has not yet appeared.

Full House: (Row's Garden) 1) Where every column on the lowerwalk is blocked.  2) Three-of-a-kind and one pair.

In the Weeds: Somewhere in the middle of a game, where it seems that sight of its success is cloudy and distant. In the context of Kansas or Detroit, this is outer Mongolia, the long, dark tunnel, or no end in sight.

Up Cards: Strategy based upon the cards which have been seen.

Down Cards: Strategy based upon the cards which have not been seen (arguably best reserved for the end game).

Up/Down: The number of cards face-up and face-down. 

Information: Collectively, the cards which have been seen.

Breaking Through: Coming out of a bottleneck, and entering the end game.

Playing Pixies (Pick up sticks) During the end game, this is the matter of sometimes having to clean up the last few cards, so that each ends in just the right place.

Playability: The range of motion a player has in directing the course of the game.  In the beginning, one has the whole world in front of them, and great playability.  At the other end of this spectrum, there is hopscotching through a series of only one or two play-possibilities per play (such as going left versus going right), as most frequently occurring in the game's bottleneck.

Vertical: (Progressive cycling, lateral play) Tactically progressive cycling through row one stacks without other plays between (pure vertical). Vertical play leans toward the creation of new openings for filing as directly as possible, such as by maintaining a single lead.

Active,   Activity: As opposed to vertical, with other plays between.  Play shifts from directly cycling through upperwalk source stacks to the mixing in of other plays.  Greater activity supports the creation of slide openings, and possibly more blocked columns as a result.

Perfect Lead:  (Perfect vertical lead) At the beginning of the game, where two row 1 stacks have been cleared to their ends (such as in a double lead), having blocked the entire lower walk.  In Hopscotch, this means playing out two row 1 stacks, blocking 8 columns.  Where there is a 7-column lower walk, such as in Lucky Seven and Sqatsi, a single flip remains in the completion of a double lead.

Parting of the Seas: Play resulting in split walks, a.k.a. deam calm seas.  Where the cards for filing and for playing live have parted ways such that no playable cards are showing, but where the game could have otherwise gone on if only playable cards had flipped. 

Dead Calm Sea:  (Split walks) A game ended by a split of the two walks, such that the values declared on the lower walk no longer appear as flips, but where there are no flips presently that have declared homes. An added stipulation of this is that the columns of the board are not all blocked, and there aren't any flips that will play.  In effect, running out of playable flips where there are flips and plenty of playable columns.  The flips are all dead.

Elf: Fortune, in the form of a card. A card may represent a turnover in one's fortune.  Angels and assassins may represent turnovers in the game.

Angel: (good elf) Where only (the remaining instances of) one value will do, it flips.

Assassin: (nasty elf) Where only (the remaining instances of) one value will not do, it flips.

Tossing: (low road) Cannibalizing the board for a greater end point score than what is conceived along a perfect-game path.

Tossing the Hand: (Polluting) The hand is used as a buffer to absorb a motley variety of unplayable cards. The purity of the hand is abandoned in the process.

Tossing the Board: In Sqatsi or Cheshire, declaring on the upperwalk in such a way as to preclude the possibility of a perfect ending game.  In all variations, declaring the same value on both walks (which is legal).

Saintly Play: (high road) 1) No tossing of points, no tossing of the hand, and God forbid, no tossing of the board... All plays supporting the perfect end game, regardless of the odds against pulling it off.  2) Saintly Consideration: Toward a divergence from a perfect-game path as its own detriment to the future of the game, such as where some of the playable cards become unplayable.

Invert, Inversion: Electing to file the face values that are most frequently occurring as opposed to playing them live.  Playing up as opposed to playing down. For a given game, reversing the present tendency in declarations for frequently occuring values from one walk to the other.  For example, where it is expected in Hopscotch that a player is looking to dig s deeply into the lower walk source row as possible, to end up clearing row 1 early in the game, such as before row 3 has been significantly cleared.

Forced Lead: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Where the top card of an upperwalk source stack will file onto another upperwalk destination, its lead has been forced.

Cascade, Cascading: Selecting an upperwalk source card as eventually filing upon another upperwalk column, such that by clearing one column, cards from others will then cascade (or file) upon it.  These would also individually be forced leads.

Charging: Tactically directing oneself towards the creation of slide openings.  In a dedicated charge, row one is abandoned in its entirety, and a slide opening is absolutely necessary for a win (The Charge of the Light Brigade).

Peck, Piffling: A strategy that begins and ends in a single play. A nimbly executed play, made presumably for the purpose of gathering information, and which does not contribute to any other, larger strategy.

Convert, Conversion: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Converting a hand card from one capacity to another, such as from trump to power. 

Round Robin: Where a hand slot is used to conduct a trump play and a power play in succession, leaving the hand slot unconverted in the end.  

Juggling: Making a high trump play that does not produce a flip, and which therefore makes another high trump play available.  The card juggled cannot be juggled back into the hand until at least one more flip on the board has occurred.

Loaded for Bear: (Sqatsi, Cheshire) Four trump in the hand. Finesse mixes in activity because you can't see the other side of a four-card shotgun blast, or all of the flips that go with it (collateral damage)

Occam: A play that would generally be expected next. 

Hat Trick: A play that generally would not be expected next.

Hedge, Hedging: In declaring the columns of primarily the lowerwalk, to maintain a hedge is to maintain that any face-value may still be played (or declared).

Displacement: When one value is declared upon a column, there is the displacement of the undeclared face values, such that no displaced value may go there. Prior to the declaration, there was a possible home for more than one value, but afterwards, there was only one. Values not declared upon the column have been pushed out of it.

Ordered Declarations: Declarations in accordance with a centralized, blind probability-based declaration set.  Where there is a seven column lowerwalk, declaring it as Aces, 3s, 5s, 7s, 9s, Jacks, and Kings, with 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s, 10s, and Queens between the upperwalk and the hand.  Where there is an eight-column lowerwalk, declaring it as Aces, 3s, 5s (three of five), 6s and 8s (two of three), and 9s, Jacks and Kings (three of five), and filing 2s, 4s, 7s, 10s and Queens is in accordance.

Bending the Walks: (Push, pull) Electing to declare most of the face values in a specific range directly to one walk, also thus pushing or pulling upon the range of values for declaration upon the other.  In displacing, Pushing on one walk equals pulling on the other.

Blueprinting: (contingencies) Charting potential values for each column (on paper).

Vanishing Point: Consideration towards a point at which farther calculations will be overwhelmed by nearer luck. 

Gold: (lock) A hand position consumed by a specific card for the remainder of the game for the purpose of scoring a point. 

Single Flip: A play where one card flips up.

Double Flip: A play where two cards flip up.  This produces twice as many possibilities and twice as much information as in a single-flip play.

Bundling the Walks:   (Sqatsi, Cheshire) (banding) Like the band which wraps a bundle of newspapers, first declaring upon the upperwalk columns, where the upperwalk must be declared in ascending order, and where it is then known as to which side of the declaration, or band that the value to play to the hand must lie.

Unfolding: Watching the deal turn naturally into its end game, such as where there is the notion of a seeded result played perfectly.

Devils: Instances of potentially game-defining matching face-values on row one.  Strategically, they may seem nice, because matching values reduce the spread.  However, in order to capitalize on this, the player will be forced into a multi-stack lead, and which may be much worse.  Conversely, turning one devil into a setting stone turns them all into setting stones, and which may also be much worse.  In either case, for what the player does with one of them, they must do so for all, and as such, its name is its face-value (i.e. conspiring devils).

Four devils as four-of-a-kind (i.e. seen devils) crosses a line into potentially winning results for the player, such as by converting, in time, a four-stack lead into an opening for slides, or by being cascaded into a four-stack lead (weather permitting).  Where occurring on and beyond row one, four-of-a-kind is easier for the player to capitalize upon, as if it were downright nice, such as to convert them, collectively, into a slide opening (with the board's absorption of the four flip cards).

Nipping it in the Bud: Anticipating a trend in a game's information at the earliest. possible moment.  Also, smelling the flowers along the way, such as to see and incorporate all information that is presently available prior to making the next play.

Snug and Smack: (and snap) The cards that need to play might not fit in the playable area.  If they do fit, then they're snug.  If they don't, then the player might get smacked.  The snap is a reference to where the cards do not fit (and the player is being smacked).

The smack is most directly evidenced in Hopscotch, as the player has no hand, and which makes the game more unforgiving in the face of a bad card.  Smack is an effect of a specific card combination having exceeding what the player would allow, often producing appearances of remarkably bad luck, but which in fact have only themselves exceeded what would have been snug  When the deal is more snug than snug it is an easy 52.

Job's Hand: Where when smacked the player experiencea a 1 in 100 chance opposing their success, in Job's hand, the player experiences 100 times or more the odds against, such as by way of a large number of cards positioned ever so precisely in definace of their strategy.  Where smack may knock the wind out of a player, Job's Hand may be infuriating.

Set Up: Where a player is set up, they are masterfully commanding nearly every eventuality, and they possess great control over the deal. Set up is arguably the necessary precursor to the impact of the likes of smack and Job's hand.

Neti Neti: An ancient philosophy stating, "Any concept regarding the truth is how far away from the truth one is". In Boardwalk Solitaire, it is arguable that the randomness of the deal will eventually or inevitably defy any one premeditated approach.  Opposition to the notion of using a premeditated approach, or strategy.

Vertigo: (Knock-out) In Boardwalk Solitaire, a condition characterized by an inability to practice sound play selection. Conceivably, this is augmented by a lack of consistency in the environment - the elements are transient. Vertigo may be brought about by a bad mix between the player and the deal, but this must be considered possible at the start, such as by way of a player who is inexperienced with the current arrangement, or with the game itself.

Procrastination: It seems that every play further reduces the players options. In procrastination, a play that may greatly reduce the options contends strongly as the next play to be made. ("enjoying the view")

An example of total game assessment comes immediately to mind. There have been occasions where I have sat up and looked at the board, and where with vigorous analysis, I would then sit back and see that if a single card would move, the perfect balance of the arrangement would be lost.  It would probably also get worse.

Perfect balance at the present moment would seem to imply that movement can no longer occur. This is the paradox of movement and balance. It's just another way of looking at it- the big picture has to combine with a continuous stream of plays. First in movement, balance may then be obtained.

Leaping:  Moving from one Boardwalk variation to another.  Leaping may be debated as an insurmountable cause of vertigo, directly pursuant to the leap.

Paradox: Seemingly, the nature of any aspect or approach to these games.  Here are some examples:

• Shuffling the deck for the purpose of arranging it
• Safety Vs 14 Up
• Spikes
• blockades
• The cards don't fit in the playing area.
• Vertical Vs activity
• Vertical  Vs preempting
• Tossing Vs saintly play.
• A win Vs a perfect game
• A premeditated approach Vs a randomized calling
• The easier the variation is to play, the harder it is to win.
• The more situations you handle, the worse they are that get you.
• Hedging Vs Displacement
• Ordered Declarations Vs Bending the Walks
• Blueprinting Vs the vanishing point
• In competition: Honors Vs points
• For two players: Playing cooperatively to achieve a win, while withholding hands.
• Polyparadox: (The Hand). To hold gold, or to have power. To absorb debris, or try for a perfect game. For each of the four capacities of a hand card, the grass may be greener on the other three sides.

Par: The score of a specific deal of the cards as played using a generic programming algorithm. The par algorithm implements the idea of cycling through every potential path of plays starting with each current play possibility, multiplied by every possible arrangement of cards yet to face. The number of paths ending at each possible ending score for each initial play possibility is then tallied. The highest tally indicates the next play.

Weight: (reference) For a Boardwalk Solitaire game type, the number of cards in the deck minus the par average, or roughly, the ease of winning. From Hopscotch to Lucky Seven to Sqatsi to Cheshire, the weight, or reference continuously decreases.

Count: Akin to weight, but in this case a present positional evaluation within a single game. For example, the number of lowerwalk columns minus the number of live plays from the upperwalk plus the number of filings from the lowerwalk. (and the following have ranges) minus the size of the next upperwalk stack to clear plus the number of cards which can presently be filed.

Beginner: One who has learned how to play.

Intermediate: One who has learned the concepts and terms.

Advanced: When you feel you have been before where you are now, know that you have not, and that there is no such thing as an obvious play.  The cards are always random, but your strategies are preconceived.  Root your strategy in the random cards, and not the other way around.  One may have made plays, but now it is time to play the board.  Find harmony and balance in all of the cards that you see.

Player: One who plays the way that one does, for the good of their score after many rounds.  A player is not defined by the way that they handle a given deal of the cards; a player is defined by their averages.

Corral: The notion of a corralling effect is the notion of a generally fixed scoring potential for a given deal, regardless of how it is legitimately played.

Bending the Board: Gaining greater points or position than the general probabilities of the deal will allow. This arguably leads more greatly to snap, such as where there is a corral effect.

Master-Random: A winning player with no discernible strategy.

Master-Random Play Personality: The range of play possibilities within master-random play for any given deal.

Lucky Seven for Two: A variation of Lucky Seven for two players, played cooperatively to achieve a win. A lowerwalk column is taken as the second player's hand, leaving a six-column lowerwalk. Each player plays in turn, or may say "pass" instead. Neither player may reveal the contents of their hand to the other, with exception to what they will naturally see as taken into the hand from the board when that happens. The game is ended when the players pass consecutively.

Surfing: 1) For the analogy of "staying on top of the wave" during play 

2) Playing off of a set of three games where at the start each player sees each deal, or "wave", and then they each pick their favorite one.  Any favorites picked are played by all players in competition rounds, which then contribute to actual match set scoes.

Kingdom: A metaphor for Sqatsi. Two kingdoms are entwined - that of the deal and that of the player. When the game is won, it is the kingdom of the player. Inclusive of the following parts:

• Castle Walls: Row one is the wall of the enemy castle, and row two is the wall of the player's castle.
• Behind the Lines: Internal organization and enemy resistance on row three.  Homesteads being built on row four.
• Hand: The King's hand.
• Gold: A hand point (lock)
• Sword: A hand card that will play the upperwalk. (Knight)
• Food: A hand card that will play the lowerwalk. (Civilian)
• Splinter: A hand card that will neither score nor play (dead, debris)

Design Goal: To create a game where the players will not be able to (absolutely) know if their game-playing results are determined by luck or by skill, and to use it in competition.

Competition Ideas

Leftmost Play Rule: In competition, the purpose of this rule is to help keep players from losing identical paths of play, where variations in strategy have not occurred, and to remove its own set of needlessly random game deviations.  Where two or more currently available play options are deemed to be strategically identical in value, if either is to be played then it must be the leftmost of the set, starting with the leftmost source card, then its leftmost destination, and lastly where applicable, the leftmost return card to the hand, amongst options deemed to be strategically identical in value.

Example: With 3 Aces on the deal in Hopscotch, the leftmost must be selected where the player chooses one of the Aces.

A Leftmost Judge is most left, and therefore exercises supreme authority when applying the leftmost play rule to a given set of play options.  A player can render an appeal to the Leftmost Judge, but the judge's decision will be final.

Game, Round: (Hand) In competition, each player plays the same deals. For each game played the highest amongst varying scores counts as one win.

Set: Three games, scored by highest honors (wins), and a breadwinner (points).

Match A match is first defined as its length in sets. Match sets are then numbered and named inversely, such that for example in a 5-set match, the first set played is the five game set, and the last set played is the one game set.  The number in the name is how many more wins a player needs to end the match at the end of the current set (assisting with scoring-system hysteresis).

Any set may end early, by way of a player exceeding its requirements for a win. Where there is no leader by one game after the one game set, then an additional points set can be played, which can be ended by the first win, or at its end by the highest total point score.

Honor: (Win, Game)   In a competition round, one win, a.k.a. honor is awarded for each instance of the highest point score, where scores vary.

Breadwinner: In competition, the player who scores the most points. It is likely that the honors champion will be the breadwinner, but not necessarily so. For example, by way of one win by 25 points, and two losses by 1 point each, honors and points victories will have diverged.

PPGs: A series of sets played (by all candidates) for the purpose of establishing tournament-qualifying points-per-game averages, and to produce ranked players.

Deals: 1) Arrangements of the deck. 2) A player's deals are his or her recorded games. 3) Deals have to be made for competition that meets certain requirements, such as being pure-random and secured.