Clue: MASTER Detective

I was discussing competitive natures with a friend just today, and
it occurred to me that the best illustration of my own particular
brand of competitiveness is my approach to playing "Clue", the
classic Parker Brothers board game. If you're not familiar with
the game...well, what good are you then? Okay, I'll describe it.

The purpose of the game is to solve a murder committed by
one of the characters in the game. There is a list of possible
suspects, a list of possible weapons, and possible rooms where
the murder may have been committed. There is a card in the
deck that represents each character, weapon, and room. At the
beginning of the game, the cards are shuffled, and one card of
each kind--character, weapon, room--is put into a folder. No one
knows which cards are in the folder. These cards are the actual
murderer, weapon, and room. The other cards are dealt out to
the players.

So when you get your hand, you know that some of the characters,
weapons, and rooms are not the ones in the folder, because they
are in your hand. The purpose of the game is to figure out which
cards are in the folder, by determining which cards are in the hands
of the other players. You do this by making guesses as to who the
murderer, weapon, and room are. The player to your left, if he has
one of the cards you guessed, has to show you one...his choice. If
he does not have one, he passes. The next player must then show
you one of the cards you guessed, if he has one, and etc. Once you
are shown a card, it is the next player's turn.

Okay...that's the basics. Let me illustrate my own method by first
illustrating the common, Clue 101 method of play:

This is a very basic Detective Notebook used by a beginning
player. There are the standard X's in the spreadsheet on the left,
used to indicate when a card is known to be in a player's hand,
and thus removed from consideration. This person has even made
some use of the Note section, to indicate what he thinks the rest
of the players have in their hands. Duke, for instance, has Col.
Mustard, the Lead Pipe, and possible Mr. Green and the
Horseshoe, while Tom (me) has the Revolver and the Fountain.
Hammer ('Ham') is also listed as having the Horseshoe. Note how
such shoddy detectsmanship leaves this player significantly confused.

Also note at this time, if you will, that this is a Notebook from
Clue: Master Detective. More characters, more weapons, more
rooms...if you're serious about the game, don't mess around.

At any rate, here is a slightly more advanced player's Notebook:

Here now, we see some more effort put into it, some attempts
at the level of deduction necessary for success. This person
has listed some guess combinations that were of particular
interest, and has made several decisive notes about what cards
and definately not in consideration. "Not poison", "Not Lib"
(Library), "Not CL Must" (Col. Mustard), etc.

But also note the haphazardness of the notes, scattered almost
at random across the page, as well as the complete disregard
for the spreadsheet on the left, which can handily summarize
all of your deductions. This person is working hard, but not
working smart.

Consider instead and old sheet of mine, circa 1991:

Several things to note right from the start. Unlike the user of the
last Notebook, there is economy of space. I fit six entire games
onto this one side of the Notebook, where the last player filled
most of the note section with one game. And when each game
is done, that column of the spreadsheet is crossed off, to further
avoid confusion. Staying with the spreadsheet section, notice too
that there are more than X's in the listings. An X means I have the
card. Another letter indicates the first name of the player who I
know, or at least strongly suspect, has the card (note that there
are few changes made to those letters...don't hypothesize without
evidence!). A circle indicates that I guessed that card, and no one
had it...i.e. it's in the envelope. Finally, a blank square indicates
that I do not have enough data to make a determination.

So what's going on in the Note section? Let's take a closer look:

Look at the column on the right. The first line reads:

T   Grey   Rope   Court   H

This is translated thusly:

Tom is the player who is making the guess. The cards I
guessed were Mr. Grey as the murderer, with the Rope, in
the Courtyard. The final letter indicates the player who showed
me a card for that guess...in this case, 'H', for my friend
Hammer (aka Chris). "Rope" is underlined because that
is the card that Hammer showed me. Simple enough.

So, five rows down, we see:

D   Green   Gun   Court   T

meaning that Duke guessed Mr. Green/Revolver/Courtyard,
and I showed him the Revolver from my own hand. Now in the
very last line we can see in that image, we see:

H   Scar   Gun   Troph   D

This indicates that Hammer guessed Ms. Scarlet/Revolver/Trophy
Room, and that Duke showed Hammer the Trophy Room. But I
wasn't involved in that...how do I know what Duke showed him? This
is where the system shines. Having recorded the known results of
every guess made in the game up to that point, we can look back and
note that, in the 7th guess of the game, Hammer showed me Ms.
Scarlet, and as we already saw a guess before that, I have the gun.
Thus, if Duke showed Hammer a card, it was the Trophy Room.

Now I not only know that the Trophy Room is out of contention, but
I know who has it, which allows me to avoid having him show it
to me later, allowing me to force him to show me something else,
by not guessing 'Trophy Room' anymore. When there are more than
three players, the deductions become more complicated, but
essentially the same.

Let me point out that nobody I currently have the opportunity to play
the game with plays this way...and consequently nobody will play
the game with me anymore. Some might say it's because it takes
a competitive jerk to play this way. I think it's just because I tend
to win the game...a lot of the time.

Hammer, Duke, you guys out there? You up for coming to Iowa for
some Clue?