Growth of mastery: how to train between tournaments

Section 5 of the book "50 Shades of Red" is devoted to tournaments and raising the level of play. The author opens it with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening the axe." This lesson gathers his system of growth: what really gives results, how to train from recordings and how to learn from mistakes.

Skill and luck

First place at a tournament, in the author's words, is the result of a high level of play combined with lucky circumstances, with the level of play taking the leading role. He estimates the ratio of skill to luck as four to one. The luck factor for reaching the final table, he adds in a footnote, is substantially lower.

Hence the conclusion: as a rule it is useless to work on raising mastery at the tournament itself. Preparation decides everything. You are either able to adapt effectively to various game situations or not. Either you snatch victory from the jaws of the opposing team or you lose, gaining experience and evening out the difference in level of play. Winners do not learn, winners realise the level of play they have already reached. So you need to be able to play before the tournament and not try to close the gap in mastery at the competition itself.

Number of games and work on mistakes

The first statistically important parameter, according to the author, is the number of games. Masters of the game for 2019 played more than three hundred games at tournaments alone, at least 240 hours a year, that is ten days. This is the most labour-intensive path: play a lot and through experience work out effective techniques and strategies. But, unfortunately, far from everyone makes similar progress as the number of games grows.

For progress you need work on mistakes after every game: analysis of moves, actions, patterns of judgment. Not only your own but also those noticed in other players: this is how correct actions and judgments are selected into the arsenal. How to do it from a recording is covered in the lesson "How to analyse a recorded game".

You must play for growth

When playing by logic the brain cannot help learning. But if a person plays not for development but for communication or pleasure, the process of growth can stretch for years. The one whose attention is focused on winning more, other things being equal, comes to success many times faster. The main difficulty on this path is to lay the foundation of play for victory. Knowledge plus practice equals mastery, the author reminds.

Why you must train in safe conditions

In ordinary life a person is first prepared for trials in safe conditions and only then let out "into the field". A pilot trains on simulators, a boxer works punches on a bag, a surgeon takes the pips out of a grape and sews it up, imitating complex stitches. Learning this way is much more effective than throwing yourself straight "at the embrasure". Without preparation there is a chance of picking up harmful strategies and habits which are often harder to rewrite than to fix the old and introduce the new. You already have theoretical grounding; what remains is practice.

Training 1. Speeches

Goal: improve speeches by developing oratory skill so that you are not voted out for a badly delivered minute.

Open any renowned Mafia tournament on YouTube with good sound recording.
Skip the dealing of roles, turn on the minute of player no. 1, listen and pause.
Turn on a voice recorder and for exactly one minute give a speech as if you were playing in this game in slot no. 2.
Listen to your recording and mark what is worth improving in delivery and content.
Re-record the minute, fixing the shortcomings.
Repeat steps 3-5 for all the remaining speeches until the town goes to night.
Determine for yourself the trio of blacks, rewind the video to the start and find out the roles.

In the basic version the whole training takes from 40 minutes to an hour. Even working lazily, five minutes a day instead of forty, your speeches will become qualitatively redder, and substantial differences will appear within a week, the author promises (his estimate).

Training 2. Argumentation

Goal: develop the ability to argue a position, interpreting the situation at the table in your favour, and along the way absorb the moves, speeches and argumentation of the best players.

Choose a tournament recording with good sound, skip the roles.
Turn on the minute of player no. 1, listen, pause.
Turn on a voice recorder and for exactly one minute speak by the formula "Fact, Interpretation, Call to action". Find in the speaker's speech two facts from which you draw two thoughts that the player is more likely red. Then two facts and two thoughts that he is more likely black. You spend half the speech on blackening, half on reddening. The facts may be the same but the interpretations different. For each player you get four links.
Do step 3 for each of the ten players.
After all ten determine the trio of blacks, rewind the video to the start and find out the roles.

Trainings 1 and 2 are aimed at different aspects of the game, so the author does not recommend mixing them. He gives links to decent tournament recordings in the appendix of the book; the Academy does not publish other people's links, and we advise choosing recordings by two signs: clean sound and the full game from the dealing of roles.

Training 3. "Mafia for two"

Goal: even out emotional and metagame moments to balance the line of play. Balancing lines, as the author explains, is a set of measures aimed at making people stop reading your black colour and take you for a more likely red player. The best way known to him is the game "Mafia for two". Another option is simply to play a lot until the stress from the black card disappears, but it is not suitable for fast growth.

You need a partner and a set of Mafia cards (or playing cards: two of the red suit for civilians and one black for the mafia). The rules and full breakdown are in the workshop "Mafia for two"; here only the author's training scheme:

After the vote be sure to explain on what basis (facts) you decided on the player's colour (interpretation).
If you were right, the opponent corrects his play considering the information given.
If you were wrong, you correct your play and stop making a judgment on the named parameter.

In the author's opinion such analysis ensures explosive growth in the level of play and makes your colour unreadable. Further balancing techniques are collected in the lesson "Balancing lines: becoming unreadable for both cards".

How to build a routine from the three trainings (Academy recommendation)

The author sets no schedule, so below is our suggestion, which can be changed.

A week. Two or three trainings of 40-60 minutes: one on speeches, one on argumentation, one "Mafia for two". After every game in a club or online, ten minutes for review.
A month. One chosen skill block (for example, speeches in round zero) and one control tournament or fun day where you check what came out.
Mistakes log. Three columns: what mistake you made, why (facts and interpretation), what I will do differently. Once a month reread the log and cross out what is fixed.

For the red and the black

Train both roles. For the red it is important to gain the skill of finding facts and arguing, for the black to learn to be unreadable. In training 2 try to play out the speech as a red and as a black for the same player: this way you will see on which signs both conclusions are built.

Example (written for the Academy)

A player noticed that he had been voted out three times in the critical round "for an unclear minute". He does training 1 on a tournament recording: records the minute for slot no. 2, hears that he gabbles and loses structure. Over a week, five minutes a day, he repeats the recording and introduces the rule "one thesis per phrase". At the next tournament his minutes are perceived as redder, and a new entry appears in the mistakes log: "I lose the thought under pressure, use a prepared outline."

Self-check questions

Why is it useless to raise mastery at the tournament itself?
What does review after each game give more than just the number of games?
What is the difference between trainings 1 and 2?
Why explain the choice after the vote in "Mafia for two"?
Why does playing just for fun stretch growth over years?

Practice

Make a plan for a month: three trainings a week, one review after every game, one control day. Write down the success criteria (for example, "in three of five games my minute is not called unclear").

Typical mistakes

Playing without review and expecting mastery to grow by itself.
Mixing trainings for speech and for argumentation.
Playing training games for fun and not for growth.
Revealing new techniques at fun games before a tournament (see "Preparing for a tournament").
Not keeping a mistakes log.

Source of the idea. Section 5 "Raising the level of play", the chapters "The best ways to raise the level of play", from Dmitry Novik's book "50 Shades of Red" (2021). The estimate of the ratio of skill to luck and the terms of effect promised by the author belong to him. The routine, example, questions and practice were written for the Academy.