Preparing for a tournament: observing players and reads

The author of "50 Shades of Red" opens the chapter with a quote from a school teacher: "The main thing before coming to school is not to forget your head". Preparation, in his words, determines everything. This lesson gathers his advice from two books: what to do a couple of days before the tournament, how to collect information about opponents and how to come to the table in working condition. Tilt, fouls, playing to the table and appeals are covered in the separate lesson "Tournament devices: tilt, fouls, intuition and appeals".

The main principle: the win is decided before the tournament

First place, writes the author, is a consequence of a high level of play combined with fortunate circumstances, and the level of play takes the leading role (he assesses the ratio of skill and luck as four to one). It is useless to raise skill at the tournament itself: either you can adapt effectively to game situations, or you cannot. Winners do not learn, winners realise the level already reached. So you must be able to play before the tournament.

The first statistically important parameter, according to the author, is the number of games. The masters of the game in 2019 played over three hundred games at tournaments alone, at least 240 hours a year, that is, ten days. But a growing number of games does not always lead to growth of skill: progress needs work on mistakes after each game (see the lesson "How to analyse a recorded game").

The preparation list a couple of days before the tournament

1. Read the rules

"To the author's surprise" this is not obvious to many. Competitions in a number of regions are held both by official and by home (geographic) rules, and both are supplemented from time to time. Study the rules thoroughly. Can a chair be checked? (A chair is the slot of a player who is no longer at the table; it is checked when all living mafiosi are found and a team must be collected by finding the colour of the departed unchecked.) How to leave the best move? Is lifting two at four allowed? Rules change, and the game must be adjusted. By the current official FIIM instructions, without knowing the procedure of the best move you can lose the extra points of the first shot.

2. Study your opponents

With the arrival of online agreements (that is, dynamics) it became less important to know whose speeches the town usually dislikes (they can be outplayed), who is poor at colours (buy or catch on a mistake), who is usually red for the town and which pairs find each other well: this is observed in the course of a game. Individual moves and templates of the player came to the fore: positional, metagame and emotional. For example:

with a black card a person plays only with reds against his own;
aggressive only with a civilian card;
inclined or not inclined to play by wills;
uses this or that device only for a certain role.

Knowing such features helps to determine colours and the right line of play. Before a tournament it is useful to spend a couple of evenings and warm up with the future opponents: experience of playing with them is a big advantage.

The author advises not revealing your tricks and strengths in fun games before the tournament and not playing for extras there: the others will study you too. You can play a little worse than usual, especially with a black card, because the main task is to collect information. Knowledge is power.

3. Prepare your working condition

If at the moment of the start "the head does not work", it will inevitably affect the result. Some play better after sleep, some on coffee or an energy drink, some gain confidence from certain rituals. Concentration, speed of processing information and making decisions, and engagement depend directly on physical and mental condition.

The author's simple recommendations: do not drink excessively or overeat; dress in comfortable nice clothes so that you do not smell, or smell pleasant (this lets you concentrate on the game and not on how you are perceived); beat an imaginary opponent in the car park far from outsiders, or breathe calmly for ten minutes. You need to discharge extra mental and physical tension while staying in good form.

4. Make prepared pieces

The author recommends preparing and learning speeches, jokes, notes for opening the table and filling pauses on the first four slots. A prepared piece makes speech more even, calm and flowing, and it is perceived as redder than improvisation. You do not need to learn word for word, emotions can always be added. Even if the speech is not needed, you will feel prepared, and so act confidently and relaxed, and for many players this is a sign of a red card. It is not necessary to prepare speeches at home: you can make small prepared pieces a few hours before the tournament describing what happened to you the day before. Having a prepared piece is always better than not having one.

Training games the day before

The best preparation in "Mafia in the Style of Zen", the author names training games one or two days before the start. They help to find an approach to unfamiliar players and to collect "reads" on participants. A read (from the English "reads") is a note on a player that lets you assess more accurately his style of play or behaviour in this or that situation, in Mafia his play with this or that card. Thanks to reads you get effective ways to find the card colour of players and can adjust plans for the game, the shot and buying votes.

What to watch for the black card

How easily can the player be removed from the table? Many have a weak nervous system: they speak badly, state thoughts in a muddle, especially under pressure. There is no point in killing such players on the night after round zero, votes are easy to gather against them. If already in round zero you understand that a player of this type is the sheriff, instead of killing it makes sense to remove him by a vote.
How well does the player read you and understand the game? Those who understand well are killed in early rounds or given a black check. You cannot give them a red colour just like that: the perceptive will gather votes against your team.
How easy is it to buy the player's vote? At the table there are always players who yield less to influence, and those who are open to you and are guided by what is said. It is better to play to the latter than to try to remove them from the table.
Which players have played with each other? Sometimes in a club you meet people who find each other red quickly, almost instantly; if you give one of them as mafia, the other will stand up for him. Such pairs are very dangerous for the blacks and sometimes worse than a living sheriff. This "red" link is worth breaking by a kill on the first night.

What to watch for the civilian

How does the play of specific players differ with the mafia card and the civilian card? Any observations will do: what he says, how he says it, how he gives himself away. Differences are what matter. Use the materials on non-verbal signs (lesson "The school of emotions: reading non-verbal signs and protection from being read").
Which individual manifestations of black play are typical of this player? Most gravitate toward the same strategies. Some always play with their blacks, others give up the team counting on mixed colours. Some use cunning moves such as self-shots and communication, others do not. If your black likes to give his own for a check, it will be easier to sort out and build teams from his colour. An individual use of moves also goes into the piggy bank: if a player talks about lifting three at nine only for the civilian, this can be taken into account; if he says it for any card, we do not count the move.

How to keep reads (the Academy's practice)

Start a table: player, role in the game, gestures, speech tempo, emotions, moves (whom he nominates, how he votes), favourite strategies.
After each training game add lines for each player, facts only.
Compare the red and black manner of the same person. The best read is the difference.
Do not reveal your reads at the tournament to opponents: they are collecting data too.
After the tournament update the table: some observations will be confirmed, some not.

For the red and the black

Reads help the red find the black faster by moves typical of him. Reads help the black choose whom to kill, whom to buy and to whom to give a red colour.

Example (compiled for the Academy)

The day before a tournament a player played three fun games and wrote down: no. 4 always speaks fast and loses the thread under pressure; no. 7 instantly finds no. 9 red; no. 2 with a black card always plays against his own. At the tournament, getting the don card, he takes into account: no. 4 is easy to remove by votes, so he does not waste a night shot on him; the pair no. 7 and no. 9 must be broken on the first night.

Self-check questions

Why does the author advise reading the rules thoroughly?
What is a read and why is it needed?
Which four questions for the black card do you ask about opponents?
Why should you not reveal tricks in fun games before a tournament?

Practice

The day before your next tournament, play two fun games and fill in a table of reads on three opponents. Prepare four prepared pieces for the first slots and read the rules, writing out all differences from the usual rules.

Typical mistakes

Not reading the rules.
Revealing the best devices before the tournament and playing for extras in fun games.
Coming to a tournament without sleep and without a plan for food.
Learning a speech word for word and losing naturalness.

Source of the idea. The chapters "Preparing for a tournament" and "The best ways to raise the level of play" from Dmitry Novik's book "50 Shades of Red" (2021) and the chapter "Preparing for a tournament" from "Mafia in the Style of Zen" (2020). The author's estimates belong to him. The table of reads, the example, questions and practice were compiled for the Academy.