Mafia for two

"Mafia for two" is a training that the author of "50 Shades of Red" calls the best way known to him to even out emotional and meta moments, that is, to make people stop reading your black colour and take you for a more likely red player. He calls the set of such measures balancing lines. Another way he mentions is simply to play a lot until the stress from the black card disappears, but it is not suitable for fast growth of mastery.

What you need

A partner and a set of Mafia cards. If there is no set, ordinary playing cards will do: two of the red suit (civilian) and one black (mafia).

How the game goes

1. In the dark the cards are dealt at random: one each to two players (they are called "the living"), the third stays on the table and goes to the "virtual player".
2. The living players must look at their roles.
3. The discussion begins. The players talk, voice assumptions and suspicions and try to understand who has which role. Time limit: three minutes per round.
4. When the time runs out, or earlier if both are ready, the players vote simultaneously with a hand gesture: they point at the one they consider the mafia. You can point at the living opponent or at the table where the third card lies.
5. The roles are revealed and the points counted.

- A civilian who discovers the mafia in the living player gets 1 point. - A civilian who finds the mafia on the table (with the virtual player) gets 1.5 points. - If the civilian erred and voted for a red, the mafia gets 1 point.

1. Next round: the roles are redealt, again discussion and vote. They play until one of the players gains a previously agreed number of points, but so that the gap between the players is at least two points. If the score is 6 against 4.5, extra rounds are played. The author recommends playing to five points.

The author stresses that "Mafia for two" is an independent deep game: in every round your goal is, by tricks, actions and a battle of minds, to force the opponent to make decisions favourable to you and to make a mistake. Tournaments can be held in it and (in his words) it can be played for money; for the Academy only the training value matters.

How to turn the game into a training

The author offers three rules of review after each vote.

1. Be sure to explain on what basis (facts) you decided on the player's colour (interpretation).
2. If you were right, the opponent corrects his play in line with the information you gave.
3. If you were wrong, you correct your play and stop making a judgment on the named parameter.

By his estimate, such a review ensures explosive growth in the level of play and makes your colour unreadable.

What this game teaches

1. An even emotional line. Time after time you play the red and the black card against the same person who sees you at arm's length. He quickly notices any skew between red and black manners.
2. Words against moves. You must explain aloud why you vote exactly this way, and this teaches matching speech and decision.
3. Working with feedback. At the end of the round the partner names the facts by which he read you. This replaces the read from the lesson "Black: how to look consistent".
4. Working with uncertainty. The third card on the table makes the situation non-trivial: the mafia may turn out not to be with the opponent.

The Academy's recommendations for running it

1. Agree the rules before the start: discussion time, voting gesture, number of points.
2. After each round review by the author's three rules, write one line in the log: the fact by which you were read and your conclusion.
3. Change roles by redealing so that over the series you play roughly equally red and black.
4. After a series of five or six rounds compare your red and black manners by the table from the lesson on the black's consistency: gestures, speech tempo, dynamics inside the minute, facial expression.
5. If the partner is stronger than you, do not take offence at the review: his review is your main resource.

Practice

Play a series to five points with a gap of two points. After each round write two lines: "by what fact I was read" and "what I will change in the next round". At the end of the series choose one parameter and work on it for the next three trainings.

Common mistakes

• Playing without review, only for the score.
• Not telling the partner by which facts you read him.
• Playing too fast and not using the three minutes.
• Agreeing in advance "on emotions" instead of looking for facts.

Source of the idea. The section "The best ways to raise the level of play", training 3 ("Mafia for two"), from Dmitry Novik's book "50 Shades of Red" (2021). The rules and scoring are retold in our own words; the recommendations for running it were written for the Academy.