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Welcome all to another edition of the Strategist’s Hideout. This article will be discussing a topic that has long been a subject of many arguments ever since the dawn of online Triple Triad. This of course, refers to the rules Open and Closed.

There are many opinions held on both Open and Closed games which leaves this subject open to debate even after so long. But before we get into the "meat" of this topic, I will go over some general information and tips on both Open and Closed just so we an have a better idea of how both of them work for those who are new to the game or are inexperienced at one or the other.

Open

The best way to describe Open is to compare it to a game of chess. Strategy is a key part to Open because you and your opponent will know what cards are in both players' hands. You really need to think out the game if you want to be successful. Now, this goes without saying that Open is for players who like a challenge, those who like to play strategically and look at the 'big picture'. The real downside to Open games is that they can be very lengthy which is what turns away players from Open who just want to earn points quickly. Open is, without a doubt, much more strategic and requires a lot more skill than Closed.

- Unless you're playing random, try to form a decent hand. Unlike closed, you can't get away with picking random cards that may or may not work with each other. When you make a hand, you need to think of how it works in a game. What kind of rule does it rely on? Is there a specific card that needs to be played for this hand to work? You need answers to questions like these to form a good hand (See the March Issue for my article on hand making).

- Similar to my last point but instead of making a hand, you want to look at your opponent's hand. Try to find what the main idea of your opponent's hand. It might revolve around having a card in the center to play off, use a lot of cards that allow him/her to use the rule Plus Wall, and so on. Deducing what kind of hand your opponent's hand is will greatly help you in forming a strategy to counter it.

- Always look at what cards your opponent has. Open requires a lot of thinking because you want to make the best move possible. Before you place a card down, you should take a look at the possible counter moves your opponent can make. For example, you want to avoid playing a card in the corner spot if your opponent can play a card in the middle that allows him to Same/Plus unless that also works for you.

- Play with a good amount of time. You want to set a good time limit for Open games to avoid rushing through them. 5 minutes is usually the best choice but if you feel you need more time, go with anything beyond 5. There are some players who will ask you to hurry during a game but you should ignore them.

- Play the game out in your head. I wouldn't suggest doing this unless your a strategy buff but if possible, try to play out the game in your head. For example: You think about playing a card on spot 1 then you should think about what the best possible move for your opponent is. Does the move work well for your opponent? Can you play another card that makes his/her move in your favour? By asking these questions every move, you can come to an outcome. If the outcome isn't something you wanted, start with a different move and repeat the process. Again, this can be time consuming and confusing so unless you can think quickly, just know what to play based off what's currently on the board and you should do just fine.

Closed

Closed games are for the risk takers. I'm not going to say there's no skill involved with Closed games but there is a lot of luck. Think of Closed like a guessing game. You are never going to truly know what card your opponent has so the card you just played may make you the winner or loser just like that. If you like playing guessing games then Closed should be right up your alley. Closed games usually are quick and don't make you use up a lot of brain power. New players tend to play Closed because of it's accessibility, giving them as good of a chance of winning against another new player or a vet. Closed is also a quick way to rack up points. The downside to Closed, and it is pretty obvious, is that no matter how well you play, you can lose just from one card being played and you can never form a strategy for Closed. But this is what makes Closed fun because you gamble with your chances of winning and losing with every card you play.

- If you're not playing random, what cards you select for your hand isn't too big of an issue. Even a hand of randomly selected cards that don't work together at all can win a game because your opponent will not know what to expect giving you the edge and vice versa. Of course a well made hand would work just as well.

- If you're playing with Combo, Same is a very good rule to take advantage of. If you use the Same rule to overtake your cards, it's impossible for your opponent to take back those cards through the one card you played with Combo. This is essential because you never know when if your opponent can possible Combo one of your cards.

- Go with your instincts. Part of playing smart in a Closed game is to go with your instincts. Because you have no knowledge of what cards your opponent can place down, the only thing you can rely on are your own instincts. Even if you are wrong, you wouldn't know until you've played the card and what's better at guessing than your own instincts?

- Playing with Combo and playing without it makes a big difference. Combo makes the game even riskier because of that rules potential to flip the entire board against you with the placement of just one card. Remember to know when it is on and when it's not because it is ultimately the deciding factor in Closed games.

Now with that out of way, we can get to the main part of this article; What people think of Open and Closed. I went to the streets aka chat to ask a few fellow players on their views.

Cookie: "Open is a more challenging type of game depending on the rules selected of course but as a rule, this is type of game is used for more tournaments as generally a lot of players regard it as more skillful, challenging type of game. This results in more games of open ending up in ties due to the fact that there less bluffing involved and more of a tactical play.

Closed is a different type of game because it depends how it plays out especially with all rules on as a lot of the games play out using bluffing to try and get a win or the lucky combo which does happen a lot but there different skills to increase the chance of this happening by knowing what the most likely numbers that you are going to face on the level you are playing on. The advantage of playing closed over open is that games can be more free flowing and if you just fancy a quick game or two your likely to get 2 or 3 games in the space of one open game."

Grat: "Well open is the one that is far easier to take control of, as you can see fully what you're up against and can plan ahead; closed is more about guesswork and trying to avoid traps and setting up your own, but you can never be sure they will work, whereas in open, you tend to be more sure of your moves."

Seto: "Closed = mostly luck and a bit of enabling yourself to set up combos everywhere you can. Open you actually need to think, and do some sort of trial and error, so to speak. So it actually requires skill."

Sola: "Well for me, Open involves much more skill as you have to use logic, and process information at such a quick rate. Where as in closed you only account for 5 cards and try to anticipate your opponents cards bringing in a high level of luck as if one must predict or plan for a worst case scenario then this brings in the luck element.

Open does not have the same kind of anticipation and prediction levels as when all 10 cards are on view. You tend to find in Open games a well planned "Trap" and well planned forward thinking are often the way to victory. Knowing your opponents playing style also helps a lot. i.e. hand set ups , preferred starting moves and playing mindset"

Stuff: "We all know that there are mainly 2 different kind of closed players. The ones, which play the same hand over and over again to get fast and easy wins, the milestones hunter's. And on the other hand, there are the ones which play it mostly random combo. Well yeah, personally I don't see how it is interesting to play the same hand over and over again. Especially not with closed, because you always got the same tactic, the same thing to do. If you play the same hand over and over again in open, you can react on the opponent's hand, thats what makes it for me personally more interesting. Well "interesting" you know what I mean, I hardly play nonrandom these days because it bores me. :p But yeah, I guess you see where I come from. And yeah, the difference in open/closed is being able to react or just act. I'm not a big friend of having not that much influence. ;o Besides that, there is the luck factor. Yes, open random is kinda luck as well, but there you can manage your luck. If you play it closed random and got 2nd turn you got a big disadvantage. Especially if 2 "experienced" players play. Uh yeah, what else? What do i like in open? Like i said, the act/react thing, you can plan something out, you can calculate what the opponent tries to plan out and so on. And especially in tournaments is that pretty interesting, so i never got the point of closed in any tourney. Since luck (which is a part of closed, no need to discuss about that) shouldn’t be a part of a tourney game.

Open is like a duel, kinda to be eyeball to eyeball, no way out if you can't manage it. That’s what i like on playing TTA. And that’s what keeps me here and playing the big tournaments, I like the "ambience" in that."

And that sums up this article of the Strategist's Hideout. As you can see, these players and many others share a similar view on Open and Closed but you will still find arguments to which one is "better" if such a thing can be said. Each type of game has their own merits and their own downsides. What you choose to play is up to you but I would like to see everyone be confident about playing both Open and Closed games. Having experience both, I can say that both types are just as entertaining as each other.

I would like to thank the players who gave their opinions. Until the next issue, have fun and happy TTing.