This demo game shows basic and intermediate strategies. Of course, keep in mind that this one was a particular situation, and particular examples where you had to take decisions. Many other factors may affect the decisions and lead you to different choices.
One important thing shown in this demo is the following: you must keep track (as much as possible -- we're humans, not computers! :-)) of the numbers that each player plays, and remember them, because most of the decisions and the rules are based on who played what and in what order!
This particular demo game may not have shown very clearly another detail, but I'll mention it anyway: As you get closer to the end, the basic rules and strategies (frequent number rule, repeating, doubles, etc.) may become less and less important.
Notice that, because there are less tiles (more tiles on the board), you can do the math with much more certainty than at the beginning of the round. Thus, you may have much more information that would allow you to choose the logical play by predicting (with a very high degree of certainty, maybe) the outcome of each possible play.
For example, in this demo game, if at the end you had not been forced to play the 1-0, would you have chosen that one? Notice that the "repeating" rule would dictate that you should do so. However, since a quick inspection and math tells you that Mike has the 3-0 and he could block the game, your decision might have been different.
You probably would have chosen to avoid the possibility of Mike blocking the game (again, hypothetically, if such thing had been possible), since you had the 5-5 (10 points!), and your teammate could have another or even the two remaining 5's (remember that you didn't know that for sure, but still, he had played to 5's) So, given that there are no more 6's, the possibility of having the 5-5 plus another or maybe another two 5's is too much.
So, no, you would not have played the 1-0 (if it had been your choice), because that would give Mike the choice of blocking the game, which you are suspecting you might lose!
Some times you could even decide to kill yourself a double, if your teammate is playing several rounds ahead of you and you predict that the tile that you put (that kills your own double) will make him/her win (remember, as there are less pieces, it is often easy to do the math and predict with certainty what pieces has each players, which may allow you to predict the outcome of each play)
The next demo will show you
a few extra situations and strategies. Click on Next to start the
next demo round.