{"id":18107,"date":"2019-12-20T09:05:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T17:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/?p=18107"},"modified":"2019-12-20T09:05:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T17:05:39","slug":"word-sandwich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/2019\/12\/20\/word-sandwich\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Sandwich"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

One word-related on-line game that I play when I have a few minutes to kill is Word Sandwich<\/a>. I don\u2019t know how long it will be available in that version, as it\u2019s a Flash game, but there are presumably other versions around, as it\u2019s a very simple game and should be simple to implement some version of it. Essentially, you are trying to guess a five-letter English word by guessing other five-letter English words, and being told if your guess is before or after the target word alphabetically. The interface shows the two closest words you have guessed as the bread in your word sandwich, in case you have forgotten what you\u2019ve already typed, as I surprisingly often have.\r\n

The thing is\u2014I\u2019m not very good at this game. I enjoy it, but I am consistently at the bottom of the rankings of the people who still play it. Admittedly, that\u2019s very few people at this point, and it seems likely that many people worse than I am have stopped finding enjoyment from it, but still. I am used to being in the top quintile or so of word games on-line, and in this game, I\u2019m definitely not.\r\n

This is presumably because it takes me more intermediate words than other players, which means there is a better strategy than the one I am following. So I thought I\u2019d ask y\u2019all what a better strategy would be.\r\n

Here\u2019s what I do: I start with TABLE, which I figure is about two-thirds of the way through the list. That could be wrong! I suppose I could get hold of the whole list of five-letter words and find out what word is two-thirds of the way through. Still, that\u2019s my strategy: if the word is after TABLE alphabetically, then I\u2019ve narrowed it down a lot, and if it\u2019s before (as two-thirds or so will be) I have narrowed it down at least some.\r\n

If it is before, I go to FABLE. Before FABLE I go to CABLE, and then either BABEL or DAIRY; and then I\u2019ve presumably got the initial letter and can start working on the second letter.\r\n

If it\u2019s after FABLE, I go to MAPLE. Before MAPLE is JACKS (As I type this, I realize that JABOT is better than JACKS) and then either HAIRY or LABEL and so on and so forth. After MAPLE, I generally jump all the way to SABLE, and then if it\u2019s an S as so many words are, I\u2019m in the right aisle. If it\u2019s before S, then I will often go to PACED, and then I have NACRE or RABID.\r\n

In the end, I\u2019m trying to get, with a few guesses, to the first letter, and then I start working on the second. This often works reasonably well. As in:\r\n

TABLE\u2014FABLE\u2014CABLE\u2014DAIRY\u2014EAGLE\u2014DOATS\u2014DIALS\u2014DINER\u2014DINED\u2014DICED\u2014DIDOS\u2014DICER\u2014DICED\r\n

or\r\n

TABLE\u2014FABLE\u2014MAPLE\u2014JACKS\u2014GABLE\u2014HAIRY\u2014HOARY\u2014HIGHS\u2014HEALS\u2014HEMPS\u2014HEELS\u2014HECKS\u2014HEAPS\u2014HEATH\u2014HEART\r\n

or perhaps\r\n

TABLE\u2014FABLE\u2014MAPLE\u2014SABLE\u2014SOARS\u2014SLAPS\u2014SEALS\u2014SAPPY\u2014SATED\u2014SCAMS\u2014SAWER\u2014SAYER\u2014SCABS\r\n

and one more\r\n

TABLE\u2014WAFER\u2014WOADS\u2014WILES\u2014WEALS\u2014WEFTS\u2014WHARF\u2014WHORE\u2014WHILE\u2014WHEEL\u2014WHEYS\u2014WHICH\r\n

As you can tell, once I have the first two letters, I\u2019m pretty much guessing blindly. You get points in this implementation of the game for using fewer words, but also points for not taking too long between words, so if I can think of a word between the two words of my sandwich, I\u2019ll type it at that point.\r\n

And perhaps that\u2019s where I\u2019m going wrong. Perhaps all the people who are averaging 9 or 10 guesses have much better strategy for their seventh and eighth guesses that I haven\u2019t figured out or type too slow to implement. Or maybe I should be starting with SABLE instead of TABLE, or with RABBI, or maybe with MACKS. Or maybe y\u2019all have a better suggestion?\r\n

Thanks,
-Ed.\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking for some advice on an internet word game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18107"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18111,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18107\/revisions\/18111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}