Interesting to note that during the rules explanation, The Bandage Hyung explicitly states that no theft is allowed, yet later we see the epic Stolen Garnet Gambit that hooked all of us in the first place.

Maybe "theft" is being used in the sense of physically taking an unwilling person's possessions from them and that's different than that person absentmindedly leaving stuff behind for you to take without consequence, but I have a hard time imagining that Sangmin's play didn't violate what they initially had in mind with the rule.

In an arena with only five rooms, it's amazing that he got away with this so easily.

I do think this episode's game was a little unfair, though. The prize that the S1 cast played for (1 garnet) was so small that they seemingly had tons of incentive to help Sangmin win, even if that meant losing themselves. And then when they all draw the perfect cards to help Sangmin even more, he was just in a crushing position. I respect Junseok (sp?) for not rolling over and trying to play optimally for himself.

All that being said, GOGOGO Sangmin! He's locked into F3 now, and I'm not sure Jiwon is capable of beating him at anything. I really hope Sangmin can exploit this next round in terms of gathering garnets at the cost of losing the game (ex. in the "negative cube" game, you could fall on your sword and lose purposely while simultaneously picking up a ****load of garnets).

Although cool game that Sangmin's personal Bill was really unfair with the free discard all ability since there are no possible counters to it as long as you don't reveal it.

It seems incredibly unfair that someone can come in with a 41-0 garnet disadvantage, receive no penalty in the death match, and end up as the chip leader heading into the finale based on one game.

The garnet rules change in S3 (spoiler alert). I'm not sure which set of rules I prefer over the other, but I think something in between would be ideal. The players with more garnets come early midgame should be able to buy meaningful advantages for the main matches, which someone in Yohwan's spot could never afford to do, but it also seems like something's gotta be wrong when a player can enter F3 with zero garnets and be on completely equal footing henceforth to win all of the money everyone else accumulated.

Shippppp it! Sangmin is the GOAT, and it's not close.

I've felt this way since S1 (during and after), so it's not a tough prediction. Jinho is brilliant, but this is still a game where social abilities are crucial, and Sangmin crushes everyone there. He's also more "clever" than Jinho, which I think is probably more important in The Genius than just basic intelligence.

I'm curious, what do you mean by more "clever"? I would say that Jinho is the most game savvy and the one best suited for understanding the games (i.e. he would crush if he and everyone else had equal social abilities) whereas I would say that Sangmin - like you're saying yourself - is by far the best when it comes to the social game which is ultimately most important and what makes him the GOAT. I don't think we really disagree or anything, but I just was curious to know if "clever" included anything besides the social aspect when you're comparing Sangmin to Jinho?

Also, I don't mean to say that Jinho has bad social abilities. In fact, I think he could easily crush in that aspect as well in a non-Sangmin season. But against Sangmin he is indeed outmatched pretty severely.

There's a very distinct difference between someone being intelligent and being clever. Jinho is the guy I'd rely on to win an average death match because his intelligence makes him a favorite in a 1-on-1 game. He also is one of the people I'd trust in the sense of: here is a Random Genius Match Game, now figure out the best way to win/not lose/help your team win.

Jinho isn't clever, though. Sangmin has the ability to look at how the match impacts the overall game, which corners he can cut, which people he can exploit, etc. He doesn't need to be the guy who figures out the best, most efficient way to win a match; he's the guy who figures out the shortcuts most often. I think the dice game is a great example of this. Everyone else grabs a pen and paper, and they start calculating the probabilities. This is clearly stupid. In The Genius, the games have some exploitable edge, so Sangmin didn't spend any time calculating anything. Instead, he focused on finding the edge, and he found it (breaking the dice in half) 45 minutes before anyone else.

Another way to break this down: use the prisoner's dilemma as an example. The optimal line is obviously for both people to refuse to answer any questions so they get the minimum jail time. Jinho is the guy who would figure this out and announce it to the other person. "Hey, hyung, let's both be honest because we make out best this way." Sangmin is the other guy who then analyzes this situation and figures out how to exploit it. He's not concerned with the greater good or the optimal line for all; he's merely concerned with "What is the most optimal line for Sangmin?" This is why you see him consistently mind**** Jinho in the matches (ex. Kong's Dilemma). Jinho expects everyone to play fair and honest, and Sangmin figures out how to correctly exploit that. In the end, that's going to make Sangmin successful significantly more often, even if he is less intelligent than Jinho.

Glad to see the two best players got to the final match. It's rare to see the strongest players team up, want to go to the end with each other and actually pull it off. Dongmin is simply awesome, really entertaining to watch (Chinguya! ). Hyunmin may have the best game intelligence of anyone I've seen on this show. Good season overall, hope they do more.

Yeah, I agree, he takes that spot from Jinho imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoA9SsD51no more or less confirmed it for me

haha, awesome clip

did you watch any Crime Scene yet? You should

Since there was a 1 on the board, a 2 was the nut low. Both players need to get all their money in there essentially regardless of how many chips they have.

Junghyan's strategy was an interesting one. I'm surprised it had not been implemented closer to the end of the battle in the S1 match, but I hadn't considered trying to implement it from the start. I think it's a really solid strategy, though. If your opponent is 8 misses from falling and your 10 away + your opponent goes first, you have a 3 turn advantage. If I've run my numbers right, there's a 76.5% chance your opponent falls before you do even if you don't get a square right. That disregards your opponent mistakenly giving you any free passes, forgetting a square previously that would help him in the future, or your ability to fight back if your opponent ties it up.

I think there's definitely a certain stack size where Jinho can correctly fold the nut low. It's not 15 BBs, but I would bet it's under ~40. Because the pot carries over, and because his edge over Jiwon is massive, I think Jinho has to avoid stacking off in those types of early spots if at all possible.

It's definitely correct, and I was stunned Sangmin (and Kyungran) didn't use it during S1. If memory serves, both of them had opportunities where they could have won immediately had they not uncovered an unseen tile. Being up two tiles is a pretty massive advantage.

i contemplated that but can confidently say i will never good enough to consider folding the nuts (hence why i mostly avoid omaha). i have to admit i'd love to see the reaction to a player folding when his opponent has the nut low.

also, am i the only one who thinks it's bizarre that they carry forward the pot instead of splitting it? for a game so intense with strategy in every facet, it seems bizarre that they'd make a decision like this that is so luck based.