Cifras y Letras, suite

[Francisco Segura]

Cifras y Letras is the name of Countdown tv show in Spain.
I am a Cifras y Letras contestant on Canal Sur 2 channel.
I have win 101 times and I must come back to play with new contestants next season.

Differences:
There are four rounds consisting of a number game followed by two letter games.
Words are worth one point per letter, but a nine-letter word is worth double; that is, 18 points.
Wrong words don't give points to the opponent.
The correct sum gets 9 points, and aproximations gets 6 points.
If both players tie with the answers, the champion add points on even games and the newbie on odd games.
The winner wins 602 euros and gets to play again the next day. If both players tie, they both get to play again the next day and each player wins 301 euros.
You can win matchs with no limit.

Recording:
A season lasts 3 months or 65 days (from monday to friday). I don't have to stay 65 days for recording 65 games, I spend a day to record 6 games instead. So I must travel to Madrid and stay there during 13 days in order to record all the games for a season. Then I come back to my town and wait until next season (if I won the last game). Now I am waiting to participate on my third season, people watching the show on tv don't know anything about seasons because all the games are shown without stop, except in summer.

Versions:
There are 3 versions of Cifras y letras on spanish tv channels, you can watch on internet only one of them (telemadrid), the others two (canal sur 2 and tvg) don't have online site. I have uploaded a lot of videos on youtube that you can find if you search by "francisco cifras y letras".

Online game:
Spanish people plays countdown game on chat rooms since 2003. You all can play there because numbers rounds are the same like english version. I would like to see international games online. I have been playing on chat rooms since 2003, and I have been watching french and spanish tv shows during this time too. I was fired from my job because of my participation on tv game show.

If you can understand spanish, you can find more information about Cifras y Letras on this web page:

http://juego-cifrasyletras.blogspot.com/

Bye.

[David O'Donnell]

101 wins? Bugger! I have the same only with the "0" missing.

[Martin Gardner]

"If both players tie with the answers, the champion add points on even games and the newbie on odd games."

Just to clarify, I think that means that whoever picks the first letter gets the points on a tie-round (e.g. 7 each) which is what Karen described on the "Welcome" thread.

Martin

[Martin Gardner]

Online game:
Spanish people plays countdown game on chat rooms since 2003. You all can play there because numbers rounds are the same like english version. I would like to see international games online. I have been playing on chat rooms since 2003, and I have been watching french and spanish tv shows during this time too. I was fired from my job because of my participation on tv game show.

I think twice when I was about 19 and 20 I tried a bilingual version of Countdown English/French but nobody (well very few people) was interested. Someone else suggested a version where any word in any language would be valid, in which case I think you'd virtually get nine in every half-decent letters game. I can speak a bit of Spanish, I understand it much better than I can speak it. On the ATENUANDO round I can beat the other contestant with ANDANTE (a music term).

On another note, I believe plurals are not allowed in Spanish either?

Martin

[Francisco Segura]

That's right, plurals are not allowed.

I have a bot for irc channels with english dictionary, another bot with french dictionary, and one with italian dictionary. Only need the frecuency for getting letters like tv show. If anyone know this, I can finish them.

[Gavin Chipper]

What's with the word "suite" or am I being stupid?

[Francisco Segura]

What's with the word "suite" or am I being stupid?

My english is not very good, so I typed suite cause I saw at another topic.

Here is the web page with all the links to my most exciting games on youtube:

http://juego-cifrasyletras.blogspot.com ... os-de.html

Each link take to the first of 13 videos (presentation + 12 games), when you see the first, you can click on the video response to go to the next video.

Enjoy.

[Martin Gardner]

What's with the word "suite" or am I being stupid?

I just put it at the end of the DCeDL topic to show that it was to follow the previous topic. La suite means "the following bit".

Martin

[Martin Gardner]

That's right, plurals are not allowed.

I have a bot for irc channels with english dictionary, another bot with french dictionary, and one with italian dictionary. Only need the frecuency for getting letters like tv show. If anyone know this, I can finish them.

I'd be interested in acquiring a the Spanish Scrabble dictionary and the C&L one, Italian would also be good. With my letters program I can use as many different languages as I want just by loading more than one dictionary at a time. It would be interesting to play in multiple languages at the same time but then who would I play against?

Martin

[Francisco Segura]

Hi all again!!

I came back to play with new contestants. There is a new rule on tv spanish show: 30 victories max per contestant. I had win 101 times before this rule, so I only could win 131 times max. But I only win 116 times, and then I lose in my 117º game against a woman called Inmaculada. Finally I earned 69,832 €, and I am happy for it. My record will last forever because of the new limit on victories.

[Kirk Bevins]

Hi all again!!

I came back to play with new contestants. There is a new rule on tv spanish show: 30 victories max per contestant. I had win 101 times before this rule, so I only could win 131 times max. But I only win 116 times, and then I lose in my 117º game against a woman called Inmaculada. Finally I earned 69,832 €, and I am happy for it. My record will last forever because of the new limit on victories.

That is awesome. She must have played well but to be 70,000 better off from being good at Countdown - quality!

[Dinos Sfyris]

Felicidades! She must have been quite an opponent!

[Jon O'Neill]

Hi all again!!

I came back to play with new contestants. There is a new rule on tv spanish show: 30 victories max per contestant. I had win 101 times before this rule, so I only could win 131 times max. But I only win 116 times, and then I lose in my 117º game against a woman called Inmaculada. Finally I earned 69,832 €, and I am happy for it. My record will last forever because of the new limit on victories.

Congratulations on being a part of history, and also causing them to change the rules -- quite an achievement. Maybe now you can learn English and dominate Countdown in a similar way. You might win a teapot. Sure, you've got €70,000, but have you got a teapot? Didn't think so.

[Joseph Bolas]

Hi all again!!

I came back to play with new contestants. There is a new rule on tv spanish show: 30 victories max per contestant. I had win 101 times before this rule, so I only could win 131 times max. But I only win 116 times, and then I lose in my 117º game against a woman called Inmaculada. Finally I earned 69,832 €, and I am happy for it. My record will last forever because of the new limit on victories.

Well done on such an achievement and all your earnings. Well done also for winning 116 times, that a rule had to be enforced on the number of wins.

NB: Along the lines of rule changes, Andy Cusworth in series 29 of UK Countdown also enforced a rule change, because in the final against Darren Shacklady, Andy would always pick 6 vowels, thinking he would have a better chance against Darren on the letter rounds by doing this. It was then decided from thereon, contestants must pick a minimum of 3 vowels and a minimum of 4 consonats.

[Francisco Segura]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

Spanish people think Inmaculada won because she was very very lucky with her turns. A 18 point word in round 11, and no other 9 letter-words for me in the game. I lose my turn on round 4 with a easy number game. I was very tired. This match was the fifth for me in a row, in the third recording day. My first recording day, I had a match against a spanish scrabble champion on 2005 called Antonio Alvarez, in my fifth match too. Harder opponents later in order to get a more tired champion and so more exciting matches. Too many high qualified people and a limited number of victories drove me off the contest.

I don't know if anyone can understand my forgotten english. I am sorry if I was wrong with the grammar.

Greetings and I will try to answer any question.

[Joseph Bolas]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

Spanish people think Inmaculada won because she was very very lucky with her turns. A 18 point word in round 11, and no other 9 letter-words for me in the game. I lose my turn on round 4 with a easy number game.

This happened to me as well, so know how hard it is to come back from behind, when you miss a 9-letter word and an easy numbers.

[Francisco Segura]

News about me:

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/pu ... 8718.shtml

[Charlie Reams]

I'm sure you can find a more flattering story than that!

[Jon Corby]

I suggest you take to the streets and urinate.

[Charlie Reams]

I suggest you take to the streets and urinate.

Isn't that The Netherlands? Or am I behind the times with public urination law?

[Jon Corby]

Isn't that The Netherlands? Or am I behind the times with public urination law?

Dunno. When I read Francisco's story, there were several links below to other news stories, a surprising proportion of which were about public urination. One was some guide that feminists were distributing telling women where they could urinate in the streets (in Barcelona I think?) and another was about somebody being prosecuted for it. Strange.