Shadowing Practice: I Solved Every Board Game - Learn English Speaking with Video

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These are some of the world's most popular board games that we've all grown up playing.

And I've spent the last six months

meticulously collecting my own data and uncovering all the simple tricks

and hacks that will guarantee you an average win rate of over 90%.

How'd you do that?

Next!

And some of them are so simple.

That really works.

We'll change the way you look at these games forever.

Is that even legal?

In fact, I'm so confident in my new skills,

I came to this public park to offer $100 to anyone who beats me in any of them.

Is this for real?

Yeah, pick a game.

Jenga.

Ooh, I was hoping you'd say that.

Now the reason I'm so willing to put my money where my mouth is is

because I have some experience using science to expose how to win games at the carnival, in the arcade, and even in the living room.

Is your person Max?

And this glorious defeat of my nephew, you, along with all the other tiers of defeat over the games of Guess Who that I dominated,

were all courtesy of Mr. Malloy, my original high school statistics teacher, who I had approached 10 years ago in search of the perfect

Guess Who strategy, and he gave me this one, which wins 96 % of the time.

Basically, you want to cut the number of characters in half with each question you ask.

For example, does your person's name start with the letter A to M?

If their answer is yes, then your next question would be, does your person's name start with letter A through E,

once again eliminating half the characters.

And if you keep repeating this, you'll win on average in 5 .5 guesses.

So if you play best of five, you'll win 96 % of your games and lose 100 % of your friends.

So today, in honor of Mr. Malloy, I'm going to show you how to almost always win five more board games including

Connect Four, Battleship, Tic -Tac -Toe, Jenga, and Monopoly.

And you'll see how these strategies worked out in a

head -to -head competition against one of the greatest board game players of all time.

But first, we needed some data.

So I gathered the four most accomplished researchers I could find in 10 minutes and assigned them four random locations.

Oh, fun!

Okay.

It's been fun.

It's been a fun ride.

Go get some data.

We wanted a true cross -section of the population.

So we went to an elementary school.

What's going on with your hands they're just covered in glue nice great a senior center hi how's it going with blues

okay hey judy and a biker bar i see you have a skull ring did you study medicine

and to pull my own weight i even went out and gathered some data of my own

Let the games begin.

You owe me $4.

Pocket change ticket.

F5.

Oh, you sunk my battleship.

You sunk my battleship, you rat.

I won.

How do I not see that?

I can connect four here.

I already won.

Oh my God.

I'm actually too good at Jenga.

Whoops.

Take it.

You win.

Oh.

Does that mean I won?

You lost, unless you're going to hurt me, in which case you won.

Bro, how are you doing this?

And I win.

Yes!

We're not sure about that.

Cut.

I'm going to jail.

Oh, so sorry.

Won't be the first time.

Okay.

After a few hours of playing, my team was starting to get a real sense of what strategies worked.

Once we got back to Crunch Labs, the only remaining question was...

Where's Bob?

And don't forget to polish the carburetor.

Things got a little crazy at the pool table.

Wow!

What happened?

I got data.

Alright, well, thank you for your service.

I'll collect these and get to work.

So I took all their data and video footage,

then organized and compiled it to see if I could find some patterns across all the winning games.

And sure enough, after analyzing hundreds of head -to -head matches, the winning strategies started to emerge.

So after narrowing them down to the most effective two or three tricks per game, I took them to the streets.

My master plan was simple.

Test my strategies against random park players, share the tricks with you, then go head -to -head with the final boss of board games.

Except there was just one problem.

Up till now, these tricks only worked in theory.

Hello.

Hi.

What would you like to play?

Connect four.

Connect four, okay.

I was confident my strategies would work, but out of the gate, this kid was cracked.

My confidence started to waver.

You dirty, dirty dog.

100

One wrong move, and we'll be back to square one on all our strategies.

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GG.

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Next! Is it connect two?

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Wait, is it?

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I won.

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I won.

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Oh, the game's over.

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I got four in a row.

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I feel like you owe me $100.

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Do you have $100?

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Next!

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Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

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C3.

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Hit.

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D8.

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Hit.

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D6.

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Hit.

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B9.

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Hit.

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I8.

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Missed.

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A bad sandwich for lunch.

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My real guess is I3.

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Hit.

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The strategies were working well.

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You sunk my battleship.

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You sunk my battleship.

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You sunk my battleship.

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It's true.

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It really works.

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I'm so close.

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Next. Are you sure?

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No, Leo.

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That's the one move you don't.

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I feel like I'm going to lose.

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Oh!

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It cost Mom $100.

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Dang it!

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Undefeated!

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How'd you do that?

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Next!

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Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

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Punk!

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Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

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This truly works.

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We are not editing this out.

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Now you might have noticed I have yet to lose at rock, paper, scissors.

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That's for one of two reasons.

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The first is if you challenge your opponent and don't give them much time to think, We're gonna play rock, paper, scissors.

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Rock.

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Then just say, rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

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It will almost always throw scissors.

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Maybe because scissors is the last thing they heard and they panic.

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I don't know.

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But I swear this works like 90 % of the time.

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That really works.

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The second reason is for a less surprised opponent in a best of three situation

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because the data shows win or stay and lose or switch to the next in line between rock, paper, and scissors.

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So to exploit that tendency, all you need to remember is see what won, then beat that one, regardless of who lost.

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So for example, if you play paper and they throw a rock, you see what won and beat that one,

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so your next throw should be scissors to beat your previous paper.

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Now let's say in a different game, you throw paper and they throw scissors, so if you see what won and beat that one,

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you should throw a rock to beat the previous scissors they just won with.

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Of course, this won't guarantee a victory, but in a best of 20, you will statistically win 75 % of the time.

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Bonk.

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That was easy.

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Are you known for having a steady hand?

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That's a good one.

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Not listen to Mark.

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Getting wobbly.

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Careful.

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Look at that thing wobble.

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Let's go.

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Next.

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See who goes first?

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What do you want?

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Heads.

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Tails.

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I want heads.

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Why?

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I haven't lost a coin flip today.

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Now you also may have noticed I haven't lost a single coin flip.

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And I owe this to the third video I ever uploaded to YouTube back in 2011.

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Wassup, YouTube!

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Where I demonstrated how to never lose a coin toss.

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Basically, instead of a fair flip, where the coin will naturally rotate end over end,

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for the trick flip, you raise your arm and rotate your wrist 45 degrees in the last second,

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which sends the coin into more of a wobble,

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taking on this hourglass -like shape where you'll notice the side that was originally up stays facing up the whole time.

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So if the person calls heads before the flip make sure you start your trick flip with heads facing down

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and you'll never lose

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Whoa next so do I owe you a hundred bucks sure thanks.

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I don't think I have enough such as life

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Next everything was going perfectly according to plan

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and the research was paying off tic -tac -toe I was winning 95 % of the time in a Jenga.

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I won 85 % of the time Scratch that.

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That was the wind.

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82 % of the time.

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Get out of here.

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Eventually, I started dominating games I hadn't even prepared for.

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Not on my watch, Garcia.

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Next.

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Three, two, one.

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Oh, this hurts so bad, Jade.

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I'm ready.

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That's crazy.

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And I literally just started making up strategies on the fly.

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You want to know my trick?

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I'm actually looking at the reflection of your eyes.

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Too late.

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Got it.

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Anyone else?

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Everything seemed to be working, but before I went up against a real gaming master,

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I wanted to do one last check -in with an old friend, the very man who helped me hack

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Guess Who, and who was so influential in my life that I made him the subject of my TED Talk.

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Hello, Mr. Malloy, for watching this.

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Friend, mentor, Dr. Evil, none other than my high school statistics teacher, Mr. Malloy!

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Hi!

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Eric, welcome to Crunch Labs.

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Goodness.

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Want a tour?

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Yes.

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So I gave this living legend the full

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Crunch Labs tour he deserved, including infinite sleekies, loud explosions, and of course, a light misting of fart spray.

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Oh.

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Which left us with only one more stop.

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And then this is the room where we shoot the tennis ball cannon.

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The lights are usually on.

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I hope so, for shooting the cannon.

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But there was a twist.

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Should I be afraid?

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Actually, yeah.

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Yes.

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I'm gonna be honest, Mr. Malloy.

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I didn't invite you out here today for a tour.

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This is an ambush.

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What kind of ambush?

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A board game ambush.

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Because 10 years ago, after he statistically solved

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Guess Who, Mr. Beloy became virtually unbeatable.

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And using a strategy against him, left us deadlocked in tie after tie after tie.

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So now, a decade later, I'm not just going for one win.

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I'm going for a clean sweep six.

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Behind us are six different board games.

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It's time for the student to become the teacher.

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A teacher's proudest moment.

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Prepare to get your butt kicked.

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Nice.

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Clearly, we'd have to work on leveling up his trash talk.

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For the first game, we have...

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Connect Four.

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I've played this a couple of times.

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To see who goes first, I'm gonna play

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Rock, Paper, Scissors.

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Ready?

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Here we go.

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Rock, Paper, Scissors, shoot.

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See what won.

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Go two out of three.

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Then beat that one.

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I go first.

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All right, here we go.

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This was the ultimate test to see if my Connect Four strategies were truly as unpredictable as I thought.

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I had an idea that was going to happen.

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I have prepared a lot for this moment.

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Artie defensive.

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Just how I like it.

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Which involved creating a pattern that we'd seen over and over in our data.

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No choice there.

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And over the course of the game, if you successfully create it, your four will connect.

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Your move, Mr. Malloy.

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You forced me into there.

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you don't teach that in ap statistics do they okay

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so here's what i did first thing to note is

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that the center column is the most important

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and you should try to maximize the number of pieces you put there

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and that's because every possible four in a row needs at least one piece in

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that center column it doesn't matter if you win horizontally

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or diagonally they all pass through the center column one exception is a vertical win

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but those are pretty rare because they're super easy for your opponent to spot.

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And for trick two, we noticed that a bunch of wins in our data included this shape, and it looks sort of like a bird's beak.

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And if you look closely, you can see why this configuration is so unstoppable.

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Because in the act of blocking your first four in a row, they set you up for a second.

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Now importantly, this beak shape can be upside down, right side up, point to the left, or to the right.

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These will all result in the win.

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And you'll find that once you know what to look for, it's not that hard to create it.

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So for Connect Four, here's what to remember stack the center column every connect four runs through it

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and second build that beak shape because their block sets up your win

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so after my dominant performance at connect four the good news

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is you have a chance to redeem yourself at battleship

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so we placed our ships

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and right out of the gate i was feeling pretty good about my chances

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i'm feeling generous you can go first oh wow thank you e5 that's a hit whoo

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that is a terrible start but i wasn't worried because I had a strategy we discovered called checkerboard hunting.

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Every ship is at least two squares long, so if you imagine a checkerboard pattern on the board,

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every ship must touch at least one square of the checkerboard pattern.

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Hunting only on black squares, for example, means you're guaranteed to eventually find all their ships,

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and yet you've cut the search space from 100 squares to 50.

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Then once the two -peg ship has sunk, you can stretch the pattern to every third square,

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since everything left now is at least three pegs long.

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Now of course, if you make a hit, you should immediately search the neighboring squares, up, down, left, and right,

302

until you discover the orientation and you sink that ship.

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We even created a simulation, playing over 1 million games, to test the strategy, we discovered random guessing plus neighbor hunting once you get a hit,

304

which is what most people do, will win in an average of 60 turns,

305

whereas our checkerboard strategy plus neighbor hunting drops it down to 50 turns, giving you an average advantage of 10 turns,

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resulting in an almost certain victory.

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B2 Miss.

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What?

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At least in theory.

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C4.

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Miss.

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A1.

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Miss.

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D3.

315

Miss.

316

Really wasted a lot of shots.

317

Mr. Moy's luck was bound to run out.

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H3.

319

What the heck?

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Hit.

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Statistically speaking.

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E7.

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Hit.

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B4.

325

Hit.

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H9.

327

Hit!

328

You sunk my aircraft carrier.

329

Yikes.

330

All that data for nothing.

331

You're making a pretty pattern.

332

Aw.

333

And while my trick kept me somewhat competitive, You sunk my patrol boat.

334

You sunk my cruiser!

335

Mr. Malloy always seemed one step ahead.

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G9.

337

You sunk my patrol boat.

338

Ay!

339

How did that happen?

340

You literally hit more than you missed.

341

It turns out Mr. Malloy used my same strategy with one more layer on top.

342

Instead of just hunting from top to bottom in a checkerboard pattern, he was constantly looking at the available squares

343

and aiming his shots in the center because those are the squares that have the highest probability of containing a ship.

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The extremities are least likely to hold prey.

345

Towards the middle are squares that are more likely to be covered by ships.

346

Basically, imagine aligning the remaining ship at every possible configuration left on the board

347

and adding up the number of times every square was passed through.

348

If you turn those numbers into a heat map, where darker squares are more probable squares, it becomes pretty obvious approximately where you should try next.

349

And then of course, if you sink a ship, a new edge is formed.

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And if all that sounds too complicated, you basically just shoot towards the middle of the biggest patch of open water,

351

while still just choosing the black checkerboard squares.

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So if you add this strategy on top like Mr. Maloy did, you will win an average of 45 turns,

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giving you an average advantage of five turns over my simple checkerboard strategy.

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So for Battleship, here's what you need to remember.

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Number one, huntin' checkerboard pattern.

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You'll find every ship in half the shots.

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Two, if you hit somethin', hunt the neighbors.

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Three, when you sink the small ship, stretch your checkerboard to every third square.

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And finally, aim for the biggest patch of open water, because it has the highest probability of containing a ship.

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Mr. Malloy?

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Good game.

362

It's red, because you're a villain.

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Next game.

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Game number three.

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Tic -tac -toe.

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A classic.

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According to my data, if I could secure a corner with the first move, my odds of winning improved drastically.

368

Why don't we do this fair?

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We'll flip to see who goes first.

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And as fate would have it.

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All right.

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Heads.

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I got incredibly lucky.

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Ish.

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And I was just getting started.

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Want to play again?

377

Absolutely.

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Heads.

379

Looks like it's tails.

380

What?

381

Tails.

382

Heads.

383

Tails.

384

Four straight, wait a minute.

385

What are the chances of that?

386

One over two to the fourth.

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He's a stats teacher.

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Not unusual yet.

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I would say that's unusual.

390

Remember stats?

391

If something was less than 5%, then we call it unusual.

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Shoot, I forgot that.

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All right, then let's make it unusual.

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Tails.

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Now that's unusual.

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And if Mr. Malloy chose to play any square other than the center, no matter what, victory was mine.

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Yes!

398

Wait a minute.

399

And just like that, the game was over after the first move.

400

Let's go!

401

We're back in it, baby!

402

What's happening here?

403

My redemption arc!

404

With Tic -Tac -Toe, if you start in any corner, you're guaranteed a win if your opponent goes here, here, here, here, here, here, or here.

405

Anywhere but the middle.

406

And if they do go in the middle, you can still win about half the time.

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The trick is you have to go first.

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But that's what coin tosses are for.

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Basic rule is to dominate the corners.

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Your first three moves must always be in the corners.

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So for example, if you go here, the closest non -diagonal corner that threatens a win is here.

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And once they block you, you go in the remaining corner that threatens two wins, setting a trap just like with Kinect 4,

413

where your opponent can't block both and you take home the victory.

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So another example, if they go here, you go in the non -diagonal corner that threatens a win, and once they block you,

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you once again set up a trap they can't stop.

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This even works if they go in the opposite corners, because at that point, either non -diagonal corner will threaten a win.

417

So the only square where you're not guaranteed a victory is if they go in the middle.

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But even then, if you choose the diagonal corner and they go here, you once again lock in the third corner and take home the victory.

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And honestly, that ends up working about half the time.

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So for tic -tac -toe, here's what you need to remember.

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Number one, go first, which is way easier if you've got a coin lying around, and then pick a corner.

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Two, pick a second corner that will threaten to win.

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And three, lay the trap by going in the remaining corner, setting up a double win.

424

It was time to keep this win streak alive.

425

To the next game!

426

The most obvious strategy in Jenga is to poke the blocks until you find a loose block

427

that moves really easily and then remove that one.

428

By the way, the loose blocks in Jenga aren't a bug, that's a feature.

429

I'd heard they'd purposefully manufacture them imprecisely to make gameplay more fun.

430

So Connor kindly volunteered to measure the heights of 540 different Jenga blocks, and when we graphed the data,

431

we found the difference in height between them could be as much as 1mm, or the thickness of a credit card.

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On top of that, loose pieces regenerate.

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As you move blocks, the tower's lean moves weight around.

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So a block that was unmovable three turns ago might easily slide out now.

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So as the game moves on, make sure you retest everything every turn.

436

All I'm left with is ones that won't wiggle.

437

I got nothing to lose.

438

I never saw that.

439

I've never seen that either.

440

That's wild because before, that one didn't move.

441

Forces change.

442

That means I gotta retest.

443

There are no more that easily wiggle.

444

There's nothing!

445

That is bad.

446

Pin me in a corner, Mr. Malloy.

447

Eventually you get to a point where you run out of pieces that easily slide out,

448

and you're left with blocks that move a little but then get stuck.

449

You're just slowly dragging it.

450

Oh no, it's gonna fall.

451

And from looking at all our data, this stage of the game is what separates the Jenga losers from the Jenga winners,

452

and it comes down to basic physics.

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Oh, Jenga!

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If you've ever tried to move something really heavy like a couch, you might have noticed the hardest part is the first shove,

455

but once it gets moving, it slides pretty easily.

456

In other words, it takes more force to start something sliding than to keep it sliding.

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We call that static friction versus kinetic friction.

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So the faster you can get your block sliding, the less time the tower is feeling that initial strong nudge.

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So our third and final trick is if a block gets stuck,

460

giving it a strong quick tap or flick is actually much safer than a slow one.

461

I can't believe that worked.

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But as it turns out, knowing the science and executing the science are two very different things.

463

No!

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You did this to me!

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I had no options left. But how?

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I try to make it so an even number of choices goes to you.

467

There's only four good moves.

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And then I have three, two, one, zero good moves.

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Zero's an even number, so...

470

Wait, zero is an even number?

471

Yeah.

472

Did you teach me that?

473

I definitely taught you that.

474

Basically what he's saying is you should count the number of movable blocks remaining

475

and make sure all the good moves run out on your opponent's turn.

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So for example, let's say it's your turn and there's four possible moves left in the stack.

477

You'd want to remove this one because that leaves your opponent now with an even number of options left.

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And if you would have pulled the middle block, that would have left them with an odd number of options and you would have lost.

479

Now I know your trick.

480

New game!

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Best two out of three.

482

But first, I would need to thermally undisregulate.

483

I'm a little chilly.

484

Just gonna go grab a sweatshirt.

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Okay.

486

Much better.

487

You all cozy now?

488

Yeah.

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And halfway through game two, Mr. Malloy had me backed into the very same corner.

490

Mr. Malloy, you've done it again.

491

None of these are wiggly.

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You leave me no choice but to use my right hand.

493

Now, the rules specifically state you cannot touch these blocks with more than one hand.

494

This uses zero hands.

495

Really hoping that looked cooler.

496

That was almost amazing.

497

Here, you want one?

498

Here you go.

499

Whoa!

500

It was just supposed to roll the clip.

501

The plan was an 800 PSI pneumatic Jenga air cannon that cleanly snipes that impossible centerpiece, leaving the tower perfectly intact.

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By the way, I am currently looking for the world's greatest editor.

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We pay really well, plus you get tons of creative freedom.

504

Wow!

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Not that much creative freedom.

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So for Jenga, here's what you need to remember.

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First, test every block and pull the loose ones.

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2. Retest every turn because loose blocks regenerate.

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3. If a block gets stuck, break it loose quickly, taking advantage of the lower friction.

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And finally, count the remaining safe moves.

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Just make sure on their turn, there are zero safe moves left.

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I think there's no denying.

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W for you.

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Good game.

515

Thanks, Mark.

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On to number five.

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Okay.

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Next up is a classic.

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Oh, a favorite.

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Do you know what my childhood memories of Monopoly are?

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Playing for four hours and then rage quitting it.

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Okay.

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On that note, you should know the house rules people usually play by just extend the game unnecessarily.

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If you play by the actual rules, a two -player

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Monopoly game lasts a little more than 30 minutes.

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This is for two reasons.

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One, there's no free parking jackpot to make everyone flush with cash.

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And two, as the rules state, if you don't buy a property you land on,

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the bank immediately auctions it up to the highest bidder on your turn.

530

You are bankrupt.

531

The winners tended to buy everything they landed on.

532

I'm buying this.

533

I'll buy that.

534

I'll buy it.

535

Why not?

536

I'm not going to buy it.

537

Why not?

538

So that was my strategy.

539

Buy it, baby.

540

Kentucky, come to papa.

541

It's available.

542

I buy it.

543

Taking properties off the board, if for nothing else, to prevent my opponent from getting a monopoly.

544

Because if I'm ever strapped for cash, there's a way to leverage those properties for money.

545

Your cash is depleting.

546

I can mortgage these.

547

That would raise me $250.

548

This is where my strategy gets tested.

549

Do you really buy Baltic?

550

Yes, you do.

551

Come to Papa.

552

Turns out my strategy to buy everything wasn't wrong.

553

It was just very incomplete.

554

Nine.

555

What's the rank?

556

16 whole dollars.

557

Keep the change.

558

450. Uh -oh.

559

With three houses, 550.

560

550?

561

As long as I don't land on anything bad, I'm okay.

562

I just can't roll a two or a three.

563

What are the chances I get a two or a three?

564

Three out of 36.

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That's fast math.

566

That's not unusual.

567

The dice showed zero mercy, officially ending my run and locking down the win for Mr. Malloy.

568

That sure feels unusual.

569

Clearly, he knew something I didn't.

570

All right, teach me all your tricks.

571

The trick is getting three houses is the best return on your investment.

572

Turns out Mr. Malloy had some S -tier monopoly strategies that we totally missed in our research,

573

and it was like I was right back in his classroom.

574

Build the three houses fast.

575

16 whole dollars, please.

576

Because three houses gives the biggest jump in rent for what you spend.

577

550. 550!

578

Additionally, every house you put down is one fewer in the bank's supply, so buying them up keeps your opponents from developing.

579

This is why world championship monopoly games rarely end with hotels on the board.

580

Next, go for the oranges.

581

Jail is the most landed on square, and the oranges sit six, eight, and nine spaces past it right around the most common role.

582

They're also cheaper to build on so you can get to three houses faster.

583

And when it comes to jail, pay to get out early in the game so you can keep grabbing properties,

584

but stay in late to avoid paying rent while still collecting it because that's actually what the rules allow for.

585

And finally, Monopoly is the property trading game.

586

It's right there in the name.

587

So don't be the table bully because it's impossible to win if no one wants to trade with you.

588

So for Monopoly, here's what to remember.

589

One, get to three houses fast.

590

That's where the rent jumps and create a housing shortage.

591

Two, buy orange because thanks to jail, they're the most frequently landed on properties.

592

Three, if you go to jail, get out early in the game, but stay in late in the game.

593

And four, trading is the only way to win.

594

And eventually, no one wants to trade with a bully.

595

I don't think there's much question here.

596

Well done.

597

Final game.

598

So now that Mr. Malloy was ahead, I absolutely needed a win.

599

It all comes down to this.

600

The final game.

601

I was really hoping I'd have more than two wins at this point, but if I know anything, it's how to finish strong.

602

What is this?

603

This is Squirrel Dash.

604

I never heard of it.

605

Well, you're about to.

606

I'll go first since after all this is my backyard.

607

Wait a minute.

608

Is this your squirrel?

609

These are my squirrels.

610

Mousetrap was one of my favorite games as a kid

611

and Squirrel Dash is my new board game inspired by my four favorite backyard squirrels.

612

You roll the dice to help the squirrels traverse my backyard obstacle course, collect the acorns as you go, but watch out.

613

A rat.

614

His fat tail might come along and steal all your nuts, setting off a chain reaction with disastrous consequences.

615

And although Mr. Boy picked up the game quick...

616

Hey, this is probability.

617

This is probability!

618

I still destroyed him.

619

Give me the green.

620

I said, give me the green.

621

At my own game.

622

Wow, that feels good.

623

What's the secret hack to this game?

624

Go figure it out yourself.

625

Unfortunately, that goes for everyone else, too.

626

You're just going to have to figure it out.

627

I see three green and three red.

628

That looks like a tie to me.

629

Once again, we were too evenly matched.

630

But 10 years of anticipation was not going to end in another time.

631

Time for a tiebreaker.

632

It would all come down to this.

633

Six months of grueling in -the -field, hands -on data -gathering analytics had brought me here to the final game.

634

I would have to reach in my back pocket for one final piece of strategy I had saved.

635

Bro, how are you doing this?

636

To dethrone the king himself.

637

So what's the strategy?

638

I hit the button.

639

That's actually true.

640

There's absolutely no strategy here.

641

You just button mash.

642

Yeah!

643

So it would all come down to one last marvel.

644

I had planned for everything.

645

Every hack, every trick, every tactic.

646

But in the end, perhaps after making a mockery of lady luck one too many times, Mr. Beloy had the hungrier Hungry Hippo.

647

which meant for all my years of preparation, I was still being taught by my incredible teacher.

648

Mr. Malloy, you're a legend.

649

Thank you, Mark.

650

I'm still learning a bunch from you.

651

This is what a good teacher looks like.

652

And now you two know how to beat anybody at any of these games, as long as that person isn't Mr. Malloy.

653

Or, I suppose, me or anyone who watched this video.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “I Solved Every Board Game”. This video has 651 sentences and 5085 words to shadow. The speech runs for 28:51. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
trick noun	/ˈtɹɪk/	Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
scissors noun	/ˈsɪzəz/	A tool used for cutting thin material, consisting of two crossing blades attached at a pivot point in such a way that the blades slide across each other when…
sink verb	/ˈsɪŋk/	To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
connect verb	/kəˈnɛkt/	To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.
opponent noun	/əˈpəʊ.nənt/	One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something.
monopoly noun	/məˈnɑpəli/	A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service…
unusual adjective	/ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/	Not usual, out of the ordinary.
flip verb	/flɪp/	To throw so as to turn over.
coin noun	/ˈkoɪ̯n/	A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle.
tail noun	/ˈteɪ̯l/	An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails; a strand of material hanging from something.
squirrel noun	/ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/	Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.
guarantee noun	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	Anything that assures a certain outcome.
slide noun	/ˈslaɪ̯d/	An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.
threaten verb	/ˈθɹɛt.n̩/	To make a threat against someone; to use threats.
collect verb	/ˈkɑlɪkt/	To gather together; amass.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come down to verb		To reach by moving down or reducing.
turn out verb		To end up; to result.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
get out verb		To leave or escape.
pass through verb		To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another.
add up verb		To take the sum of; to total.
come along verb		To accompany.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

How'd you do that?
How do I not see that?
Does that mean I won?
Bro, how are you doing this?
Why don't we do this fair?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you keep repeating this, you'll win · if you play best of five, you'll win
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've spent · It's been · haven't lost
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was cracked · was bound · be covered
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	anyone who beats · man who helped · first, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 105 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, friction /ˈfɹɪkʃən/, ambush /ˈæm.bʊʃ/, configuration /kənˌfɪɡ.əˈɹeɪ̯.ʃən/, trash /tɹæʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: monopoly /məˈnɑpəli/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, probability /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/, statistically /stəˈtɪs.tɪ.kə.li/, configuration /kənˌfɪɡ.əˈɹeɪ̯.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like trick, scissors, sink.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: I Solved Every Board Game - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?