Summary: A quick, simple game with surprising depth. If you are willing to think about it.

Included: 32 cards numbered 3 through 35. There are also 55 little plastic tokens similar to a cross between a poker chip and tiddlywinks. Production is good; the card are the size and thickness of poker cards and the chips are sturdy, if a little small. You only have enough chips for a 5 player game though, there are no extras. If you end up losing some anything will do in a pinch.

Rules: Start by giving 11 tokens to each player. Put the rest away. Determine who goes first however you want to. (My group liked to flip cards over for each player, lowest number goes first.) Then randomly and secretly remove 9 cards and put them aside.

First player then flips the first card up and considers whether to pass on it or not. If he passes on the card, he places a tokens on it and the next player looks at the same card and considers whether or not they want it. Play continues like this until someone either choses to take the card, or is unable to pass because they are out of tokens. The person who gets the card also gets the tokens on the card.

Rounds continue until all 23 cards have been claimed. Depending on how aggressive your passes are, this will take about 5 or 10 minutes.

The complication, and strategy, is in scoring. If someone manages to get a straight (two or more numbers in sequence) then only the LOWEST card of the straight counts. In addition each token you have removes one from your total score. LOWEST score wins.

Example: I have 5 - 6 - 8 my score is only 13, because the 6 is in sequence with 5, so only 5 counts. With the 7 the entire sequence is worth just 5. If I had 3 tokens left, my final score would be 2.


In playing several rounds, I have come by a little advice.
1. It never pays to screw someone over. Preventing someone from closing a large sequence is not in your best interest. Taking on points to prevent your opponent from losing them is not usually worth it.
2. Sometimes it's good to wait. If there is a card on the table you want, but no one else does, strongly consider passing it. If everyone is going to pass on the card anyway, you end up getting additional tokens as everyone else passes.
3. Watch the number of tokens on a card. Sometimes it is good to take a high number to get a large number of tokens. You can use the tokens to pass later and a large number of tokens can reduce you score.
4. Be aware of you opponents cards. While 9 cards are out of the deck, you should also remember what you opponents have. Don't try to start a sequence when you opponent already has a card in it.