How to Throw the Game

Only Throw a Game You Like

I play Flea Circus because I love playing games with my children. I intentionally lose because I honestly like the game.

I think Flea Circus is a wonderful game for playing with children. It’s rules can be understood by very young children. The little dog and cat pieces are fun to play with. And the game is engaging enough for adults, so that at least for me, it doesn’t feel like a chore or burden to play. On the other hand, while my children understand all the rules of the game, they’re only beginning to think strategically. If I pay even a little attention, it’s been no trouble for me to win.

I know however, that if I win every time, they’ll soon tire of the game and go back to one of those really horrible, entirely random, roll-and-move games mass marketed to children. So, often when I play this game, I play less than optimally, knowing that I’m more likely to lose. I don’t always make the worst play and I don’t always lose. In fact, I play so that I win much of the time but lose often enough to keep the children coming back for more. This is not an argument that you should do the same. You may not agree with this, consider it dishonest. That’s okay. We have fun as a family. And over time, the children’s skills have improved and I’ve had to do less to give them a chance to win.

This Is How I Do It

To win Flea Circus, the best strategy is to always play the card that most increases your score relative to the leading other player (if you’re in first place overall, that’s the second place player; if not, it’s the first place player). What I do, then, is play more like my children. Instead of playing to win, I’ll generally make a less than optimal play. It’s not always the worst card that I’ll play, but it’s usually not the best. Instead of playing the matching 3 card that would allow me to steal a dog and cat from the leading player, I’ll play a 2 card, or even a 3 card that doesn’t match. I try to avoid playing 4 cards, until they start filling up my hand.

Of course, there are many special (not numbered) cards in Flea Circus. This is how I deal with them:

Tickets are very powerful cards. I try to avoid playing them. But then, sometimes your hand starts filling up with cards you’re trying to avoid, and you have little choice. Therefore, I plan to play tickets only either to retrieve dogs and cats stolen from me, or to balance the score between the two children. Either one may be the optimal play at the time. However, if I plan in advance to use tickets in these ways, I feel I’m doing so only when it brings me back to where I was before (or in the latter situation, gives the lagging child a better chance of catching up).

Acrobats are simple enough to deal with. I play them first, so they’re worth only one point. Being the second to play the acrobat (in a three-player game) isn’t bad, and it looks more like you’re actually trying. I avoid playing the acrobat so that it would earn 3 or more points.

Similarly to acrobats, with clowns, I only play one or two at a time. In fact, I try not to accumulate more than two at a time in my hand. By the way, this is where another adult should recognize that you’re throwing the game. If only two cards out of five are clowns, then almost certainly one of the other three is worth more points.

The animal catcher can also be a very powerful card if you are trying to win the game. It’s not too difficult, though, to undermine its power. I just try to play it when the children’s top discards are either low numbers, like 2s, or are clowns (where no matter how many were played at once, in this situation only requires the player to replace 1 point).

Good Luck!

Just as you work hard to win those other games, enjoy the challenge of losing this one without looking like that was your intent.

I play to win. There is still enough luck in this game that kids can beat an adult. I probably do start with acrobats when I only have one and what not, but generally I don't "throw" the game.

I usually play to win, but when a daughter is having a streak of bad luck or otherwise feeling down, I throw the game to let her win and feel better.

I'm not sure whether they do the same for me or not.

It sounds like you are trying to make the absolute worst play you can find. Your kids may not be expert strategists, but they're not trying to lose, either. If you just played randomly, your kids would win more than their share. Isn't that good enough, or is your goal to ensure that you never, ever, win. Even your kids will notice that, and figure that something's up. Do you really need to play worse than making choices at random?

In response to the Heading of this Thread -

Grab game with preferred hand

Draw back elbow, raising said hand to just past ear. Shift weight to back foot whilst doing so.

Shift weight onto front foot as you take a step forward and extend arm forward.

Release game at height of arm extension, thereby propelling game forward.

Congratulations - you have effectively thrown the game!

Sorry to be a smarty $&^#, it's 6am in the morning here and I couldn't resist.

Neil, no problem. It's just us 200,000+ friends here.

Adam and William, most of the games I play with my children, I play to win. The thing is, if I try to win, I almost always do, even at Flea Circus. Sure, there's a lot of randomness in the game. But even though one daughter knows to play the higher number cards, sometimes she still gets confused by the choices of special cards or simply forgets. Sometimes I just find it better to restrain myself to keep them interested.

Andy, yes, maybe I am putting more into it than necessary. But its about managing my natural urge to win, as well as managing the flow of the game to maximize the kids excitement and interest. Much or most (I don't keep track) of the time, I play normally. Sometimes I decide it's time for one of them to win. I could play randomly and there's a good chance one of them would win. But this way, I have something to do, and I control who wins, how they win, and how long it takes.