Game Like a Mother

Quick Take: A new favorite family game! Choose to take the card dealt to you or say "No Thanks!" So easy to learn and a lot of fun to play. It's a little bit like poker meets rummy. Except easier. There isn't any actual gambling besides seeing how many chips you can get out of your opponents if a card that is good for you but bad for them turns up. This is our new game to play at any family gathering. 

How to Play: The person with the lowest score at the end of the round wins. In a four player game everyone begins with 11 tokens. Those are either negative points at the end of the game or a chip to play on a card if you choose to say "No Thanks!" and pass on picking it up. Flip over the first card and the person to the left of the dealer gets to choose to pick it up or pass on it by placing a chip on the card and giving the next player the option of picking up the card. Play goes around clockwise in this manner until someone chooses to pick up the card. They also get any of the tokens that were placed on top of the card. If you run out of "No Thanks!" tokens then you must pick up the card on your turn. The neat part of the game is that if you collect cards in consecutive order (ie 20, 21, 22) only the points of the lowest card count towards your final score. The cards are numbered 3-35 and 9 random cards are removed at the beginning of a round so you don't know which cards will be in play any round. Once all of the cards have been collected you tally your final score from your cards, subtract any tokens you have from that score, and whoever has the lowest score wins. 

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Variations: You can play with more than 7 players if you really want, just make sure everyone has the same number of chips. The game will just be a lot more luck dependent on who gets low cards dealt to them. 

Similar Games To Check Out: Roll For It, Camel Up, Cover Your Assets, King's Gold, Qwixx