Adult Fun and Games

[jIMOh]

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Originally Posted by brewer12345 At holidays when we have a big crowd around, we play a game called Cuckoo. You remove the 8s, 9s, and 10s from a deck of cards and everyone starts out with 3 coins. Everyone sits around a table and each person is dealt one card, face down. Starting to the dealer's right, each person gets to choose whether to keep the card they have or pass it on to the next person. The objective is to not have the lowest card when the passing is done. Lowest card is an ace, highest is the king, and the jack is higher than the queen. If the passer tries to pass to someone who has a king, they flip the king over and say "cuckoo", informing the passer that they are stuck with their crappy card. When the passing comes around to the dealer, everyone flips their cards over. The lowest card has to kick a coin into the pot. If the dealer has the low card, he is entitled to cut the deck and try to beat the next lowest card, since the dealer often gets stuck with crap. When someone has lost all 3 coins, they still get to play until one more low card ("on your honor"). Repeat until one person is left (winner of the pot), rotating around the table as to who deals. Its a game that really needs at least 5 people, but it is so simple that even kids of 6+ or so can play.

we have a different name for this- it rhymes with duck too.

[brewer12345]

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Originally Posted by jIMOh we have a different name for this- it rhymes with duck too.

Heh. That must be the same as the version I suggested we play at easter: their choice, $20 or $100 bills instead of coins. Since DW won that one, I would not have been unhappy.

[podey]

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Originally Posted by growing_older A generation ago, the always expected couples over game would have been Bridge. Seems to have fallen out of favor, but if you find other players could still be fun. If you are just looking for light things to do, there are all kinds of kids card games like Uno, Spite&Malice, Rook, Hiss, Take6 and others. You could have a selection and just play through each until folks were ready for a change. Light and varied enough to be fun but not too serious.

My parents still play bridge every sunday night and sometimes saturday nights with their friends. Then again, they are in their 60's. No one from my generation that I know of knows how to play bridge, but my parents love it...

[Abreutime]

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Originally Posted by SecondCor521 One that I love we call "the other game". It's a card game that's really quite easy to describe and learn and play. 1. Dealer takes a standard deck of 52 cards, shuffle and deal 8 cards to each player. 2. Dealer turns the top card in the deck over and lays it on the table. Whatever suit is shown by this card is trump. 3. Starting at the dealer's left, each player "bids" on how many tricks they think they will win. Everyone can bid anywhere between zero and 8 tricks, except the last person may bid any number *except* the number that would make the sum of everyone's bidded tricks equal to 8...for example, if you're playing with four players and the bids are 2, 3, and 1, the dealer can bid any number between 0 and 8 *except* 2 (because 2+3+1+2=eight). These bids are written down on a piece of paper. 4. Person to the dealer's left plays a card. Following players must follow suit if possible. Highest trump card wins; if no trump card, highest card wins the trick. 5. Player winning the trick leads the next trick. 6. After all 8 tricks are played, scoring is done as follows: 1 point per trick plus 10 points if you *exactly* meet your bid from step 3. Repeat steps 1 through 6 with 7 cards, 6 cards, ... , 2 cards, 1 card, 2 cards, ... 8 cards. Winner is the player with the most points. 2Cor521

I've heard it called "Countdown" or "Oh Hell." When playing with 3 or 4 people, deal 13 cards, then one less each round. Game ends after round of 1. We also have a variation to make the selection of trump more exciting; the player who is chosen to go first that round can look at half his hand, and select the trump based on that preview.

I'm also a big fan of spades, which has some similar gameplay. I've never gotten into Bridge because I don't feel like learning all of the intricate bidding.

[HFWR]

The ubiquitous midwestern game: euchre

[W2R]

I haven't been in a gathering of grown-ups where traditional games were played, since I last played bridge 28 years ago. (Yes, I have no life).

BUT - - last Christmas Frank's nieces and nephews got a Wii with all the bells and whistles. Many of the adults joined in. That was kind of fun.

[clifp]

Wii Sports is a fun group activity.

[Notmuchlonger]

Ya Wii is pretty fun. Made my arms sore. Im not ashamed to admit it either so nyah.. Boxing game makes you get all pumped up

[deserat]

We play Mah Jongg, Cribbage and Bridge - I have to have my Dad reteach me, though :-) He loves it and so do I. I'd really like to be able to learn Bridge well.

[Ronstar]

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Originally Posted by RetiredGypsy Mexican Train dominoes is a blast. In some places there are restaurants, golf clubs, or wherever you can find it that do trivia nights. It's a lot of fun to bring a team, it's free, and there's usually really cheap drinks.

We play Mexican Train Game at family gatherings. I have to watch the MIL because she cheats.

[Notmuchlonger]

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Originally Posted by Ronstar We play Mexican Train Game at family gatherings. I have to watch the MIL because she cheats.

What is it with MILs! Mine cheats too. But she plays it off like ohhh i didnt know. Ya im watching mine too..

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by clifp Wii Sports is a fun group activity.

Yes, there were probably dozens of different sports to play. I loved it though I wasn't very good at it! Someday I might buy one. It was pretty cool.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by Notmuchlonger Ya Wii is pretty fun. Made my arms sore. Im not ashamed to admit it either so nyah.. Boxing game makes you get all pumped up

Fun, huh? Seems like a good pastime for a senior citizen, snowed in during the winter, to keep active. It probably costs a fortune but that's bound to go down after a year or two.

[Ronstar]

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Originally Posted by Notmuchlonger What is it with MILs! Mine cheats too. But she plays it off like ohhh i didnt know. Ya im watching mine too..

Yea - I get the "i didnt know" stuff too. While I keep score, I also keep a tally of MIL's cheating. She cheated 26 times in one game - mainly trying to put her dominoes on someone elses train

[LeatherneckPA]

I really enjoy Cribbage, but nobody else in my family plays.

Whenever three or more of my family get together the game is something akin to Yahtzee, but only in that it is played with dice.

You need six (6) dice to play. 1's count for 10 points. 5's count for 5 points. The ante is one quarter. You can usually play all night for less than $2.

You roll all six dice and count up your points. Then pick up whatever dice you didn't score points with. And here comes the strategy, do you keep those 5's or do you pick them up hoping to roll 1's. You must save at least one 1 or 5 every roll. If you keep all of the 1's and 5's you are now rolling fewer dice. You get three rolls. If at the end of three rolls ALL of your dice are 1's or 5's you get to pick them up and roll all six again. If on any roll you don't get at least one 1 or 5 your turn is over.

You need 65 pts to open. After you are open you need at least 35 points to hold and take the points you've rolled so far. If you roll 50 pts but just have to roll that last single dice and don't get a 1 or a 5 you lose the points and your turn.

The only time that anything other than a 1 or a 5 counts is if you happen to roll three of a kind. In that case you score 10x's the value. Three 2's is 20 pts, three 4's is 40, three 1's would be 100 pts, etc.

Only when rolling all 6 dice:
If you roll a straight; 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 then you get 150 pts plus a quarter from everyone playing the game. If you roll three pair you get 75 pts. As both require six dice you of course get to roll all six dice again. If, rolling all six dice after either of these rolls you fail to roll at least one 1 or 5 you lose the points and your turn. If you were rolling after a straight and fail you also have to give back all those quarters you collected.

The game ends when somebody reaches over 1000 points. BUT WAIT, there is one final bit of strategy!! Because everybody gets one final turn after you have broken 1000 you want to be sure your score is out of reach of those chasing you. I have seen someone lose to the person in LAST place when she rolled two straights in a row followed by three 1's for a total of 400 pts. The leader had figured that nobody would score over 200 to catch him, and certainly not over 350 as my wife needed to do. Incidentally, those are the ONLY straights my wife has ever rolled playing this game!!

WARNINGS: This game is VERY addictive and can lead to staying up past your bedtime. And the people you are playing with begin to exhibit strange behaviours. They start to talk, beg, plead, and swear at their dice. People you never knew believed in such things start throwing hexes on each others dice. They will not allow ANYONE to touch their dice for fear of damaging the mojo. They begin to have imaginary helpers at the table. My brother Tom has a helper named Ralph. EVERYONE in my family hates Ralph because he has a REALLY annoying habit of coming through for Tom at the most inopportune times.

This game should carry a warning from the Surgeon General, not that anyone in my family would listen.

[FIREd]

I second Wii sports. People of every age group seem to enjoy it! My 65 Year old MIL who is "not at all into video games" seem to really enjoy it, so much so, that when we start playing with the Wii, we can't get rid of her anymore!

[jIMOh]

I'll third the Wii. My wife bought me one for our anniversary last August.

Aerosmith will have a guitar hero edition out real soon too.