We're hooked! I was trying to find a new game that 2 people could play. Something not too complicated that could be played by two people who are overworked/overwhelmed, sleep deprived... who needs to find ways to take breaks from the normal day to day. To be completely honest, when I first read these instructions my super depleted brain couldn't grasp it at all (and I'm a pretty smart, quick-learning person)! So, I decided we should "act out" the directions step by step with the cards as instructed. This made it all come into focus. We played 2 hands in a "non-competitive", try-out to see how things would go. We very quickly became pros! There are a few unwritten "rules" or not clear rules that we figured out/decided for ourselves how to interpret and proceed. We play this similar to solitaire, meaning, if you go through the deck (cards in-hand that go into the "wood pile") and at the end stack of in-hand cards you can only count 2 cards instead of the 3 your'e supposed to, you just flip the whole wood pile over - as normal - and take the 3rd card needed from the now top of the card pile in-hand, and continue on. (Act it out, it makes more sense! :) ) Also, the instructions say when playing with 2 people, you should have 5 cards in the post pile and when playing with more people, you use 3 cards in the post pile. However, we use 4 when playin with 2 people. 5cards made it too easy and 3 cards kept getting us stuck without playable cards/moves. 4 works out perfectly for us. Things of that nature. There's other ways it can be modified to possibly make it more difficult/take longer, or just for a variation, - like dealing more than 10 cards in the blitz pile - but we haven't tried that yet! We play "competitively" but not aggressively. We aren't slamming cards, flinging ourselves across the table to discard first, bending every card in the process. haha! We are civilized, tired humans! It is fun, it does keep your mind engaged and focused on the game and even when we are super tired we can play and enjoy. It's perfect. How did I not know about this game sooner? One thing I recommend is buying those rubber finger grippy things. The cards in this game are good, but for us within a few games they lost the ability to be gripped, dealing, sorted, etc. Our solution was using the Swing line -brand- "Rubber finger tips" "Finger cots" The rubber or rubber-like things people put on their fingers/thumbs when working in an office to flip through papers, etc. We each wear one on each thumb! (We bought this brand's size 13.) You can get a box of 12 for less than $5 and they last a super long time. Fixed everything! We've now played dozens of rounds of this game and are still enjoying it. Definitely worth buying and we are so glad we did. You can get into a rhythm, a meditation almost. We are playing together but also can stay focused on our own doings. It's fun! Recommended!
