Host
Heidi Cook
Podcast Content
Each match starts with a player taking 9 cards from the deck of 33. Each player will tally all points for the cards that they took, but only for cards that are lower down the set. Each player in turn decides if he takes that card or declines and puts one of their chips into the pot.
To avoid having to take the card, the player whose turn it is has to pay one chip. As play proceeds around the table, their starting 11 chips accumulate, until a player either decides to take the card or is forced to take a card as they are running low on chips. Without the chip mechanic, the obvious play is simply not taking any cards, but due to the limited amount of chips that start out, you have to get cards in your hand. Often, players will discard the card a few turns, so the amount of chips sitting beside the card becomes fairly high.
If the players pass, then they must place one of their limited chips next to the card facing up. If the player passes on that card, then the passed game is played next to his or her neighbor on his or her left.
If the player declines, play turns -- and the decision of whether or not to take the card -- pass to his left-hand neighbor, again, and so on. When finally the player has decided to take the card , he puts it face-up in front of him, taking the chips up into his hands. Since that card would have given Peter 11 points, Peter refuses and puts one of his chips next to it.
The starting players then have to decide if they want to keep the card facing them, or if they want to place their chip next to the card and pass; No thanks. On their turn, each player has a choice to either pick the card up face-up, or to pass it. When taking the card on their turn without passing, a player puts the face-up card facing them, positioned a bit apart from any other cards.
In No Thanks, players avoid taking cards from the middle of the table, paying a fee for this privilege and placing one of their starting 11 chips beside the card. Say No Thanks and put one of a players chips next to the card. Now, you may take the card and put it in your scoring zone, or spend one of your chips and say, No thanks.
If you decide to keep every card, put it face-up in front of you, then add a chip to your stock. This will continue around the group, sometimes several times, until one player chooses to remove a card and any counters placed on it. Someone then turns the next card over, again deciding to either take or pass on the card, and the game continues this way until all cards are taken.
This continues until somebody has taken the card . There is certainly a bit of shouting and a bit of fury as someone turns the final card that is needed to finish his or her run of ten cards, but this is the point of the game. People are running out of chips, then having to grab many, many cards with big points, not being able to run many. There are two aspects of the game that are working as you are playing, the mechanics of chips, and trying to get the numbers chains to come up with cards that you are taking.
Sure, there is a bit of luck involved with which cards are out of play, but usually, you can mitigate this by having good strategies. You may think taking is a good idea, since you stand a better chance to be on the run, but it turns out taking nil cards is also a really great strategy. One of the main strategies is what we refer to as the milk of the cow, where you take no cards at all because you know that everybody else wants them least.
Admittedly, you could guess what people are going to do if you had good enough memory, since every card anyone takes is going to face up, but we found playing with good house rules added some extra excitement to the game. Put those nine cards away, not looking at them--you do not want to have to use them in the game. The remaining 9 cards are not needed for the game, and are returned to their boxes, with no players looking at them.
In No Thank You, the starting player turns over the top deck card, face-up, onto the table. During our game, a player that is using their chips heavily often gets ganged up and forced to pick a higher card.