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Rummoli. If you've played it, you know. It's a time-worn, family-ruining, smelly-hands, shouty, gambling favourite.
You play it by dealing out cards (with a dummy hand which you don't use each round) and by paying a token (or a penny or a nickel or a quarter, if you're nuts) into each of the spaces on the board, which represent specific cards or runs of cards (ten of spades, king of hearts, a run of 7-8-9 in any one suit... and, important to our story, the king and ace of diamonds). Then whoever has the two of spades puts it down and everyone plays a card in order in the same suit until nobody can play a higher card, at which point that player plays their next lowest card in any suit and it follows. Once someone empties the cards from their hand, the round is over, the prizes are collected and you start again. It sounds so basic, and it is. But it's a fantastic lake game or after dinner game. We used to play it on Christmas Eve.
But here's a short story about my mum. When my mum was 8 years old, her family sat down to play a game of Rummoli. The game went along and the high-value pots (usually the 7-8-9 sequence and king-ace of diamonds) had accumulated massive amounts of coin. When little Debbie looked at the hand she was dealt, she was ecstatic to see that she'd received a BOON: the king of diamonds and the ace of diamonds. That pot was hers! She waited patiently for the spades to be played through and for the diamond run to be started. Two of diamonds, three of diamonds, four of diamonds... her time had almost come! Someone played the Jack of diamonds and she waited. And she waited. And nobody played the queen, so it was on to another suit. Someone played all of the cards in their hand and she missed her chance at the enormous jackpot of pennies. Her older brother would later collect it. It's important to note that this happened sixty-one years ago and she's STILL jammed up about it!
If you want to make long-lasting memories of heartbreak and having your hands smell like a twentieth-century slot machine, pick up a fantastic game that was invented 83 years ago today, because it is this week's GAME OF THE WEEK! From Friday, June 22nd to Thursday, June 29th, our Deluxe Rummoli will be 20% off while stock lasts.
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