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Wednesday 21 January, 2009
Although not recent, I just realized I need to write another entry for the class I'm taking. Apologies for the ...
Over the Christmas break, I played Nerts with my little brother and sister. This involved teaching them the rules, because neither of them had ever played. My sister was a little skeptical about not taking turns to play. I guess every game she had ever played involved players taking turns.
Since I wasn't playing with my siblings to win, I took it slow while they got up to speed. They caught on pretty quickly. After the training round, we played again, this time with another sibling, who is closer to my age. He didn't require as much explaining.
This time, I played to win. Unfortunately, even though I was the most experienced player, I was beat by the newcomer who had just learned the rules.
== Observations ==
This game is really better for older people (maybe 12+). Older people seem to catch onto the rules a little faster.
There seems to be some hidden potential for playing Nerts, even in people that have never played before. Nerts requires the ability to quickly make decisions, which is a skill that can be developed outside the game. Playing Nerts is also enhanced by a good memory. A player with a good memory may come across a card and realize that it can be played, remembering the state of a pile in the center.
Another good skill for the game is the ability to multitask. (Though I shouldn't talk about this since men are notorious for being single-minded.) A player who can multitask, can watch that pile of clubs in the middle waiting for it to reach the Jack which he has in his Nerts pile, while simultaneously looking for a red 8 to put on that black 9 so he can free a slot in his private play area, while simultaneously flipping though his deck looking for any cards that he can play in the middle, while simultaneously keeping a watch on his neighbor's cards so see what cards they have to play with... You get the point.
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