Game 88: Tripoly

 I've had it in mind for quite a while to get this old classic off the shelf.  Last night David asked us all if we wanted to play a game, but he didn't say which game.  We said yes, and Tripoly is what he surprised us with.  This isn't standard fare these days in our household, as we're usually more about Seven Wonders, King of Tokyo, Stone Age, etc., but a fun time was definitely had by all.  I remember playing this quite a lot as a child and really loving it.  It's basically three games in one.  The first stage involves possible bidding on an extra hand (the "dead hand") and collecting chips based on the cards in your hand.  The second stage is poker, which consists of making the best poker hand you can of the 10 or 11 cards in your hand (4-player) and betting.  The third stage is Michigan Rummy, and here the first person out of cards take the kitty and also receives one chip from each other player for each card remaining in their hand.  It's an oddly addicting game, and had we not started so close to midnight, I would have been happy to play for a couple of hours at least.
 It brought back a lot of memories to see this mat again!
 Each new hand brings new potential!
I finally got a decent poker hand!  Hooray!  But David ended up with a Full House as well, and his was higher  .  .  .  alas  .  .  .

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