Poll of the Day > This is a game I taught my elementary students that spread like wildfire.

(+) Yeah! (+)

If you have kids at home, this might keep them entertained for awhile, while improving math skills.

It's called 21, and the goal of the game is to be the one who reaches 21.

Each player can add 1-3 to the number. It's random who starts first, and the loser of the previous game starts first on the next. You have to win by 2 games (so 2 more wins then the other player).

So for instance if I was to start I would say something like:

One, Two.

Then the other player would say:

Three

And I would say

Four, five six!

Then they could say:

Seven, eight,

and so forth until one of us reaches 21.

There is of course a trick/pattern etc, but most young kids will not figure it out, and if they do, you can mix it up, by changing the number they count to, the max they can add etc.

But I ran rampant through my elementary school that year for months and none of the kids figured it out. They love playing with other kids, with adults, with anyone.

So if you have kids, hopefully this helps a bit.

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I think I've play something like this before. But I can't remember where. It was like this. But it might not have been to get 21. It was on a video game, too... But I definitely remember it... Also, there's a trick to it. By saying certain numbers, you can always win...
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Yep, but most kids don't figure that out, so they play it endlessly lol. The trick is pretty easy to figure out for an adult (well an adult good at math at least), but even 5th graders didn't figgre it out, so had fun for months lol.

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The game tends to lock up at 15.

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There was a board game from the 1960's using the same rules where the "computer" would always beat the player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KABcmczPdg

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captpackrat posted...

There was a board game from the 1960's using the same rules where the "computer" would always beat the player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KABcmczPdg

This is the thing that I thought of right away

Yeah, as that video breaks down you can use simple multiplication/division to determine the (set numbers) you need to hit each game to always win.

For 21 (hide this from your kids if your gonna use it to entertain them), you can simply subtract 4 from the winning number, until you reach 1, so the set numbers in that case are:

21/17/13/9/5/1

As long as you hit those numbers, your opponent can not win. IF you go first, you can not lose.

Now you can mix it up to make it more complicated allowing the person who ISN'T gonna go first to choose the final number. You can still always ensure you win, but then it requires some quick math in your head to do so (the number of course needs to be greater than 20...aad I'd set a rule stating it's less than 40).

You can also change up the amount you can add each time etc, but the basic game, like I said, will entertain younger kids for a very long time, and could be really useful right now.

Btw, I did come up with this myself, but as shown above similar things have been made before, it's a simple, fun math game and not hard to make/figure out, but it's great for kids.

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Just the pile of coins game yes.

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LinkPizza posted...

I think I've play something like this before. But I can't remember where. It was like this. But it might not have been to get 21. It was on a video game, too... But I definitely remember it... Also, there's a trick to it. By saying certain numbers, you can always win...

There's a minigame kind of like this in one of the mario party games on the n64. There's a bunch of fruit and coins and you hit a block that says 1 or 2 and thats how many fruit/coins get taken off.

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I know a better game, 31;

You deal out cards, 3 per player with a central card face up, plus the deck.

...oh, Bicycle has the rules on their page

https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/thirty-one/

The variation I'm most familiar with is only a single card as well as the facedown deck for the widow; only the loser pays up a coin (3 coins per player). If you get 31 you take a coin from everyone. If you knock and end up with the lowest score, you lose 2 coins. In addition if a player gets 31 after a knock, that player steals an additional coin from the knocker.

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