Charity Challenge Week 5 - Night 2
Welcome to Night 2 of Week 5! We’re very close to the end of the Charity Challenge now and we’re incredibly proud and thankful for all the funds we’ve raised for CAMH! If you’d like to donate you can do so here.
The Choice
Week 1 started with a win for me which means Rachel gets to pick the game tonight. She’s picked her sure things and at this point she’s in to territory picking games she’s won, but we haven’t played too much.
She doesn’t love the uncertainty but she thinks she’s found something we both enjoy playing and that she thinks she can win. Tonight we’ll be playing Schotten Totten.
The Game
Schotten Totten is a game where you battle over 9 territory stones by trying to play superior poker hands. Schotten Totten is an incredibly fun low barrier to entry card game for couples or anyone who enjoys playing two player games. The publisher’s description captures the game well:
In Schotten Totten, nine boundary stones lie between you and your opponent. In front of each, you build poker-like formations of three cards on a side. Whoever plays the higher-ranking formation wins the stone. And in a unique twist, you may use your powers of logic to claim a stone even before your opponent has played all three of his cards, by demonstrating that the stone is impossible for him to win. Successfully claim five stones, or any three adjacent stones, and you win the game.
If you’d like to learn more about the game you can check out a video here.
The Result
This was probably the tightest three games of Schotten Totten we’ve ever played. Game one things got off to a pretty typical start. I played too wide (I played on too many stones too early) and Rachel just played her normal pretty tight and consistent game. The result was game one went right to Rachel’s plan – an easy win.
Game two I learned from my mistakes and held back a lot longer and was able to take control and only play on stones when I was confident I could win. Game two went to me.
Game three went down to the final play of the game. When you run out of cards in the draw pile you have to just play out what you have in your hand and it wasn’t until the second or third last card played that we had our winner. Rachel had secured her victory, a well played choice and execution. It was super close, but she played very well.
The final week is all tied up at one a piece and we go again tomorrow. Last year Rachel won the competition on the second last day and it looks like we’ll be similarly close again this year.