7 Always Pays!
The rules of a game I'm *almost* convinced my grandma made up
Three young girls sit around a dining table over a deck of cards. Outside the sliding glass door next to them they stared forlornly as it somehow managed to be both 90F and storming heavily. Two smaller children napped quietly in the bedroom down the hall. Usually at this time of day the girls would be out causing mischief and mayhem in the woods or at the park. And while they cared nothing for the rain, wind and lightning was where the line was drawn.
At first glance none of the girls looked particularly similar, once you pointed out that they were actually cousins the resemblance began to appear. This was me and my cousins.
The three of us schemed how to get GG to let us spend the night rather than sending us home when the storm was over. It was a fruitless endeavor this time, but we did get the opportunity to learn a new game she wanted to teach us.
It was called, quite simply, Pennies.
I’ve literally never heard of this game anywhere else and trust me I’ve looked. So if you’ve heard of this game or played this game please let me know.
So, here’s how you play:
Take a deck of cards and sort out for each player cards 2 to 6 and 8 through the Queen. Secrecy is not an aspect to this game so go ahead and lay the cards all out face up. Then each player needs 2D6 and a pile of pennies.
Before the game begin, everyone chips in the ante.
The first person takes their turn (we always rolled to see who went first and went clockwise from there) by rolling their dice and flipping over the individual digits or the sum of the dice rolled.
If you rolled a 2 and a 4 you could flip over the 2 and 4 cards or the 6. If the 2, the 4, and the 6 card has already been flipped over, you add a penny to the pot and it’s the next persons turn.
Rolling doubles means you get an extra turn but you also add a penny to the pot.
And
Rolling any combination of a 7 always adds a penny to the pot!
First person to flip all their cards over gets the pot and the game starts again.
Most of the time we played with GGs pennies, so it didn’t really count as gambling since we had to give them all back at the end anyways. But occasionally the cousins would all conspire to bring our own roll or baggie of pennies and play for keeps!
If you’re looking for something to do to entertain some kids this summer (three guesses as to why I’m thinking of this game right now) this is a great no-screen break that will hopefully entertain you as well as it entertains the kiddos! It’s especially good at drilling kids in fast math and understanding numbers!