SET!

Playing SET! always makes me a little nervous. It's the one game that I consistently beat Andrew at (except for two very uncharacteristic times). The only problem is that I think of Andrew as being much smarter than I am and am therefore always thinking that he's going to beat me, which rarely actually happens. You'd think I'd be able to relax, but no...I guess I just have to keep my guard up.

We played that tonight after we played Mexican Train (in which I beat Andrew, 2:3). We had gone through all the cards and were just setting up the last 3. Twelve cards were on the playing field. Andrew called a set. Nine cards left. I called a set. Six cards left.

"That's game," said Andrew, "There are always either six or nine cards left."

"Or zero," I reasoned, after almost saying that there could be three cards left--but then realizing that those three cards would have to make a set.

"No," Andrew insisted, "The rules say that there will be six or nine cards left."

He started to clean up the cards.

"There could be zero," I said.

"Fine," he challenged, laying the cards back down, "You try for zero. Go ahead."

I looked at the cards for two more seconds and saw that there were indeed two more sets there.

"Set and set," I said triumphantly.

"What?! No way! Show me!" gasped Andrew.

So I showed him.

"We need to write the company! You just cleared all the cards!"

"Are you sure that it's impossible? Check the rules." I was pretty sure it was possible to get all 27 sets in one game.

We pulled out the rules. They read, The play continues until the deck is depleted. At the end of the play there may be 6 or 9 cards remaining which do not form a 'set.'

"So there," said Andrew like he'd just cured cancer or something.

"Andrew, there may be 6 or 9 cards. May be. There could also be less, like zero."

"Oh," he said quietly, "You win."

And I did win, 19:8. We tied the next round 12:12 with nine cards left over.

I'm glad that Andrew has such a good memory.