Freaking Kent.

I was getting all ready to spell out in detail what I've doing the last two months, but I've got a headache and I'm kinda tired, so I'll save it for the weekend at some point...

Tonight I had some friends over for Bibletalk (where you talk about the Bible. Complicated, eh?) and afterwards we played one of my favorite games, Kent.

What is Kent?

Kent is a card game played with 2-4 teams of two with each team sitting across from each other. Each player is dealt four cards and just like Spoons (right, Heather?), you want to collect 4 of a kind. However, that's the only similarity Kent has to Spoons. The dealer will lay out the top four cards of the deck face up and all players are allowed to lay down a card from their hand and pick one up on the table as much as they want. After some time has passed where no one picks up the cards, the dealer scoops up the cards and lays out four more. This is repeated until someone gets four of a kind.

Now why are there partners in this game? Well to win the round, you must be able to guess when your partner has four of a kind or vice versa without the other teams knowing. This is done through subtle hints or signs that the team comes up with in secret from the other teams. If you see your partner doing the sign, you call out "Kent". If you were right, your team scores a point. If you're wrong, you lose a point. Subtletly is the key here because if another team believes you have obtained four of the same card, they can call "Ace". If they've caught you, you lose a point and they gain one. However, if they're wrong, they lose a point and you gain one.

I like to play the game with poker chips so everyone gets a visual for how well the teams are doing. You can either play to a number of points or til a team gets all the other teams' chips.

I went to a party for New Year's Eve and we played Kent for most of the evening. It's great fun. Hope you enjoy it.