Author: Joseph D. Andrews Publisher: Bonus Books Pages: 126 Price: $12.95 ISBN: 1566251109
So this kid asks if my daughter and I wanna play Hearts. I got the feeling that he was pretty familiar with the game and was planning on impressing us with his card-playing abilities. So he asks if I know how to play, and I say that I've played a few times but I don't really remember how the game works. Anyhow, the kid deals out the cards and runs over the rules, and we play the first round and take all the bad cards. And I say "Boy, I guess I'm really bad at this," and he says "No, actually that's the best thing you can do. It's called Shooting the Moon." So we play a few more rounds and I don't take any points, and then I Shoot the Moon again. And the kid says "you really don't know how to play Hearts?" And I look the kid straight in the eye and say "son, I was beating people at Hearts back when you were a twinkle in your mother's eye."Okay, so it's a good story, but I wondered as to its veracity. Not that doubted for a moment that this guy would pull such a trick on some poor suitor. But Hearts (thought I) is such a game of luck that even if my Boss was an expert player it's unlikely he could trounce this kid so thoroughly hand after hand. I mean, maybe if he got dealt the right cards, but that struck me as just too much of a coincidence.