I had a pleasant afternoon playing Go and Where’s Bob’s Hat? at the University.

I played Go against Juho, I think he’s rather pleasant opponent. We played fast 13×13 games, 11 of them. I won six. We started with a handicap of three stones (I gave handicap and played white all the time) and ended up with one-stone handicap (no handicap stones, no komi). With no extra handicap stones, I won most games. With more stones, the games were pretty even unless Juho made a bigger mistake.

When there were three of us, we played Where’s Bob’s Hat? — I had brought it because I hadn’t tried it yet. We were starting when a fourth player turned up, so four-player game it became. While we were playing, a fifth player came and then we played a five-player game after that. Both games were pretty fast, four and five hands respectively. I think Where’s Bob’s Hat? is a decent game, but doesn’t really stand out from other trick-taking games. It’s definitely on the more chaotic and lighter side (especially with four or five). I rated it as solid seven at Geek. Fun, but there are better games. However, I still have to try it with three players. Also, it would probably benefit from playing longer than just few hands.

I do like the cards, the hats look very neat. It’s just a bit random, that’s all. One reason for the randomness is the fact that the whole deck is not in the play. Anyway, I think I’m playing the game in the future as well, but it’s not my first choice of trick-taking games.