Webster’s Definition of "Sadomasochist"- one who derives pleasure from the infliction of physical or mental pain either on others or on oneself.

Let’s be honest with each other folks... we all have a sadomasochistic streak to us. In some of us, it may be smaller and resigned to the enjoyment we get when we see someone take a pratfall on the ice or watching some know-it–all lose a heated argument, but it’s still there none the less and it needs to be fed from time to time.
However in some of us, it’s larger and more pronounced... more voracious...

...now, since we’re on the topic of my mother-in-law...

I’m not saying she’s evil or malicious or even hurtful, in fact the woman is nice as pie, but she does get a lot of amusement out of the pain of those she’s supposed to love. When my father in law ripped his “t’aint” (please see Where’s That Shmoo Fella Been All Summer Any How? ), she spent weeks looking over at him, shaking her head softly and chuckling.
When I tell her about her daughter walking in to yet another piece of furniture and breaking her pinky toe for what seems the umpteenth time, she laughs out loud… of course it could be my delivery.
God forbid she should witness me after a night of drinking or in the middle of a bad cold.
Who knew that hacking phlegm could be so amusing?

Her name is Dude. Any other name added to that moniker is just for show. My wife has lovingly called her Dude for years. I call her Kathy-Dude, and I’m teaching our daughter to refer to her as Grandma-Dude.

Dude is a fanatic for games as are my wife and I. She and her long suffering husband spend an awful lot of time together with us in the summer (pretty near every week-end) and every year we have a new game that absorbs the lazy hours when we aren’t down at the lake or lounging in a hammock. We’ve done the cycle through Yahtzee, Phase 10 and Uno. We spent one summer playing Mad Gab and Tri-Bond compulsively, and last year we overdosed on Texas Hold-em.

This year, Dude introduced us to Jok-R-Ummy. It’s a great game but like everything else in life, there is a catch. We can’t find it anywhere. We’ve been to the big box stores and several smaller stores and it’s nowhere. Our neighbors are also hooked on it and have gone so far as to make their own version of the game with 2 decks of cards and a whole pile of paper. Dude has the only version we know of and people are waiting out her front door and around the corner to get in on a game. Luckily, being kin, we get the right of first refusal.

THE GAME:
To know how to play Jok-R-Ummy, you must either know how to play Gin Rummy or be able to pick it up pretty quick. Since Gin Rummy is a pretty straight forward game, don’t shy away from playing. The whole concept of Gin Rummy is to develop a series of Runs and/ or Groups within your hand.
A Run is a sequence of three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order... so for example a nine, ten, jack and queen of spades makes a nice little run of four.
A Group is simply 3 or more of the same card... so three sixes or three nines makes a good group.

Pretty simple, right? Right. The difference here is that before you are dealt your hand you draw one yellow card that dictates what you need to put together. It takes away most of your freedom of choice.

WHAT’S INCLUDED:
2 standard (52 card) decks of playing cards. 1 deck of yellow task cards.

PURPOSE:
Be the first person to have collected and completed seven yellow task cards

A WORD ABOUT THE YELLOW TASK CARDS:
Some are easy, some are not.
On almost every card is a picture (or pictures) of a series of blank cards with an arrow going through them. A Horizontal Arrow means you are looking to create a Group, while a Diagonal Arrow means you need to make a Run. How large your run or group needs to be will be represented by how many cards are showing under the arrow.
So for instance, a standard yellow task card may have 4 blank cards with a diagonal arrow and 3 blank cards with a horizontal arrow. “Who knows the answer?.... Yes, you at the back... Correct! You need to make a run of four and a group of three. Very good... you get a Gold Star.”

The run you create can be in any single suit you choose unless the yellow task card stipulates otherwise. If you see a spade at the bottom right corner of your card, then you need to create a run of spades. The only time you can create a run that is NOT of the same suit is if you receive a yellow task card that has all four suits represented in the bottom right hand corner. Then, you would be able to string together a run that might look like Three of Clubs, Four of Hearts, Five of Diamonds, Six of Spades (etc). The toughest Run I’ve tried to accomplish is a run of eight in spades.

Likewise, any group that you are assigned to create (and it really gets interesting when you need to make a group of five) can be of your own choosing unless otherwise indicated on the bottom right hand corner of your task card. The hardest single group I have seen is one of Six Queens.

THAT LUCKY OL’ SUN:
What’s this? There aren’t any runs or groups represented on my yellow task card at all but just some smiling sun looking up at me with a puckish wink on his face. Why you lucky, lucky bugger. That’s a free card. You just collected a card and didn’t have to do anything for it. Look at him again... look how happy he is for you. If you get a few of those lucky old suns you will be well ahead of everyone else.

Sorry by the way. Those were several words about the yellow task cards.

PLAY & RULES:
1) Shuffle all 104 playing cards together. Shuffle the yellow deck of task cards.

2) Pick a dealer. Usually I just deal out the cards and the first person to get a spade deals but make it as interesting as you want. I recommend a fierce Indian Leg Wrestling competition

3) Dealer has each person (starting with his left and going clockwise) pick a yellow task card off the top of the yellow deck. The Yellow task card can be looked at and placed face down in front of you.
DO NOT SHOW YOUR YELLOW TASK CARD TO ANYONE ELSE (...sorry I yelled... but that would be really stupid... cuz they could screw you just for the fun of it)

4) IF YOU HAVE BEEN DEALT THAT LUCKY OL’ SUN- tell the dealer immediately, flip it over in front of you and pick a new yellow task card.

5) Dealer then deals thirteen cards to each individual. After all the cards are dealt, the remainder of the deck is placed in the center of the table with one card flipped over to create a discard pile.

6) Play then begins with the person to the dealers left. Your job is to begin to re-create the hand that is represented on the yellow task card. You may either pick up the card from the top of the main pile or the card from the top of the discard pile. Once you pick up, you must discard so that the number of cards in your hand always remains at 13. Play then continues to the next person.

But what’s this??? You need to create a group of 6 Kings and that will be almost impossible because there are only 8 kings total in the deck?

HOLY CRAP!!! I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE WILD CARDS!!!!- Where is my head? All jokers and twos are wild. You can use them as any card in any suit you want. The only rule is that you must have at least one natural card in your run or group to use the wild cards. A group of six Queens might look like the following: Queen of spades, two of hearts, two of hearts, two of clubs, two of spades, joker.

7) Once you have accomplished ALL the sets of runs and/or groups on your yellow task card you may lay them down in front of you. DO NOT lay your cards down until your entire yellow task card is completed. Then flip over your yellow task card to show you have completed your assignment.
If you have any groupings of three or more that you have been collecting in addition to your yellow task card you may lay these down as well.

8) If you have used all the cards in your hand the first round is over. Congrats. If not, play will continue. For you to use up those remaining cards in your hand you need to either a) create a new group of at least 3 cards or b) add single cards to any already existing run and/ or group, whether it be yours or someone elses. You are NOT allowed to create new runs.

9) Play continues until someone goes out (has no cards left in their hand). If this happens and you have NOT completed your yellow task card ... HA HA HA HA HA SUCKER!!!!... You get to try and complete it again on the next deal. I don’t care how close you were... now you gotta start all over again.

10) First person to have completed their yellow task card (NOT the first person to go out) draws from the top. Then you get to play another round.

THIS GAME:
is both fun and frustrating as crap. You might complete your yellow task card with out drawing a card from the deck. You might be holding the same yellow task card for three rounds. You get to watch the cards you need drawn by someone to your left knowing that you won't get to use them. You might not be able to discard with out giving the person to your left a usable card. You could be three cards ahead of everyone and then half an hour later one card behind. ♫ You could be riding high in April and shot down in May (...a ring a ding, ding...) ♫

Whatever the case may be, set aside a good hour and a half to play this. When four of us play it takes closer to 2 hours.

I would like to thank Dude, my mother-in law, for introducing me to this game. The wife and I are now addicts and since we can’t seem to find our own copy we’re at your mercy... nice...
However, I should tell you that the last time we played, a queen of hearts blew off the top of the deck. I found it, after we had put the game away and placed it in my breast pocket for safe keeping. Quite innocently, I forgot it was there and brought it home where it now sits on my night table.

Having trouble making those groupings of Queens?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): @ 20 CND
Type of Toy: Game
Age Range of Child: Whole Family