Residents gathered around kitchen tables this week for DUMP, a card game in which the object is not to collect anything at all. Each player is dealt twelve cards to hold, four face-up on the table and four face-down they are not allowed to see. The first to be rid of the lot wins the round.
The rule at the center of the commotion is a simple one. A card must match the one on top of the plate, or be lower. Play something higher, and the plate is yours: every card on it goes straight into your hand.
“I was down to three cards,” said one player, who asked not to be named. “Then I picked up eleven.” She has since forgiven her brother. Her brother has not forgiven the Chiller.
Relief comes in the form of the DUMP card itself, which may be played on anything, clears the plate entirely and hands its player another go. Four matching cards in a row will do the same, a maneuver locals have begun calling “the quartet.”
Cards still in hand when a round ends are counted against their owner. A Crumb costs a single point. A Chiller costs twenty-five. A DUMP card, caught at the wrong moment, costs fifty. The lowest score at the end of the game takes the night.
Continued on Personals, below ↓
