World
Game
Of
Sprouts
Association

Cal's Currajong: Isolani

When I recently wrote to my old friend Dan Purvis that I might like to contribute an article or two to the club website, he shot back, "Why not make it a regular column?" I chewed that over for a few days before asking myself, "Why the hell not?"

Yeah man, I like the idea. One more spice to make the stew of life even more savory. Something to do while floating out on the immortal blue, either the blue water or the blue bar light, spinning for females.

I will definitely keep it light!

ANALYSIS (Find a shrink.) 10+ I don't think Dan and I ever played with so many in the old days. Let's see: how many isolani will player1 try for? Yes, "isolani", the word Dan and I used when we started looking at the game in Columbia, SC, back in - historians take note - THE EARLY 70'S. (Dan, put that word in the glossary. God help you, it should have been the first word in.)

Here's an ancient mnemonic of my own devising: the warmonger tries to shake things up. If there's an even number of dots, he wants an odd number of isolani. Here it's got to be seven. 1(11)1[2,3] I'm just winging it. Let's try this.

After 1(12)11[2] the seven dots outside will make five isolani. Player2's best try is to make something of the flipflop (Dan, add that one too!) that five dots can be. 1(12)11[4,5] Now I like player2.

--Cal Hudson, First World Champion of Sprouts

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