Browsing through the games shelf at the local toyshop, I come across an interesting-sounding card game with two crucial words on the box -- Reiner Knizia. Another two words catch my eye -- five pounds. I buy. Grab [AKA It's Mine] is a simple card game comprising a deck of 5 types of card (Sure Thing, Double or Nothing, Wild cards, Toast or Most and Jackpot) and a mat to slam down on to claim the cards. The objective is to collect the good whilst avoiding the bad.

The oldest player starts off as dealer. He turns one card face up at a time, quite quickly, placing them in a row to ensure that are all visible, until one of the other players shouts "Grab" and slams his hand down on the mat. That player takes the cards, places them face down in a separate pile (which may not be looked at until scoring) next to him and becomes dealer for the next round. As soon as one player has 3 piles (4 in a 3 player game) he cannot take any more cards and becomes dealer until the next hand. When only one player can still take cards, he gets the remainder. At this point, scoring starts. Each player gathers his facedown cards and calculates his points. Sure Thing cards score the value marked on them and range from +4 to -1. Double or Nothing require 2 identical cards to score and range from value +6 to -4. So a single +5 scores nothing but a pair of then score +5. Similarly a single -4 will lose you nothing but two of them will. Wild cards must be used to make up a pair, even if it has to match a negative card. Toast or Most cards score +10 to the player who has collected, logically enough, most of them. Finally Jackpot cards score points according to how many you have -- 1 scores 0 points, 2 scores 1, 2 scores 3 all the way up to 7 scoring 40 points. The player who has scored most points wins the hand. The first player to win two hands wins the game.

Sounds familiar? It's Ra-lite. Sure Thing cards score like Gods and gold, Toast or Most like Pharaohs and Jackpot cards like Monuments. And that's a fair way to sum it up. You have to quickly evaluate the cards on offer and hope to grab them before someone else appreciates their value. Grab is a fun game that plays quickly and now holds position, in our group, as regular session ender.

SWD: Neil didn't send me a note of such things as publisher, number of players etc and at the time I didn't think to ask, because such things are easy enough to track down later. That isn't how it has worked out this time and my last minute attempts to contact him have failed. However, it is fairly clear from the description that Grab would seem to be a British edition of the game that was published in the States last year by the company Winning Moves. They called it It's Mine. That being the case, it is a game for 3-5 players.