I have a LOT of games in my collection and I am amazed (and a little embarrassed) that I had never even heard of this game until recently. I picked up a copy of it about a month ago at a local game store, because the salesman recommended it and it instantly became my family's favorite. We've been playing Rummy (the card game) for years and I figured this was the same thing, only with tiles. But it's not; it has the unique rule of being able to manipulate sets that have already been laid down in order to play your own tile(s). That added an extremely interesting and challenging element to the game, which classic Rummy doesn't offer. Let me give you an example. Say on the table is a set of reds - R2, R3, R4, R5, R6 and R7. You have a red 4 (R4) and a blue 7 (B7) and an orange 7 (O7) in your hand (or rack). You can play all 3 of your tiles by making new sets. Here is how - Pull R2 and R3 off the existing set and add your R4 to it, creating another set. Pull the R7 off the existing set and add your B7 and O7 to it, creating another set. Now on the table is three sets: R2,R3,R4 -- R4,R5,R6 -- R7,B7,O7. That’s the cool part about this game! You can add to or split apart as many existing sets as you want as long as what remains are valid sets of 3 or more tiles. As the table fills up with sets, the possibilities become limitless! We had to invoke a turn time limit because towards the end you could spend ten minutes moving stuff around in your mind trying to find a place for that last tile. The game starts out simple and slowly turns into a complex puzzle. Highly recommended!

One of my favorite Aunts introduced this game to me about two years ago. Now, my other favorite Aunt who lives in the same town as I do play cut-throat rounds just about every Sunday afternoon. It has become one of the highlights of my week. We don't keep a cumulative record of who has won the most five-round games, but we have decided that we're both pretty well-matched players. Of course, name calling (in jest) is the order of the day, even though it's Sunday! Having taught gifted children for nine years, I would highly recommend this game for kids. There are opportunities for planning great strategies, as well as just run-of-the-mill learning how to follow rules of a game.