Yahoo for Gee Haw!

It’s sort of a weird thing, I don’t usually go looking for solo games yet in the last few weeks two excellent ones have hit my little ‘in front of TV’ game table.

The first was Cavern Shuffle: Maze of the Minotaur by Canadian game designer Ryan Dawson, and now Gee Haw from veteran game designer David McCord.

While Cavern Shuffle used a special deck of cards it was very much a game built on the foundation of Patience.

With Gee Haw, McCord uses a standard 52-card deck but created a very different solo challenge.

“I had been brainstorming the use of standard playing cards for non-standard uses,” via email. “‘Cause…why not? At the same time, I’d been thinking about solo games and how patience-style card games worked. As such thoughts swirled around in my head, somehow the notion of red/right and black/left came together. A few hours of noodling around — et voila! — the game was born.”

When asked what were you trying to achieve with game? McCord replied, “Firstly, I guess, simply striving to create a unique solo game.

“Also, portability is always an element that I pursue in my designs. Most of my friends know that I’m the game guy, and I always have an emergency game case in my car. So using a standard card deck (which is already in there), all I need to carry is the peg board and 10 pegs. Gee-Haw fits nicely in little acrylic box or even a zip-top baggie. Slips right into a pocket, too.”

In addition to the deck of cards Gee-Haw has a very nice wooden score board and pegs -- rather standard fare from NewVenture Games in a very positive way.

Here the challenge is to get all 10 pegs – valued ace to 10 -- to either the red or the black side of the score board, based on the suit colour of the numbered cards and the ‘wild card’ powers of the face cards – kings and queens allow you to move any peg, jacks allow the movement of two pegs. You decide how to utilize most of the card values – so a 10 can be a lone 10 peg move, or a peg combo which totals 10.

You play through the deck hoping to win, but most often coming to the end of the deck singling another loss – yes Gee Haw is a tough one.

McCord did note, “a shuffled poker deck provides nearly limitless replayability. Even considering the probabilities offered by 52 cards, Gee-Haw can be won about 30 per cent of the time, which is a pretty good rate for a pocket-size solo game.”

So far I am apparently a below par Gee Haw player, but it’s quick and I will challenge it again with some vigour. As McCord also noted Gee Haw is “easy on the brain. “Relaxing, not taxing.”

McCord said he was surprised I had not asked about the name of the game (as most people do). He explains it in a how-to-play video, but being a farm boy I caught on before that.

But I will let the designer explain.

“I know a lot of horse people, and somewhere along the line I learned the Gee and the Haw use to drive a team of horses. The teamster is telling the horses to turn left or right, and left or right is what the game’s all about,” said McCord.

Ultimately Gee Haw is so different as a solitaire game – at least to me – that it’s an easy high recommendation. Simple rules and yet challenging time burner. Check it out at ww.newventuregames.com