Pick Up Sticks – Wooden Classic Game

Pick-Up-Sticks (also known as “Mikado”) is a game of physicaland mental skill, very popularand considered to be classic traditional game. The game is for 2 players or more.

A bundleof “sticks“ are held in a loose bunchand released on a table top, falling in random disarray. Each player, in turn,must remove a stick from the pile without disturbing the remaining ones. Oneroot of the name “pick-up-sticks” may be theline of a children’s nursery rhyme “…five, six, pick-up-sticks!” The game hasspawned several variations such as Jackstraws, Spellicans, and Spillikins.

The object of the game is to pick up the most sticks with thehighest value.

Rules(Gameplay)

To begin the game, a bundle of sticks is somewhatrandomly distributed so that they end up in a tangled pile. The more tangledthe result, the more challenging thegame. In some versions of the game, any isolated sticks, or sticks lying alone,are removed.

The players attempt to remove a single stick, without moving anyother stick. In some versions of the game, players use a tool to move the stickaway from the pile; this “tool” may be one of the held aside before thegame begins or a stickthat was removed during the game. In other versions, players must pick up the sticks by hand only. In either case, playersmust not move any other things while attempting to remove the said stick; if any other stickmoves, the players turn ends immediately and the next player ison. Players whosuccessfully pick up a stick can then have another turn and so on until they fail bymoving another stick(s).

The game is over when the last stick is removed. Thewinner is the player with the highest score (normally the player that has the most sticks withthe highest value).

Note: There are 5different types of sticker (they have different color combinations) and eachtype has its own value (in points).