The Game
The game is played using a small coin. Two teams of three face each other across a table and toss the coin to decide who goes first. The winning team put their hands under the table and move the coin unseen between the three pairs of hands. When ready, the centre player knocks three times on the underside of the table and all three pairs of clenched fists (one containing the coin) are placed on the table. The opposing team, who can confer, must then attempt to find the coin in the following manner.
The person who is trying to find the Tippit taps the hand of an opponent and says either:-
- "Take your left/right hand away". The tapped opponent opens the hand specified and if the coin is not there, the person puts the hand by their side. If the Tippit is revealed, then the team hiding the Tippit have won the round. They score one point and get to hide the Tippit amongst themselves again.
- "Tippit in your left/right". The tapped opponent opens their hand to show whether or not the coin is there. If the Tippit is revealed, then the team searching for the Tippit wins the coin. They score no points but get the opportunity to hide the coin. If the Tippit is not in the fist mentioned, then the searcher has lost and the team with the Tippit score a point and get to hide it over again - once they have revealed who really had it all along.
Games are usually played until one team reaches a score of 11.
There are minor regional variations in command words and game length but these rules remain essentially the same wherever the game is played.
Read more about this topic: Tippit
Famous quotes containing the word game:
“In the game of “Whist for two,” usually called “Correspondence,” the lady plays what card she likes: the gentleman simply follows suit. If she leads with “Queen of Diamonds,” however, he may, if he likes, offer the “Ace of Hearts”: and, if she plays “Queen of Hearts,” and he happens to have no Heart left, he usually plays “Knave of Clubs.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
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—William Burroughs (b. 1914)