Ponzi Scheme

Nerve wracking game played with Richard, Russell and Stefan.

My debt clock, securities and hidden cash.

The number in black is the amount borrowed.

The number in white is the interest that has to be paid.

The game ended when Richard went bankrupt.  Russell survived that fate by one dollar and won with an impressive portfolio of shares.  Stefan was also looking at bankruptcy but was doing okay and came second as I had foolishly tried to buy a share from him at too low a price and ended up giving one of my shares to him.  My spread of shares did not provide for significant VPs so I came a happy third.  I had a warm inner glow as my debt was nowhere near what the other players had accrued.

A very interesting and challenging game.  But nerve wracking!

Comment from Richard:

I must say I found Ponzi a quite difficult game to come to grips with.

It's similar to container in that you need to keep an eye on how much

money is circulating in the system to see what the "value" of card

trades might be, but wholly unique in that you can't be certain how much

money someone actually has. I can't say I really had any strategy other

than cash flow management. I didn't get to grips with the clandestine

trading and it just ended up a churning exercise which got me nowhere.

So the game went for 9 rounds with me going bust. I'm not sure why I

decided to purchase that card off Russell which ended up giving him just

enough money with a dollar to spare to pay his loans for that turn. (I

blame tiredness with all the overtime I've been doing this week for a

very silly move).

This cost Mark the game as Russell would have gone bust, and Stefan and

I were quite a way behind in victory points. I give the moral victory (

assuming that's possible in a game about running a Ponzi scheme) to Mark

who played a very judicious game and deserved to win. An interesting

game with more plays required to better understand.