Four of us this week and we kicked off with an oldie-but-goodie. Favoriten is a simple horse racing and betting game. Each turn, everyone has a chance to place one bet on one of the five horses, following which the player whose turn it is rolls a standard die five times and moves one of the horses each time the respective distance. Once three horses have crossed the finish line, bets on these horses are paid out, with earlier bets on the horse receiving more back than later bets. The key here is to try and place your bets early as there is greater payback if successful, but others will then try to slow your horse down at the expense of others. Leave your bet too late and others will have beaten you to it and will receive a greater payout than you if the horse comes in.

We ran four races with me and then Nige raking in the most points in the first two races. The third race was pretty even but Nige had opened up a bit of a lead, with me second , Mark K third and Mark G a little bit adrift. The final race was a disaster for me. My bets were poor and, when I had a chance to push horses across the line ahead of those Nige had backed, my die-rolling skills deserted me and I couldn’t get a single horse across the line. As a result, I was eased into last place thanks to a great recovery by Mark G and Nige was the one parading around in the winner’s enclosure.