Twin Palms Board Game Playthrough Preview

Twin Palms Board Game

Hey welcome to how it plays I’m host Anthony and I’m Francis and today we’re playing a trick taking game called twin palms, all right, but first, let’s go to the primer and we’ll see you back at the table. Twin palms is a trick taking card game with beautiful style players. Take turns each round playing pairs of cards from a hand of 10 attempting to win exactly the number of tricks they guessed they would at the beginning of the round. If the player wins this exact number of tricks, they receive the corresponding value in sand dollars. Additionally, players can place bets against the beach house if you will to maximize their winnings.

 

The game comes with several modes of play. To ensure accessibility for players of all levels will twin palms transport us to a warm sunny shore in the middle of our chilly new jersey winter lead us off. Let’s see how this goes disaster I was debating to go zero, but I think I’ll win. At least one find out now, as we show you how it plays all right – welcome to the table. Welcome to our beach welcome to the twin palms beach, all right, so we are playing a trick taking game uh, not something that you typically see on this channel.

 

I know but um, but why not? Let’s, let’s diversify so um we are at the beach. As we said, take a look at the table. Take a look at our beach. We’ve got a game where we’re going to play six rounds with two players.

 

We have 10 cards each playing the advanced mode of this game, so it’s a trick taking game. There are three suits every round. Every turn we’re gonna, be playing two cards out um to create either pairs and sets and try to win the most tricks. So, each round we’re gonna be able to win uh as many as five tricks in total, so um. The one nuance with this, though, is at the beginning of each round.

 

We are going to bet on well, actually, first bid, yes on how many tricks we think we’re going to get this round, and if you can get that exact number you’re going to get a lot of extra points, then we’re going to also optionally bet. If we want to as well so I think I am interesting yeah. This is a big one. Oh is it I could be so. I’M gonna bid that, but I’m not going to bet yeah, I’m not um, I’m not betting and what you’re betting on so you’re going to bid to see how many tricks you can take and you’re betting to see.

 

If you can nail that it’s like basically sweetening the deal, the max bid you can uh max bet you can make is the is the round so for round one? It’s only one dollar, one, seven dollars, we start with two. So now we reveal yep, I’m gonna get oh really yep, so this one of us is not gonna make it this way. This is not gonna work. This is not gonna work, so um.

 

Now that we know what we’re going for uh, the player with the shark fin is gonna start with laying down two cards, and then I’m gonna try to beat it, which is me, let’s hope so. Okay, let’s do this all right, so I’m playing a not a pair, because it’s a five and a six, but it is dolphins, so you’re gonna have to do better than that um. It is not a pair like literally you could play anything so what she’s got right now is no pair mixed. That’s the lowest rated hand. No!

 

No! No! Oh! No! Sorry, no pear dolphins, dolphins, so it’s actually rank six, so I could literally just say all right: I’m gonna play a pair of fives, even though they don’t match suit.

 

A mixed pair is rank four, so I know I win that. So that’s one out of my three: let’s see if we can top that all right, so hmm so we’re going to go here. We’re going to do a 9-1 suited a 9-1. So that’s a no pair sunglass, no pairs! No pair of sunglasses!

 

That’s rank 7! Um, does she take it? I think yeah I will I’m gonna do a no pair dolphin, no, that wins so that wins so there’s your first, my first winning all right. So I’m trying to see which way I want to go with this here. Um and I think we’ll do this – what is that?

 

That’s a pair of zeros all right, so let’s do an um I’ll just do a pair of nines dolphins. Okay, that works. That’s trick. Number two number, two all right, so I’m gonna do a twin palms. Wild is a three, so I have a pair of threes palms.

 

That’s the highest rank so now, as long as she can build a pair of palms that are higher than that. That were good. Somebody dealt me limited palms, oh okay, um yeah! That’s not great! This is that’s all I could do.

 

I could call that a seven pair of sevens, but it’s no unsuited, so that would be mixed, so that would take that uh. This is unfortunate. This is very unfortunate because I’ve got a pair of six pumps. You took all the palms who shuffled this deck. I don’t know, but it was a good shuffle all right, so that beats your pair of eights.

 

So I got four. We both didn’t hit it by the way yeah, because you went over I went over, I should have. I went under all right so, but you are going to get so you’re going to get one sand dollar per trick. Yep, as am I so I’m going to get one you’re going to get four, not five. I put one in and took change.

 

Okay, I’m watching it’s the sand dollars too many sand dollars. Okay, tricky tricks all right, so there you go. That’s how the game rolls right, so we’re going to do this until round six and then we’re going to see whoever has the most sand dollars at the end yeah I’m trying to shuffle this really well, this time. Okay, don’t like shuffle them back to original position. Well, I do a lot of bottom of the deck shuffling um he’s like here’s all the sunglasses cringe when they see the riffle shuffle, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t care about the ruffle shovel.

 

So I’m gonna just do it because, honestly, in my opinion, it’s the best shuffle it gets you the best mix. So unless you do it twice and like the cards overlap each other and then you do it again, they overlap each other again and then it’s exactly back to where it was well. That’s if you’re a perfect riffle shuffler one, two, three, four: five: six, seven, eight! Nine ten cards are meant to be shuffled. You know what I mean yep, I’m with you, I’m with you, okay, so I can lead this thing off.

 

How many of these do? I think I can get let’s. Let’s go for this all right, so I’ve got a I’ve got a lot of cards here. You have 10, actually a lot of straights I could do. I know why aren’t we playing it doesn’t help?

 

Oh boy yeah. This is going to be pretty ugly. Actually, so is it no not really, let’s go for. Let’s go for this. Do I go big?

 

You could or go home. I should have gone big last round. I would have been major points ready, major points. No wait! I’M trying to decide if I want to put some money.

 

Oh you want to bet on that too yeah. I think I’ll put a sand dollar on that. Well, you got to put your bed so you’d actually be betting. The half you’re not actually putting money up there. We don’t play card games yeah.

 

Some one of some of us aren’t very good at cutting games yeah. Well, you don’t really want to show me that either until we reveal, but I already I already put myself all right – you know what I’m going to bet too. Are you now that I did that yeah? Okay, all right, let’s go two! I did four.

 

All right, so we gotta, go for it and then I’m gonna bet zero, okay, you’re, weird, so half the round is one and I lead us off. So let’s see we do, let’s see what we can pull out here, pull out all the stops. Okay, let’s do this we’re gonna. Do a um we’re going to do a mixed, but not matching a mix, but not matching. What did you do mixing and not matching?

 

That’s just a mix. Two one offset. That’s nothing! Yep! That’s a no pair!

 

That’s a nothing! A no pair au pair you’re, a no pair over if straight’s counted I’d, have the best hand in the world. Okay. Well, they don’t so okay. I guess I’ll just do this now; which car do I want to get rid of?

 

Oh, okay, I’ll do this! Oh! That’s um! Okay! Sorry, I’m just like we’re playing a euro right now, don’t you you’re getting that vibe spider!

 

You said play fast, I’m getting those vibes! I’M like this is a pretty fast playing game right. Last famous last words, all right: fine I’ll! Just do these sunglasses, okay! Well, that wins!

 

That’s it! I know I know I was supposed to try to figure out one of those games. You’re, like you know what this is a filler we’ll play between games right, so you’re like cool. We got 20 minutes and then you’re, like I’m exhausted, 45 minutes later you’re, like are you gonna play a card because, like you literally don’t have that many to choose from oh stop it? I have so many to choose from, though okay, okay, let’s do this?

 

All right so five and a four suited: that’s a no pair of dolphins, uh, okay, no pair of dolphins, that’s good! So now I could say: hmm these cones look like bugles, because that’s what I think of when I think of the beach. Oh that’s good! I could do a seven five okay, so you take a bomb, so that beats it even because we’re both um no pair but the palms beat the dolphins. So that’s my set spawns they do.

 

I just need one more set to meet your goal. Okay, um! I go you do yes, you do because you won. So let’s try. Let’s try that pair of threes next, a pair of mixed threes, well um a pair of mixed threes, interesting!

 

Okay! I will do twin bombs. There you go. You win that scooping it up all right, um! Hmm!

 

I don’t like the way this is going all right; we’ll do this ouch! That’s a 10 That’s twin palms, yeah, that’s a twin 10 twin palms! That’s his win! Yeah see he looks like a lady with her puppy; hmm take it. Take it what’s your last set.

 

I hope this is a winner. I hope it’s a winner too. It’s not somebody’s about to be a big loser. Okay, what do you got unmatched palms pair of fours pairs? Ah son of a gun fears win all right.

 

I lose it all. I hit two all right, so your bet goes for fit. I lose my, I don’t get my ten dollars, but I get three took three yeah, so you get three I didn’t bet, but I did hit my two, which is five dollars there. You go five sand dollars.

 

Excellent may the odds be ever in my favor and also in my favor all right. So we are moving on to round three and you are the shark fan all right thanks what sorry shuffling doing some shuffling off camera. So you guys don’t have to paint through it watching me riffle shuffle for days all right, so here we go. We gotta think about it. Think about the bids um yeah.

 

This is like that good huh, it’s gonna crush okay. What are we going to bid here? Can I crush frogs? It’s going to crush frogs oops. You know what let’s do that.

 

I don’t think that’s going to happen, though, probably more realistically that now it’s round three, so I could theoretically bid an additional three on top of this you’re good. Are you going to I’m not going to bid you’re not going to bid that doesn’t sound very confident of you, because this could go a couple different ways? Well, it could really just go two ways so um. Let me see I could yeah uh. I don’t know.

 

Hmm, let’s do that we’ll see what happens all right, yep one, okay, three, at least this is doable this time, there’s not going to be a pure loser uh. I feel like a pure loser with this hand, but go ahead. Lead us off. Let’s see how this goes, this is a disaster I was debating to go zero, but I think I’ll win at least one um yeah. But will you win exactly one um?

 

I really shouldn’t win more than that. Oh really, unless you feed me more than that, but um well, we’ll see, I guess all right um. I will I’ll feed you um. I guess I’ll just do this! Oh, no!

 

Actually! Yeah! Okay! I’ll! Do that!

 

I don’t know so. This is just some sunglasses and some pineapples mm-hmm unmatched right, but that is an um. That’s about a rank! Seven right! So if I wanted to not win that, I would do like that right.

 

That would keep going and I’ll just keep feeding them to you. Okay, so I could take zero tricks, all right, I could do uh, I hate being one that goes first, you know what I mean: mm-hmm, it’s not fun pair of twos, unmatched, unmatched pair of twos. It’s like which one of my hands would you like to win against? Oh boy. Well, I could certainly like I could yeah.

 

I can’t even win that, even if I wanted to because that’s an unmatched pair right, so I could be like and that’s a and that’s a lot – that’s a no pair yeah dolphin set, and that loses okay. So there’s your second set. I thought I may not even take one trick wow that why did you do? Did you throw that on purpose, throw what throw that away right there yeah? No, because I couldn’t beat it!

 

Oh you couldn’t beat it wow. You really do. I have a bad hand. It was just like a little of everything, or could I beat it all right, I’m gonna do this twin palms, but actually that’s not true. That’s not true.

 

It’s just actually two palms, two palms, two unmatched palms. So I could do that and you win with your double zeros. Yes, and we could say that what is that? That’s just a mixed, no pair! That’s just nothing!

 

It’s pretty much as bad as it gets. That’s nothing! Um, okay, so yeah, actually yeah! Okay, we’ll do yeah we’ll do this. Okay, you win.

 

I win and my final is gonna be this. What is that – and that is I’m gonna call this a zero? You have a zero yeah, so it’s a that is ten un mixed no pair. So you win with your dolphins, yep. You took it wow, so I ended up taking two.

 

I did that was smart. I uh, I misplayed my prayer prior hand, your prayer hands, my prayer hands yeah, so you did hit it. So how many points was that? Oh, I did um. That is seven points.

 

Wow, that’s a big one yeah I needed it all right, so we are moving on to round four remember. There are six rounds in this sea faring adventure, I’m not really seafaring we’re kind of sitting on the beach. Fearing adventure wayfaring wayfarer, I wish I was sitting on a beach right now, uh that would be nice, but not right now, because it’s really cold well, not here, it’s not like jersey, beach, jersey shore, that’s the only beach for us. All right. Let’s see if we can recover now all right, um how’s it looking its still bad um.

 

Are you shuffling too much now I don’t know I mean it’s not the end of the world, it’s better than my last hand. So let’s go, let’s go for it now. Let’s see um, maybe I can pull that off. Just maybe that’s not great! That’s!

 

Okay, all right! Let’s do that. Let me see I might want to bid this time too, okay or bets. What are we on round four yeah, so you can bid up to four bucks, that’s so heavy! I could do that.

 

Okay right yeah, maybe I will too okay there, you go okay. What do you got three and I’m in about half so I’ll? Get two wow okay! Well, this isn’t gonna go well for one of us, no somebody’s in trouble and you’re going first so have at it all right, I’m having at it. So how do we want to come out of the gate here?

 

Do we want to come out firing riffling there paraforce start with that pair of fours interesting, I see do a pair of sevens. You take it. That’s good! That’s good! My turn.

 

What I was thinking I will uh. I will also do a pair of fours um interesting pair of fours huh, mm-hmm, ouch, okay I’ll throw a pair of tens on it. Hmm, that’s a that’s a hard time, a hard trick, hard trick to take. It is um I’ll, throw out a zero five. That’s a nothing that is a mixed, no pair, a mixed pair of nothing wow uh.

 

Okay, so I could do a pair of sunglasses all right, so you have a no-brainer, no pear, okay. So then you lead us off on the next one, um, nothing! This is like a zero, like literally has nothing on that. Okay thing, let’s see all right, so I have a um palms no pair, but that takes it yeah and that’s the final set. This is the make or break this.

 

Is it? What do you got pair of nines? Oh, I also have a pair of mines. Palms. You got the palms, you get it.

 

I got it wow! Look! It’s like us, all right, so I lost my bet, but I do get two. So I keep my bet okay, so I gets you get two for the bet, plus seven, so nine plus seven, that’s nine all right, so you got to see four exciting rounds of play in the sand, taking tricks, probably not as entertaining as actually watching people play In the sand, right – maybe not, if you’re into trick taking this was. This was definitely the way to go so um.

 

As we said earlier, you never got to really see a lot of trick taking games on our table yeah, which is unfortunate because I do enjoy them mm-hmm right, yeah, there’s a couple actually that we’ve played recently that have been right look. I grew up playing pinochle with the uh with the grandparents um and he sounded like a grandparent that was that was the deal like that was. That was my like entry into trick taking right, and I just loved the strategy involved in that so um. So this one’s sort of, like you know, hit me my family feels sure yeah. I don’t even know what that is, but so that hit me in the fields so um.

 

So that’s good. So basically what are your thoughts on this at this point? Right, first of all, when we, when we got this, I was like I was taken away by the art. I just love. The art style is way up my exactly what I like um, so it was pretty to look at and, like you said, we don’t play a lot of trick taking games, but that’s not because we don’t enjoy them right.

 

They’re kind of like a guilty pleasure in a way. Yes, I think, because we play so much like heavy strategy and stuff. We are sometimes looking for things to fill the time when you fill space in between uh or, if you have folks over that, are playing games with you that don’t normally play board games um, it’s you know just kind of like a different way to introduce them To our hobby, I guess so um so I was, I was really pleasantly surprised actually and I’ll. Tell you the most surprising things for me was actually the bidding and betting mechanic, because that is not something that we normally enjoy. No, not at all.

 

To be honest, especially with just two of us, it typically doesn’t work out great um, but I liked that you were kind of bidding and betting against something that you already have knowledge of. It’s not something that somebody else can really interfere with, but the level of interference was appropriate, yes for um for the player count, and it wasn’t too much and you kind of had some control over it. So that part was really surprising to me because at first I just kind of wanted to be like well, let’s just play it without the because you could play it without the bidding and betting again but um. But I mean I guess you wouldn’t ever get any points yeah we um, but I really enjoyed that yeah, the betting. The betting is certainly cool because you’re betting against the house really and you’re getting paid by that you’re, not betting against each other.

 

When you’re, when you’re betting against each other and you’re and you’re outbidding each other, yes, I think that’s what we that’s. What really draws a lot of the fun out of it for us, yeah and – and this is this – is well implemented for people who don’t like to really go at each other right um. So I thought that was really well done and I and I, and it was actually a bidding mechanic that I enjoyed doing right because it’s kind of like taking a chance right. It’s pressure luck, but it doesn’t hurt the other player um. So I thought that was fantastic.

 

Look you guys didn’t get to see the last two rounds of our game, um, because you know what you got the feel for the first four. You didn’t need to see it through. We did finish the game by the way um. I did win and I wanted to make sure that’s very clear for the record. Yes, and there were some heavy bets towards the end, and that’s really how you want to finish it, but we thought four rounds was a good enough sampling.

 

You know to share with all of you for this uh for this one yeah, absolutely um. Now, there’s we did play on the advanced mode. There is an easy mode um that actually takes the uh. The third set this the uh sunglasses out so you’re, just playing with two sets as a kid variant where you can just play with one set yeah and it’s basically, I think, just pairs right, yeah and there may or may not be bidding and betting On it, just to kind of introduce them into trick taking and then there’s the extreme mode, where there’s a lot more um combinations, combinations of basic rankings of certain pairings right. So then, now you’ve got like the mixed pairs actually are stronger right.

 

So you’ve got like your dolphin palm pair is stronger than your palm sunglasses pair, which is stronger than your dolphin sunglasses, which just makes the trick taking a little bit more. It has more variety and how the power variants are right. Yeah with the com with the different sets right, so your mixed sets now depend on which pair you have so you can actually have a chance of beating out an uh, a no pair mix right as opposed to them canceling each other yeah, which might get You into some of those bigger like um uh point scoring bids like your five, like you know, five, potentially or so yeah uh, I think the most we’ve ever gotten is like four yeah bids right, so yeah so look. This is a. This is a basic trick.

 

Taking game uh simple: these are really um, quick and easy games to pick up and play them. I think what differentiates these is sort of like the nuance of the play. You know how you’re playing the cards, how you’re taking the tricks, the suits and stuff, but are they pretty to look at right because yeah exactly you can design a thousand different taking games? But if they’re cool to look at the mechanics are slightly um different, but fun yeah right, there’s none of this like real nasty, take daddy stuff, then it then it works for us right, um and you know, twin palms – definitely fits that bill. I think I think so too.

 

I want to like take this to the beach and play it yeah. This would be a fun game to play at the beach right because you’re I mean you get sand dollars. You’ve got like and again they aren’t really beautiful. It’s just it really is cool yeah. It’s definitely, you know it’s not cheesy and I think they’re or it’s not plain.

 

It’s classy. It’s easy to see the colors and the suits and uh it. Really. It really does you know the whole package is really nice. You know for a you know, like I said, for a trick taking in it’s something that we don’t really gravitate towards um this.

 

This worked well for us. So if you are interested, this thing is live on. Kickstarter um, the campaign link will be down below. Go check it out if you’re interested go ahead and back it yeah um, but we just hope that hey look four rounds is definitely more than enough for you guys to get a feel for how this game plays. So I think um.

 

I think that should be you know that should be enough yeah, I think so. So as always uh, let us know if this video helped you make a decision about whether or not this belongs in your collection. Uh leave us comment below. If you want to ask us questions about our experience, I feel like not enough of you. Take us up on that.

 

So um, you know. Let us know if there’s uh anything you want to know about this or how compares to maybe some other stuff. We’ve played um, we are more than happy to engage with you there yep. So thank you for watching. We hope you enjoyed the video we’ll see you next time.

 

 

 

 

You May Also Like