TOP 5 PURSE GAMES TO KEEP IN YOUR BAG FOR EMERGENCIES

It’s cosy season, so picture this: you’re with your friends in the corner of a cosy pub with a glass of red wine or a lime and soda, and a bag of crisps are open to share in the middle of the table. One of your friends pipes up and asks ‘does anyone have a pack of cards’ and everyone says no, so you all sigh and wistfully stare into your drink. This might be an exaggeration, and this isn’t to say that your friends are boring, but a fun card game is always a welcome addition to an afternoon or evening with friends. Maybe it’s just me and my housemates, but we love a small travel sized game to take with us to the local spoons, or a pub in the peaks that guarantee a fun and competitive cosy night out.

Inspired by a weekend away with friends where a lot of boardgames were played (its hard to believe that we are in our 20s), and with christmas right around the corner, here is a compilation of my favourite quick, competitive pocket-sized games to keep with you in your bag to play whenever you’ve got a few spare minutes.

p.s. they’d make perfect secret santa gifts 

1. A list wouldn’t be complete with the OGs: 

• Top trumps
• Uno – bonus points if its waterproof
• A good old pack of cards

I don’t think I need to explain how to play any of these games, or persuade you to buy them; they’re classics for a reason. Cards are the most versatile, and a quick google search can direct you to a new game to learn. I also love how people bring their own favourite family or childhood card games to the table, sharing stories and snippets of their lives in the games that they introduce; it feels really special to share a family card game with friends and vice versa.

2. Monopoly deal 

For those that love Monopoly in theory but less so in practice, Monopoly deal is a perfect portable card game – and there is no board to be angrily flipped in this version of the bestselling game. 

The objective of the game is to be the first player to complete 3 property sets, which sounds simple enough, but if your friends are anything like mine, you’ll all sabotage each other, which ends in a lot of laughs.

3. Bananagrams

This one is a good one for English students, and is like a more fast paced and far less boring version of Scrabble. The aim of bananagrams is to build your own crossword using letter tiles in the middle of the table, starting with approx 20 tiles, and taking new tiles each time you run out. The first player to have used all of their tiles in a completed, coherent crossword when there are no tiles left in the middle wins. We’ve had some weird and wonderful words and spelling variations in this game, so the aftermath can sometimes be funnier than the actual game. It’s quick and competitive, and a guaranteed laugh. 

4. Ok play

I would best describe Ok Play as a cross between tic tac toe and 4 in a row, plus with the added bonus that more than 2 players can join in. There are 4 coloured sets of square tiles, and the game is simply to get 5 of your colour tiles in a row. Another game that can get playfully competitive, with your opponents out to stop you in your tracks.

A huge bonus to this game is that it’s water and weather proof, so it can be played anywhere that there is a relatively flat surface, and no two games are the same.

5. Dobble

Dobble is a pretty well known card game, but I thought to include it anyway in case you haven’t heard of it, or aren’t aware that the game actually has many ways of being played, with 5 minigame options to play with the same set of cards. 

Arguably the most famous way that the game is played is to spot the matching image between your card and the upturned card on the pile in the middle of the table. Each card has a common image with every single other card in the pack, so every player is fighting to see their matching symbol first to win the card. The player with the most cards when the pile runs out wins. This is only one variation of the game, and with 4 other options, it’s a good game with variation to have on hand that is guaranteed to be a hit with everyone.

Warning: this game can get pretty loud, and wearing rings can be lethal!

Hopefully these small travel card games provide you with some recommendations for convenient games to keep in your bag with you to play when out with friends and family. They are all designed to be compact for convenience, and are easy to come to grips with, and never get boring. If nothing else, I hope this article has convinced you to go and put a pack of old playing cards in your most used handbag to keep on you always to play with friends and family over the coming festive season.