The rules of Sticks

• Set up the board with three rows: a row of three, a row of five and a row of seven.
• During your turn, you may erase any number of dashes from ANY ONE ROW.
• You must take at least one dash every turn.
• The person who is left with the last dash is the loser.

Strategies

• If there are two rows remaining, both with the exact same number of dashes, then you win.
• In addition, these are also winning combos: 2-5-7,3-5-6,3-4-7,1-2-3,2-4-6
• Hint: Thinking in binary will help you.
• MOST IMPORTANT: If you go first, and erase one dash from any row, and you know what you are doing, you win!

This was a game we learned in our Computer Proficency class, taught by Mr. Bergen.

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Last updated on Sunday, October 10, 1997