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20230201 Cheap Seats Yahoo Courtesy 03 webMove over Bingo, there’s a new kid in town – Yahoo (not as in yippee – yahoo is the name of the game).

“It’s really growing,” said Robert Jacques, a Canadian resident who lives at Sleepy Valley Resort in Mission with his wife from October to April and has been a Winter Texan for 16 years now. “There are ladies that arrive an hour before the game. They have their specific chair and table and toys to put on the table. They’ll bring chocolates and candies and play other things until the game starts.

“It’s really a social game.”

A hand needs four players, and they will be each dealt 13 cards. A caller – similar to the caller in bingo – will call out a card name and those cards from each group will be tossed into a pile.

“When someone has just two cards remaining, they call out the place where they come from and when they have one card left, they knock on the table,” Jacques said. “When they are out, they Yahoo.”

20230201 Cheap Seats Yahoo Courtesy 01 webThe more people involved, the bigger the Yahoo winnings. Five hands are played for a dime entry, five more hands are played for a quarter and the big sweepstakes is one hand for a dollar apiece. It’s a nice little chunk of change based on how many people are playing. Sleepy Valley had close to 200 Yahoo-ers participating.

“There’s Yahoo being played at every park around here every day of the week,” said Jacques, adding that his wife pretty much goes to all of them – a true Yahoo-er. “There were 117 at a different park yesterday. Now that we’re in full season there’s going to be more.”

The park provides the cards, but some people still bring their own – along with their snacks, their toys and whatever else will bring them some good luck.

“It’s an elimination game and it’s growing because it’s fun,” Jacques said. “People come from all around the different parks to have a good social time.”

Jacques said there’s plenty to do in the interconnected parks from shuffleboard to some new pickle ball courts being planned to old reliable – Petanque, a European game played heavily by Canadians that falls into the same category as bocce ball.

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