So Long Sucker

So Long Sucker is a board game which was invented in 1950 by John Forbes Nash, Mel Hausner, Lloyd S. Shapley and Martin Shubik. It is a four-person bargaining/economic strategy game. Each player begins the game with 7 chips, and in the course of play, attempts to acquire all the other players' chips. This requires making agreements with the other players which are ultimately unenforceable. To win, players must eventually renege on such agreements. The game takes approximately 20 minutes to play.

Alternative name

According to page 102 of Sylvia Nasar A Beautiful Mind, Nash's name for the game, which was later published under the name "So Long Sucker", was "Fuck Your Buddy". BBC-TV recently used a slight variation of the original name ("Fuck You Buddy") as the title of an episode of the documentary series The Trap.

Rules

The rules are as follows:

1. Starting a game:
   1. Give each player 7 chips of one color (Cards of one suit from a deck work equally well).
   2. Give different players different color chips.
   3. Decide the first player to move randomly.
2. Playing the game:
   1. Move by playing a chip of any color onto the playing area, or on top of any existing chip(s) in the playing area.
   2. Chips are captured by playing two chips of the same color consecutively on one pile. The player designated by that color must kill one chip of his choice out of that pile, and take the rest. Then he gets the next move.
   3. A chip is killed by placing it in the "dead box." A player may kill chips of his own color only out of a captured pile.
   4. A chip is a prisoner when held by a player other than the original owner.
   5. Any prisoner in a player's possession may be killed or transferred to another player at any time. Such transfers are unconditional and cannot be retracted. A player may not transfer chips of his own color.
   6. A player is defeated when given the move, but has no chips in his possession (and hence is unable to play).
      1. Defeat is not final until every player holding prisoners has refused to rescue him by transferring chips.
      2. The move then returns to the player who gave the defeated player the move.
      3. The defeated player's chips remain in play as prisoners, but are ignored in determining the order of play.
      4. If a pile is captured by the chips of a defeated player, the entire pile is killed, and the move rebounds to the capturing player.
   7. Players must keep their chips in view at all times.
3. Order of play:
   1. If a capture occurs: the player whose color made the capture gets the next move.
   2. If a player is defeated: move returns to the player who gave the defeated player the move. If this should also defeat that player in turn, whoever gave that player the move will get the next turn.
   3. Otherwise, the next player to move is decided by last player to have moved as follows:
      1. They may give the move to any player (including themselves) whose color is not represented in the pile just played upon.
      2. If all players are represented in that pile, the move goes to the player whose most-recently-played chip is furthest down in the pile.
4. Strategy:
   1. Coalitions, or agreements to cooperate, are permitted, and may take any form.
   2. No penalty for failure to live up to an agreement.
   3. Players are freely allowed to confer only at the table during the game-- no secret or prior agreements are allowed.
5. Winning the game:
   1. The winner is the last surviving player (after the others have been defeated).
   2. A player can win even if they hold no chips and all of their chips have been killed.

References

• Hausner, M., Nash, J. F., Shapley, L. S. & Shubik, M., (1964), "So Long Sucker, A Four-Person Game", Game Theory and Related Approaches to Social Behavior, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.
• "So Long Sucker (Board Game Geek)". Retrieved 2006-03-31.