UNO Champion

Call it beginners luck or just plain skill, but Cyrus is the all-time Uno Champion in our family. Just recently I have been playing Uno with the kids at night before bedtime. Cyrus at 20 months old has taken a special interest in the game. None of our other kids ever had the patience to sit down and play a card game for 30 - 60 minutes at a time like Cyrus does. Cyrus pays close attention to the action and awaits each turn and really loves the game.

So what has made him the Champion? Well, first let me tell you how he plays. Cyrus plays with all his cards face up, so I can help him. He makes all his own decisions, but I help to make sure that he doesn't break the rules. When the color is red I point to all his red cards and tell him to choose a red card to play. He makes his choice and plays the card. If the discard pile has a blue "6" and Cyrus has a blue "3" and also a yellow "6" then I will tell him to choose between the two cards. When he has no normal cards to play, I tell him to choose between the wilds in his hand. He even choses which color to change the game to when he plays a wild, however 9 times out of 10 he says "Yellow" because that is his favorite color. Ultimately, I just tell him his options and he makes all the decisions with each turn.

Cyrus gets no special treatment or cheats from his siblings namely Ashton, Savanna, and Jonah. I do have to admit that I don't hit him with draw fours when I can just change the color to make a play, but I do that for all the kids - except for Ashton, he is old enough to take the heat.

Well, with this playing model, Cyrus is hands down the best Uno player I have ever seen. We have played on 5 separate occasions for a total of 9 games now and here is his record:

Night 1) 3 games won, 0 loss

Night 2) 2 games won, 0 loss

Night 3) 1 game won, 0 loss

Night 4) 1 game won, 1 loss

Night 5) 1 game won, 1 loss

Amazing isn't it. Cyrus won the first 7 games that he played against four other players. His loss was by just one turn to Ashton on the 8th game played. We have yet to play the 10th game as none of the kids like to play with Cyrus because he always wins.

Cyrus is a good winner, even though he loves to say, "Uno" right before he is going to win. Cyrus really has turned into a very good little boy and is growing up so fast.