OT: tanking a game when playing against your spouse

[dixieflatline]

Last night fired up a video game at my wife's request to play against her. Now I normally win at this particular game over 90% of the time depending on when the last time I played was. So last night I decide to tank it and let her win a few times. So we play a few games and the plan works to perfection and she wins two close games. Then something I didn't expect happens, she starts talking smack. Not just I'm better than you stuff either but some serious taunts. Of couse I can't come back with you only won because I tanked the game so we play again and I play for real and win pretty handly. Unfortunately, just winning wasn't good enough I had to talk some smack back. Ugh, I felt just terrible afterwards and tried to smooth things over with only moderate results.

So, FOFC, have you ever purposely let your wife/GF win at a game? Ever have something like the above happen?

[digamma]

I defend my perfect scrabble record against my wife to the death. She wouldn't want it any other way.

[BrianD]

I may let it stay close, but I generally don't give up a game on purpose. I may not be competitive enough to have to destroy everyone, but I am competitive enough to want to win.

[Eaglesfan27]

Yeah, I tank video games against my wife to make her feel good, but I have to be careful to not make it obvious or she gets pissed.

Edited to add: She also gets really upset if I don't tank games and beat her 10 or so times in a row.



However, to my embarassment, she tanks games of pool when we go out so that I don't feel too bad. (She really is an excellent shot.)

Second edit: I don't totally tank. I just let her win a close game every 3rd game or so.

[st.cronin]

Sounds exactly like when we play scrabble.

[DeToxRox]

Never lose on purpose.

[gi]

If I'm introducing her to a game that I've played a lot and she hasn't, I go easy on her. She does the same for me. After the learning curve is over, I go all out.

[WSUCougar]

"Tanking" is a little strong - I might back off on the throttle a bit to maintain her interest in a new board game, for example.

But then she is a trivia goddess, so any pity I show her in other games gets revisited on me as a thrashing in Trivial Pursuit.

[spleen1015]

Hell no!

Win at all costs, no matter who the enemy is!

[Celeval]

If I'm far ahead at something, I'll generally lag behind / concentrate on other players / etc. to let her stay close, and try and turn it into a learning/teaching experience. Generally this happens in Civ IV. But I'm too competitve to actually tank a game. Give her a head start and try like hell to catch up? Sure.

However, she still won't play me head-to-head in trivial pursuit, and it's been years since she's agreed to a chess match.

[Kodos]

I defend my perfect scrabble record against my wife to the death. She wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm very good at Scrabble, and I beat my wife time after time when we first started dating. Then one day, she finally beat me. We've never played since.

She kicks my ass in any trivia game. Worse, she loves Jeopardy and makes we watch the insufferable Alex Trebec just so she can have the pleasure of showing she knows more about worthless crap like Shakespeare and English Literature. I kick her ass in sports and science categories though.

[Mustang]

I won't tank a game on purpose but, I might handicap it before playing. Although, my wife will not play any strategy game against me (even as simple as Risk) just because she doesn't enjoy those.

[digamma]

I'm very good at Scrabble, and I beat my wife time after time when we first started dating. Then one day, she finally beat me. We've never played since.


My wife has improved a great deal--she had never really played when we first started. I had played a ton of Scrabble during my college summer job. Now our games are tooth and nail. The last one we played, I needed her points from having letters left over to win and preserve my perfect record. She'll win one soon, but not if I can help it.

[WSUCougar]

She'll win one soon, but not if I can help it.
I would have gone with "over my xenophobic dead body." More points. :D

[Kodos]

My wife has improved a great deal--she had never really played when we first started. I had played a ton of Scrabble during my college summer job. Now our games are tooth and nail. The last one we played, I needed her points from having letters left over to win and preserve my perfect record. She'll win one soon, but not if I can help it.


I fought to the bitter end to keep my perfect record, but came up short. I usually can pull one out of the fire if I get careless and find myself behind. I'll be goofing around and just making the quick plays, and then notice "Hey, I'm losing," at which point the jokes stop and things become serious. Most losses come from underestimating my opponent and not playing all out the whole game.

[Warhammer]

I never let my wife win. I used to take it easy on her, but after the Web of Power incident, I bury under my boot.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Lady H_B and I don't really play too many games. She doesn't play video/computer games at all. She has no love for strategy, so all games like Risk, Axis & Allies, etc. are right out.

We play Trivial Pursuit, but I think we've only played one-on-one once, perhaps twice. The only times we play games are when we are with other people. Then we tend to play games like Trivial Pursuit, Scattegories, Cranium, etc.

So, I guess it's not really an issue for us.

[Raiders Army]

I tank Fight Night Round 3 all the time. Every now and then I'll win one just to keep it "realistic", but as a warning to everyone: if you tank too many games, you might lose your edge and lose for real!

This has happened on occasion.

[stevew]

My wife used to play Risk with me and some others, but then one time she decided to employ some lameass suicide technique against me, I managed to use a bad C expletive towards her, and now she won't play anymore. Ah well.

[Bee]

I generally don't tank games against my wife. I usually beat her in most games with the exception of trivia games and games involving lots of luck where things are pretty even. We had never played scrabble until a couple years into our marriage and she went out and bought it assuming she'd kick my butt (I freely admit her vocabulary blows mine away). Honestly, I thought she'd kick my butt too and I put off playing the game for a couple months. Once she convinced me to play I totally creamed her 4 straight games, the scrabble game never came out of the closet again. I think that was the only time she really got upset with my thrashing her in a game. Since then, she'll still occasionally play against me but she prefers more cooperative games.

[Drake]

...I managed to use a bad C expletive towards her, and now she won't play anymore...

That kills many, many games men want to play with women. At least in my house.

[MacroGuru]

Nope....no tanking here, we are both extremely competitive and so if she wants to beat me at a video game, she better get to practicing the game.

We have some crazy monopoly, risk, mini golf, golf and bowling games, where the smack is all over the place.

I taught her how to golf, but she is a natural at the damn game and it sickens me, that I have to work my ass off to hit a straight shot, where she just lines up, and there it goes.........

[KevinNU7]

Put it this way my wife, mother in law, and my wife's nephews refuse to play Monopoly anymore.

[Kodos]

I tank Fight Night Round 3 all the time. Every now and then I'll win one just to keep it "realistic", but as a warning to everyone: if you tank too many games, you might lose your edge and lose for real!

This has happened on occasion.

I have fun playing my father in law in Fight Night 2 for PS2. Originally, he was kicking my ass. I could never even knock him down. Then I figured out how to get my guy to duck or lean back to avoid punches. Now I regularly cream him. In fact, last night, I beat him when he had a heavyweight (don't remember who) and I had Roberto Duran, from I think the second lightest division. He keeps blaming the controller and trying each of the 6 controller schemes. Still hasn't found one he likes.

[digamma]

I defend my perfect scrabble record against my wife to the death. She wouldn't want it any other way.

Serious situation arising. She's considerably ahead of me in an online game. Will update as necessary. (Though it is more like PBEM, so it may be a couple of days before it is finally settled.)

[Crapshoot]

Serious situation arising. She's considerably ahead of me in an online game. Will update as necessary. (Though it is more like PBEM, so it may be a couple of days before it is finally settled.)

God speed.

[lordscarlet]

I have won, I believe, all but one game of Scrabble against my wife. She has one every single game of Othello. So we normally end up playing both in one night to make ourselves feel better.

[MJ4H]

It doesn't matter how much I try to tank at Scrabble, I still win. Nobody around here, especially my wife, will even play me at it anymore. I was seriously into it for a few years, studying word lists and stuff. One of my wife's friends came up with this theory that studying word lists is "cheating." To justify it, she compared it with studying the answers to the cards in trivial pursuit.

Sigh.

[sabotai]

Hello!? You play. To win. The game. You don't play just to play it!

[Antmeister]

I play to win, but then again the games we play against each other are more strategy, trivia, football pools, board or card games.

[JeeberD]

My wife starts sulking and then refuses to play if I beat her consistently at a game. Luckily there are a couple of games out there that we split wins fairly evenly...

[Coffee Warlord]

Destroy all. There's no letting anyone win allowed.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Shouldn't this thread be titled I Cheated on My Wife! :D

[Lorena]

I give it all I got, with each and every game... don't care who I play, if it's for money, bragging rights.. nothing until...

3 weeks after this thread was created, we took our little girl to the arcade, as it was her birthday. She wanted to play Air Hockey with Ant and I. He tanked it, but when it was my turn I gave it all I got and kicked her butt. I felt great until I saw Ant shaking his head saying, "Even on her birthday mmm..mmmm..mmmm" shaking his head. I looked in her eyes and she had tears.

If it's Ant it's a different story, but not my kids, not anymore.

[Karlifornia]

Never lose on purpose.

+1, cutie

[dime]

sex is the only game you can never lose to a girl.

[Karlifornia]

Me and an old girlfriend would play mario kart for SNES on occaision. I just can't not try to win...Trivial Pursuit...nobody has any hope against me. I actually get embarrassed when I play with people I just met. I get these looks sometimes like, "God, this guy must have no life".

While that may be true, I attribute it to a photographic memory.

[Groundhog]

My girlfriend is competitive.

Well, that's actually putting it very lightly. She is scarily competitive. For that reason, I just simply don't play her at ANYTHING, because I fear winning, and I also fear the taunts she'll give me if I lose.

[Groundhog]

I defend my perfect scrabble record against my wife to the death. She wouldn't want it any other way.

This reminds me of my brother an I with Goldeneye 64. My brother always enjoyed videogames but was never very good at them, and in 2-player Goldeneye I must have beaten him literally 300+ times, never once conceeding defeat.

Anyhow I eventually moved on to other games and got sick of Goldeneye, but he kept on playing it, and finally about 6 months after I'd stopped we sat down for a 2-player game. I was amazingly rusty and it wound up with me and my brother both on near-zero health, around the corner from each other waiting for the other player to make the first move. I could feel my cherished unbeaten streak slipping away. Perspiration dripping from my forehead, I try and goad my brother in to jumping around the corner first. He doesn't bite... until BAM, he jumps around the corner, I react quickly, duck, and shot him in the leg as his shot flies over my head. I win! I then turn off the game and declare that it will be my last ever game of Goldeneye multiplayer.

Ahhh... the joys of a wasted childhood...

[ArlingtonColt]

My girlfriend is almost as competitive as I am which is SCARY.

I swear everytime we go bowling if I win more than 2 games in a row I'M NOT GETTING ANY! She gets totally pissed off... no more touching... no more even looking at me. I even try to encourage her when she does well... but I think that does more harm than good. Oh... and she HATES to lose at Catch Phrase. If you haven't played that game with your woman yet I suggest you go pick it up tonight (need atleast 4 people) You and your buddy vs her and a friend...

[digamma]

VICTORY!!!

[MrBug708]

That's a hell of a long game

[Kodos]

VICTORY!!!

I'm proud of you! Well done, sir!

[chesapeake]

I love to play games, but, sadly, my wife does not. She worries too much about making mistakes, so usually chooses not to play.

About 4 years ago, I finally got her to play a new board game I had just bought, Puerto Rico, with a couple of friends. She's really good. She finished a close second to me on our first game and has won the 4 other time we've played. Despite that, she still almost never agrees to play anything.

[Marc Vaughan]

If we're playing a game I know I can kick butt with then I tend to not 'tank' but try not to play too seriously (ie. if we play a strategic game then I tend to move immediately only allowing myself to think during her thought time etc.).

This way the game is still a challenge to me and I can still 'try to win' - however I do cripple myself a little with hidden house rules ... and yes I'm glad she doesn't read this forum ;)

PS - Various reasons for this - not least I love board games and there are already too many which my wife now refuses to play point blank because I'm better at them than her.

[JW]

I cannot believe I read through 44 or so posts and you metrosexuals never touched on the one key element to consider -- What strategy will most likely lead to hot sex later?

[MJ4H]

playing scrabble shirtless

[Desmond]

Human bowling.

[Neuqua]

Strip Poker.

[Rizon]

Both my wife and I are too hardcore to throw games. We both go for the throat, and with the taunting. There are some games we just don't play anymore cause the other person always wins: I always beat her at Connect 4 and Othello/Reversi, she always beats me at Dominos and Risk.