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Writer proves Hanukkah dreidel game is boring, invents "speed" version

It's Hanukkah. That means it's time to dig out the dreidels, dust them off and take them for a spin. One writer, however, has a radical proposal. Ben Blatt has crunched the numbers, and played enough games of dreidel to conclude that the game is in fact incredibly boring....
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As It Happens6:08Writer proves scientifically that Hanukkah dreidel game is boring, invents new "speed" version
Rabbi Levi Shemtov dances with a man dressed as a dreidel during the lighting celebration of the National Hanukkah Menorah, near the White House, marking the beginning of the celebration of the Hanukkah, on Dec. 21, 2008. (Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press)
It's Hanukkah. That means it's time to dig out the dreidels, dust them off and take them for a spin. One writer, however, has a radical proposal. Ben Blatt has crunched the numbers, and played enough games of dreidel to conclude that the game is in fact incredibly boring.

Blatt writes in Slate, "When you sit down for a game that involves little more than staring at a spinning top, and expect the game to last about 10 minutes but instead it lasts for 80, that's not a miracle. It is dreidel, and it is dreadful."

Blatt ran computerized simulations of 8.5 million dreidel games. He concludes that if four players start with 10 pieces each, the game will take more than 1 hour and 54 minutes to complete.

In his interview with Carol, he tells her that is a conservative estimate. Games can theoretically last much longer.

Blatt has also come up with a solution that may not please traditionalists. He calls it "speed dreidel." In his version, each player has their own dreidel and spins at the same time. See below for the complete rules of "speed dreidel."

Here are the complete rules of Speed Dreidel™:

  • - Everyone starts with the same number of tokens. Since this is a Hannukah game, we'll peg this number at eight.
  • - Everyone gets a dreidel.
  • - Before the first round, and each subsequent round, each player puts one of his tokens in the middle.
  • - To start the game, everyone spins his dreidel at the same time.
  • - Everyone whose dreidel landed on a shin must put one token in.
  • - Everyone whose dreidel landed on nun does nothing.
  • - Everyone whose dreidel landed on hei gets to take one token out. If there are fewer tokens in the middle than there are people who spun a hei, no one who spun a hei gets a token.
  • - Everyone whose dreidel landed on gimel splits the remaining tokens evenly. If the number of tokens in the middle is not divisible by the number of people who spun a gimel, the remainder is left in the middle. For instance, if there are seven tokens in the middle and five players spin a gimel then every player should take one piece leaving two pieces in the middle. If there were seven tokens and 10 players spin a gimel, no one would take a token.  
  • - Everyone spins his dreidel again, repeating the above process.
  • - A player is eliminated when he is forced to put a token in but has none left. The game continues until all but one player has been eliminated. If a situation arises when all remaining players would be forced to lose because they have no tokens left, that's called a Menorah Mishpucka and everyone has to sing the Dreidel song in harmony. It also means they ignore that spin and keep spinning until there is a sole winner.

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