History of Greedy Hands

Greedy History

I'm pretty sure it was sometime in the fall of 1995 that I was introduced to the game Hand and Foot. Allison (my wife) and I would play the game with her cousin and husband on the weekends. We had such a great time playing it that we continued to play on vacations and holidays with family and friends over the next 8 years. During that time we started tweaking the rules and I even made up various custom decks of cards. Many years and tweaks later we had created a game substantially different from the original "Hand and Foot" game that we were introduced to years before. After much encouragement from my wife's family, we finally published the game under the name of Greedy Hands.

I later found out that Hand and Foot itself is a variation of the popular 1950's game Canasta. Some of the changes (but not all) that we ended up making to create Greedy Hands have been done in some form or another in the many versions of Canasta. Unknowingly we were among many people who enjoyed the game and even tweaking it to make it our own. Feel free to tweak Greedy Hands and make it your own... but if you play in a tournament you must play by the House Rules.

Below are some Greedy Hands milestones listed in reverse chronological order.

Milestones

2008 February - Jillian Dahl becomes the first official member of the Greedy Hands 10,000 point club.

2007 December – Greedy Hands makes its way to it's first Canadian store. The Thirftway Pharmacy in Lethbridge, Alberta!
2007 November – The I'm not Greedy I just like playing Greedy Hands! group was created on Facebook. Feel free to join! (must join facebook to view the link)

2006 December – The North American Greedy Hands Invitational Championship Tournament takes place. Andy Kennedy beats out the two previous reigning champions to take the title!
2006 August 21 – Greedy Hands sales reach over 300 games!
2006 August – Third Greedy Hands tournament takes place. Cynthia Dahl is two time reigning champion in Canada.

2005 December – Second Greedy Hands tournment takes place. Cynthia Dahl is the champion.
2005 August 4 – Greedy Hands sales reach over 200 games!
2005 July 1 – Greedy Hands now available at the BYU Bookstore.
2005 June 30 – First Greedy Hands tournament takes place. David Morgan is champion.
2005 January 21 – Greedy Hands first listed on Froogle
2005 January 7 – First Greedy Hands game sold off the North American continent to Lisa King in Tasmania, Australia.
2004 December 15 – Greedy Hand sales reach over 100! (It doesn't sound like much but hey, we are ecstatic!)
2004 December 4 – Greedy Hands is placed in first brick & mortar store, University Rho & Swim in Rockville, Maryland. To help pass the time at those long swim meets!
2004 December 3 – Picked up the shipment of Greedy Hands games from the warehouse in Baltimore.
2004 November – Greedy Hands website is launched.
2004 August – We make the plunge to get the game printed. After shopping around we go with a printing company in India and wire the money!
2003 October – Two decks of the 3rd and final prototype are printed with the help of Wayne Dahl (corner icons for the card types are a main new feature for this prototype).
2002 Spring & Summer – In an effort to make Greedy Hands play faster and more economical to print, we cut the card amount from 394 to 181. After some testing the card count settles at 224 cards.
2002 March – Carol & Janee Dahl make edits and suggestions to the rules to help make them easier to read & understand.
2001 September – We register the greedyhands.com domain name.
2001 August – Regan Dahl comes up with the name of “Greedy Hands” for the game.
2000 December – First sale of a prototype deck called “The Greed Game” to long time supporter, Robert Wocknitz.
2000 Summer – The “Greedy” card is first introduced into the game.
1999 Fall – The FOX network airs a show called “GREED” and we decide to look for a new name.
1999 May – Print the 2nd prototype deck of “Greed” cards with all new graphics.
1997 Fall – Create the 1st prototype deck of “Greed” cards.
1996 Spring – Write the first set of rules for “Greed” (the first name for the game).
1995 Fall & Winter – Concept for Greedy Hands is born while playing a game similar to “Canasta” called “Hand and Foot” with our good friends Dave and Sandy Barfus.

What a journey! It took a while, but now we can all enjoy a good game of Greedy Hands. Be a part of Greedy History and get your copy of one of the first 625 games today!