Is No Thanks! playable with just two players?

Question

No Thanks! is advertised as a game for 3–7 players. I've never played it, but going by the explanations I've seen on YouTube (such as Tom Scott playing it with some friends), there seems to be nothing in the rules that necessitates at least three players.

Am I overlooking something?

Is it because you will know the number of chips the other player has? Does it work but is it just not as enjoyable, or is it broken for just two players?

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I've looked at the 2 player variants over on the BGG forum and the only thing I could find is that the knowledge of the number of chips is a problem, but is that really so? Also, by paying attention, the number of chips for each player can be kept track of in a 3 or 4 player game, as demonstrated by Matt Parker in the video I've linked to.

Answer 1

This is possibly opinion based but I'll try and explain why it wouldn't work with 2.

Looking at the rules here

When you don’t have any counters left, you must take the card.

In a two player game you would have perfect information about how many chips another player has. Yes a player could mentally track all this information in a multiplayer game but it would be considerably more difficult.

Its also worth noting the rules on suggest you keep chips hidden

HINT: It’s a good idea to keep your counters hidden. Most people hold them in their closed fists, but anywhere you hide them will work.

If you play on Boardgamearena its an option to have chips hidden or not.

So why does it matter? You say you've never played it so I draw you attention to this scoring rule.

If you take cards with consecutive numbers, only the lowest number in the series will count against you.

So lets say Player A has already taken 29 and 31 and the 30 card has come to them. Someone new to the game tends to just take it. More often than not a player will try to send it round to get extra chips. If you know that no player has no chips left you know this won't work and have to take the card no or rush not getting it.

If the game was two player and Player A was presented with 30 and didn't take it player B would just take it with no decision as they are giving Player A -60 point whilst they just have -30. Now imagine that situation multiplayer. Would you really take 30 to stop player A making a run of consecutive cards? Taking the -30 hit to hurt player A and probably giving victory to another player? This whole dynamic of game would be missing in a 2 player game.