One game of Go Fish followed from the deal to the finish, move by move, with the reason for each choice.
Three players — you, Ada and Bo — are dealt five cards each, and the rest of the deck is spread out face down as the lake. Your hand: 7♠ 7♥ K♦ 3♣ 9♠. Ada holds 7♦ Q♣ Q♥ 2♠ 5♦, and Bo holds K♣ K♥ 9♦ 4♠ J♣ — but of course you only know your own.
You start. On your turn you ask one player for a rank you already hold. If they have any, they hand them all over and you ask again. If not, you go fishing, and your turn is over.
You hold two sevens, so you ask Ada for sevens. She has one and gives you 7♦. Now you have three, and you ask again, this time Bo for sevens. Bo has none: go fish. You draw 2♥ from the lake and your turn ends.
Everyone heard both questions, so everyone now knows you hold sevens — and that Bo had none a moment ago.
Ada asks you for queens. You have none, so she fishes, and draws Q♠ — a queen. Here, going fishing ends your turn whatever you draw, so it passes to Bo. What you have learned: Ada is holding queens.
Bo asks you for kings, and you hand over K♦. He asks again, Ada for nines, and fishes. So Bo holds kings and at least one nine. Without anyone seeing it, he has drawn 7♣.
You hold 2♥, so you ask Ada for twos, and she gives you 2♠. You ask again. Bo fished a moment ago and may have drawn anything, so you try Bo for sevens — and he hands over 7♣. That is all four sevens, and the set goes face up in front of you.
You go again. Bo asked for nines, so he must hold one, and you have 9♠: you ask Bo for nines and get 9♦. You ask Ada for threes, and she has none. You fish and draw J♦, and your turn ends with one set down and pairs of twos and nines in your hand.
Play goes on like this until all thirteen sets have been made. A player who runs out of cards is not out: they draw from the lake when their turn comes and carry on.
In this game the sets end up split you 5, Ada 4 and Bo 4. You win — largely because you remembered who asked for what.
Every question tells the table something. Ada's question gave away her queens, Bo's gave away his kings and his nine, and your first question told everyone you held sevens.
The best asks were the ones based on what somebody else had just said. Asking Bo for nines was not a guess — he had asked for them himself.