Sounds like it's time to make a selection (7)

 Six of us gathered last Tuesday online, and, shock-horror, we played games.

While waiting for the stragglers, Katy, Martin, Ian and I played Raj. I'd forgotten how to play, and kept bidding low for negative cards, ensuring I picked them up. However, due to the idiosyncractic nature of the game (well, it's kind of the only rule, I suppose), Katy and Martin tied for first place and were bumped to last, leaving Ian the winner and me in second place.

Ian 9

Joe 3

Katy -99

Martin -99

Sam then joined us, and we played again while waiting for Andy. Now that I remembered how to play, I came last.

Sam 14

Katy 12

Martin 12

Ian 6

Joe -4

After that, we were joined by Andy, and discussed 2 x 3 player options. I suggested 99, a perennial favourite, and Katy and others (Ian?) perked up. Then Martin suggested Scout on playing cards.io, and I perked up. Sam, Martin and I retired to another Hangout to play, with me feeling slightly guilty at how easily my head had been turned.

Scout is a fascinating climbing game, seemingly inspired by Krass Kariert - and I think Martin has called it the game he hoped KK would be. Any attempt by me to recall the rules here will be a) boring and b) full of errors, so I won't bother, suffice to say we felt it probably needed 4 or 5 to really shine. I'd definitely be up for playing again though. I had a very poor rounds 1 and 2, and was trailing the others significantly; I managed to redeem myself in last two rounds, overtaking Sam but unable to catch Martin.

If Sam or Martin can remember the actual scores, let me know and I'll edit them in:

Martin 1st

Joe 2nd 

Sam 3rd 

We noticed a bug in the implementation - when you're first dealt your hand, you can choose to keep it as is, or flip it for an entirely different set of numbers. In doing so, in our game at least, the cards re-arranged themselves, before settling into a stable pattern after a couple of flips, which is not supposed to happen.

It lead to a curious Shroedinger's Cat type of contemplation. Martin looked at his hand and decided to stick with it in case it changed when he examined it flipped - I chose to immediately flip mine a couple of times to settle it, without looking too closely at what I could have stuck with at first. Sort of like an unintended Team Play style variant.

Not sure what the other three played, but we reconvened after 4 rounds of Scout, and Sam bid us goodnight. I felt I had one more short game in me, and the remaining 5 of us opted for No Thanks.

I picked up the 34 right at the beginning of the game, with a healthy chunk of chips on it. This kept me going through the entire game, and I finished with a single card, a single chip and felt very smug. I came fourth.

Ian -4

Katy -20

Martin -31

Joe -33

Andy -41

I bailed after that, and will leave it to the comments to find out what else was played. A fun time, though like Sam, I find I'm rarely up for more than a couple of games when we ply online - and like all of us (I assume), I'm thoroughly looking forward to being able to sit round an actual table and play an actual game with actual people. Won't it be grand!

I'll leave you with some more cryptic clues, each lacking a literal definition for reasons that will become obvious...

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