Getting dealt a pile of pressure.

• Position: What's New? - Brief article

We love fast-paced games in which one of the key ingredients for success is not to crack under pressure. Arrrgggghhhhh! Sometimes we succeed; sometimes we don't.

Of course, the simpler the task, the more pressure there is not to mess up. (Remember the old "Odd Couple" TV episode with Bobby Riggs hustling Oscar Madiso(y). All Oscar had to do to win the bet was type his name. It was easy money until he substituted a "y" for an "n.") Which brings us to the simple rules of Pile It, from the creative minds at Fun Street Games, Northfield, Ill., the same folks who a few years back came up with the award-winning Ruckus Card Game. In Pile It, 72 cards are dealt evenly to up to four players. Each card has one of three pictures, one of three numbers, and one of three colors. There are three rounds. In each round, cards are held face down by the players, and then flipped over and sorted by one of the three categories. In the number round, for instance, all you have to do is put the ones with the ones, the twos with the twos...