With Hurricane Maria currently devastating the Caribbean, people are once again battening down the hatches and preparing for winds that could reach over 150 mph.  While they are waiting, they could do worse than play a game or two to try to take their mind off it.  That is exactly what the Virgin tycoon, Richard Branson, did when Hurricane Irma struck his home, Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands.  According to his blog, Richard and his team settled down to an evening playing Perudo (aka Liar’s Dice) before the whole team slept together in two rooms, listening to the parrots chattering away next door, waiting for the arrival of the approaching menace.

– Image from virgin.com

This is not the only time Richard Branson has shown an interest in games.  He has expressed a love of chess previously, but he also nearly had a commercial interest in another well known game.  Back in the early 1980s, a friend in Canada, introduced him to a new board game.  It was such a hit that developers invited him to travel to Quebec and seal a deal to distribute the game globally.  Since Richard was incredibly busy with Virgin Records at the time, the trip was postponed so the developers sold the game, Trivial Pursuit, to another company, and the rest is history.