Most everyone expects you to start in the center, and when you don’t, they’re often unsure how to proceed – they WANT to grab the center (which they know is a strong position) but about a third of them will suspect that you’ve got some kind of trick up your sleeve (or at least they suspected me!) and that you’re just trying to bait them into taking the center – so they’ll make some other move instead.  

And then they’ll lose. :-)

I spent several happy weeks winning lunch money from my schoolmates by playing dime-stakes Tic Tac Toe.  It even taught me the value of occasionally losing to keep the hustle going, since no one wanted to play someone who never, ever lost.

I also made a new friend when one of the kids said, “Tic Tac Toe for money?  Don’t be silly.  Tic Tac Toe is completely trivial, so only the incompetent players ever lose.” 

I pulled him aside and quietly said, “Um, okay – but even incompetent people sometimes have money, you know?”

 ”True enough,” he said thoughtfully.  ”Need a partner?”

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. :-)