The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (140 page)

keep dealing fours when players run out of cards. Score 3 for

winning most cards, 3 for T, 2 for 2, 1 per Ace and 1 per Jack,

total 16, plus 10 per sweep (pastra). Play up to 101.

Ladies’ Game

(2-4p, 52c) Another of Harbin’s discoveries. Deal six each and four

to the table. Play as Scopa except that courts count 10 each. Score

as in the Dry Game (see above).

Tablanet e

(2p, 52c) Described only by Hubert Phil ips (Complete Book of

Card Games, London, 1939), and said to be of Russian provenance,

but evidently related to the Basra group. Deal six each and four to

the table. Capture by pairing or summing. Ace counts 1 or 11 as

preferred, Queen 13, King 14. The play of a Jack sweeps al the

table cards in one turn. This is a tablanet e (possibly from French

table net e, ‘clean table’), and entitles the player to score the

combined pip-count of al the cards so captured, the Jack itself

being valueless. Apart from the potential y huge scores for

tablanet e, players score 1 for each Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten

captured, an extra 1 for T, 1 for J, and 3 for cards. Game is 251

up.

Tenteret

(2-8p, 52c) A Russian game described in 1809. Possibly the ultimate

source of Tablanet e (above), except that players are dealt three

cards each.

Konchinka

(2-4p, 52c) Early nineteenth-century Russian equivalent of Basra.

Zing

(2p or 4pp, 52c) Albanian relative reported by Franco Pratesi in

The Playing-Card (XXVI, 3). Four each, four to the table in a face-up

pile. At each turn either capture the stack by matching the top card

or playing a Jack, or play a card face up to the stack. Capturing a

one-card stack is cal ed a ‘zing’ (an apparently meaningless word),

and is marked by storing the capturing card face up. Deal four more

each whenever hands are depleted. Cards left untaken at the end

are ignored. Score 5 for cards, 5 for 7, 5 for T, and 10 per zing.

Game is said to be 51 points, which suggests that there is more to

the scoring system than reported here.

Other fishing games

Cal abra

(2-3p, 52c) A fast and simple forerunner of Cassino for two or three

players. Deal three each and five to the table. The rest remain out

of play and the simple object is to capture a clear majority of the

cards in play – six if two play, eight if three. Numerals count face

value, plus J11, Q12, K13. Each in turn (passing to the right) plays

a card face up to the table and leaves it there unless able to capture

one or more table cards with it. A card played from the hand may

capture one or more cards by pairing or by summing, and multiple

captures are permit ed. The game ends when one player has taken

a majority of cards, or one player has run out of cards and no one

has won, or no more cards are available for capture.

Papil on (= ‘But erfly’)

(2-4p, 3 best, 52c) A defunct but delightful French game,

characterized by an elaborate system of side-payments for special

coups, and by its almost exclusive suitability for three players. Deal

coups, and by its almost exclusive suitability for three players. Deal

three cards each and seven to the table (or only four if four play).

When al have been played deal three more, and so on so long as

any remain in stock. Each in turn plays one card and captures by

pairing or summing, with certain restrictions. One King, Queen,

Jack or Ten wil capture as many cards of the same rank as

possible, but lower numerals may not pair with more than one of

their kind. They alone, however, may capture by summing. The last

to capture a card from the table takes al those remaining.

Payment as fol ows: pay 1 to the pool each time a card is trailed;

receive from each opponent 2 for capturing an Ace with an Ace, 4

for capturing two Aces with a Two, 6 for capturing three Aces with

a Three, 8 for capturing four with a Four, 1 for capturing any three

cards of the same rank with the fourth (a feat known as hanneton,

‘cockchafer’), 1 for a sweep (sauterel e, ‘grasshopper’) – after which

the next in turn must lay out his remaining cards to form a new

table – 1 for winning a majority of cards (not counted in the event

of a tie, but the winner of the next counts 2), and various others

which are not 100 per cent clear but may easily be extended by

exercise of the imagination.

It is clear that al variants must be named after arthropods.

Chinese Ten

(2-4p, 52c) A game reported by Jennifer Bul ock on the Internet.

From a 52-card pack deal two players twelve cards each, three

players eight, or four players six. Deal the next four face up to the

table and stack the rest face down.

Each in turn, starting with eldest, plays a card to the table,

thereby capturing any card with which it sums to 10. For example,

an Ace captures a Nine, or a Nine an Ace, and so on. Cards above

Nine are captured by pairing – Ten takes Ten, Jack takes Jack, and

so on. A non-capturing card is left on the table. Having either

captured or trailed, you then turn the top card of stock, and may

make a capture with it if possible. If not, leave it on the table for

make a capture with it if possible. If not, leave it on the table for

subsequent capture. Not more than one card may be turned from

stock.

Players sift al the red cards from their winnings and count them

as fol ows: Aces 20 each, Nines and higher 10 each, lower numerals

at face value.

Black cards don’t count when two play. When three or four play,

A counts 30 extra points, and when four play A counts 40 in

addition.

Each player scores towards game the dif erence between the

value of card-points taken and the mean total, which is 105 if two

play, 80 if three, or 70 if four. For example, if two players count

114 and 96, the former scores +9 and the lat er –9.

Laugh and Lie Down

5 players (or 4), 52 cards

This odd but simple member of the Fishing family is the oldest

recorded and the only one known from English sources. Though

frequently mentioned since 1522, the only known rules date from

Francis Wil ughby’s manuscript Volume of Plaies, c.1670, first

published as Francis Wil ughby’s Book of Games in 2002. The basic

game is for five.

PreliminariesUse 52 cards. Whoever cuts lowest (Ace low) deals

first. Play passes to the left. At each deal the dealer puts up a stake

of 3p and the other players 2p each, making a pot of 11p.

DealDeal eight cards to each player, in ones, and the remaining 12

face up to the table. Al 12 table cards should remain clearly

identifiable but not be arranged neatly or in any particular order.

ObjectTo win cards in pairs of the same rank (two Aces, two Kings,

etc) and place them face up on the table before you.

General procedureAt each turn you capture one or more table cards

by pairing them with one or more cards of the same rank from your

hand. When you can no longer do so you must throw your hand in

by adding your cards face up to those stil on the table and ceasing

play. This is cal ed laying down (or lying down), and the game gets

its name from the fact that everyone else then laughs at you. Play

ceases when only one player has any cards left in hand.

ForeplayBefore play begins, you may set before you, as won cards,

certain pairs that you may already have been dealt. Specifical y:

If the table cards include a mournival (al four of a given

rank), dealer may take them immediately and lay them face

up on the table before him as if he had won them in play.

If you were dealt a mournival (most unlikely) you may

immediately place al four matching cards face up on the

table as if you had won them in play.

If you hold a prial (three of a kind), you may immediately set

down a pair as if you had won them in play, but must keep

the third card in hand. You may do this for every prial you

hold.

If you are dealt a prial or a mournival and forget to claim the

constituent pairs before play, you can do so at any other turn,

but this does not count as capturing by matching.

Thereafter, at each turn you must capture one or two pairs of cards

by matching one card from your hand with one or three cards of the

same rank on the table, transferring both (or al four) face up to

your pile of won cards.

Other ways of pairingIf you hold a pair, and another player pairs a

card of that rank on the table, you may immediately transfer your

pair to your won cards, since there would be no other way of