The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (175 page)

elaborate version.

Preliminaries Deal twenty-six cards to each of two players from a

wel -shuf led 52-card pack. Deal, each of you, from your own

twenty-six cards, a layout consisting of five face-down piles of cards,

with one card in the first, two in the second, and so on up to five in

the fifth. These are the stock piles. Turn the top card of each stock

pile face up. Hold your other eleven cards face down in one hand.

These eleven are your ‘spit’ cards.

Object The aim is to be the first to get rid of al your cards over as

many deals as necessary. You don’t take turns, just play as fast as

you can simultaneously.

Play When you are both ready, shout ‘Spit!’, turn the top card from

your hand, and place it face up on the table between both players’

stock piles. These two cards form the bases of two piles of cards

cal ed the spit piles. What you are aiming to do is to get al the

cards played from your stock piles to the spit piles.

At each move, you may play the top card of one of your stock

piles to either of the spit piles, provided that it is one rank higher

or lower than the card you play it to. On an Ace you can play either

or lower than the card you play it to. On an Ace you can play either

a King or a Two. Suits don’t mat er. Then turn face up the top card

of the pile you played from. If one of your stock piles gets emptied,

you can fil the space with the top card from another one (but you

can never have more than five stock piles).

Sooner or later you wil both get stuck. At this point you both

shout ‘Spit!’ again and turn the next card from your hand face up on

the spit pile you started before. Then play on as before.

If one player has no spit cards left when play gets stuck, the other

one spits alone. They can choose either pile to spit on, but, having

chosen it, must stick with it every time the same position is

reached.

If neither player has any spit cards when play gets stuck, the

player with fewer cards left in their stock piles spits a card from the

top of a stock pile.

Next deal When one of you gets rid of al your stockpile cards, both

of you slap your hand over one of the spit piles, ideal y the smal er

one. Whoever gets there first takes that pile, leaving the larger one

for the other player. (If you both choose dif erent piles, of course,

there’s no dispute.) Whichever of you stil has stockpile cards left

unplayed shuf les these in with the pile you took. Both of you

shuf le your cards, deal another layout as before, shout ‘Spit!’ when

ready, and play another round.

If one of you has fewer than fifteen cards, you won’t be able to

deal a complete set of stock piles. In this case you deal them into

five piles as far as possible and turn the top card of each. In this

case you won’t be able to spit, so there is only one spit pile, started

by the other player.

End of play When only one spit pile remains, and one player runs

out of stock cards, the other plays on until stuck, then gathers up al

the cards on the table, deals a new layout, and spits again. The

winner is the first player to run out of al spit and stock cards.

Variations Many.

Grabbage(Hasty Patience)

2+ players, 52 cards each

The player who completes a packet with a king must move it from the table; it is generally thrown on the floor, as this game allows no time for small ceremonies.

Mary Whitmore Jones, Games of Patience (c.1890)

This hilarious game, a forerunner of Spit, is guaranteed to draw

complaints from the neighbours if played late at night, and is best

played with worn-out cards, for reasons indicated above.

Cards Each player shuf les a single pack and holds it face down.

Object To be the first to get rid of al your cards.

Play Turn cards rapidly one by one from stock and discard them

face up to a personal wastepile unless they can be built.

Building When you turn an Ace, play it face up to the centre to start

a sequence. Sequences are common property and are each to be

built up to the King regardless of suit. Whoever completes a

sequence with the King turns it face down or throws it away. You

may add to a sequence, if it fits, a card that you turn from the stock

or the current top card of your wastepile. If two try to build

simultaneously to the same sequence, the card that gets there first

stays put. When you run out of stock, turn your wastepile face

down to form a new one.

Variants Whitmore Jones describes Hasty as a two-player game in

which each plays to a single wastepile, and Grabbage as a four-

player game in which each plays freely to any of four wastepiles.

Pirate

2 players, 52 cards each

An even sil ier game than Spit.

Preliminaries Each takes a complete pack shuf led by the other and

cuts it. The lower cut plays to release the Aces as they become

available and build them upwards in suit to the Kings, the higher to

release the Kings and build them downwards in suit to the Aces.

Object Completed suit-sequences are cal ed ships. The aim is to

capture a majority of the eight ships to be built.

Play Both hold their packs face down and play simultaneously.

Turn cards from stock one at a time and build them if possible,

otherwise discard them face up to a personal wastepile. Building

includes put ing down an Ace or King as the ‘keel’ of a new ship.

The top card of the wastepile may be built on a ship when it fits.

Neither may play to the other’s ship. When the two ships of a given

suit meet in the middle, the first to play the connecting card

captures both. For example, if one has built spades up to the Six

and the other spades down to the Eight, the first to play a 7

captures that ship. If both play it simultaneously, the two ships are

sunk and belong to neither player.

When a ship has been captured or sunk, the two players start a

When a ship has been captured or sunk, the two players start a

second ship in the same suit, but running in opposite directions.

That is, the former Ace-up player now plays King-down, and vice

versa. This can result in both players building dif erent suits in

opposite directions at the same time.

If you run out of cards first, cease playing, and watch your

opponent careful y. Whenever he turns a card you need for one of

your own ships, you can claim it and put it in place. When a

capturing card is turned, the first to claim it captures both ships –

which, as before, are sunk if both claim simultaneously.

Note The first to capture five ships wins, or four if one is sunk. It

may be agreed not to sink ships but to keep them in tow, and credit

them to whoever unambiguously captures the next ship.

Conjugal Patience

2 players, 2 × 52 cards

To paraphrase G. B. Shaw, two-player games are popular because

they combine the maximum of temptation with the maximum of

opportunity. Couples may accordingly be assumed to start with

Honeymoon Bridge, progress to Conjugal Patience, and end up with

Spite and Malice. (There’s also a Patience cal ed Divorce, which we

needn’t go into here.)

Preliminaries Each shuf les the other’s pack, then from your own

pack deal six cards face up in front of you as a reserve. Hold the

rest face down as a stock.

Object To be first to get rid of al your cards by building them on to

Object To be first to get rid of al your cards by building them on to

the eight 13-card suit-sequences to be built between you.

Play On your turn, play as many cards as you can from your reserve

to the centre. You can take an Ace to start a sequence, a Two of the

same suit to put on the Ace, and so on, as and when such cards

become available, to extend the sequence upwards to the King.

Having built any such cards from the reserve, refil the vacancies

they leave with cards from the top ofyour stock, and continue

building if possible. Eventual y, when the reserve consists of six

unplayable cards, end your turn by discarding any one of them face

down to a personal wastepile, and fil ing that vacancy from stock.

The space-fil er is not available for building until your next turn.

Ending When no cards remain in stock, turn your wastepile upside

down to form a new one. Players should agree beforehand whether

or not it should be shuf led before use. If not, the last discard wil

be the first stock-card, and al cards wil come out in reverse order

of placing – a point to remember whenever discarding during the

game. What lit le skil there is consists in selecting each discard and

holding back possible builds that might be more helpful to your

opponent than to yourself.

Progressive Patience

2 players, 2 × 52 cards

Preliminaries Shuf le both packs together and take fifty-two cards

each as a stock, which is to be kept face down.

Object To be the first to play of al your cards to the centre.

Play At each turn, face the top card of your stock and play it to the

centre if possible, otherwise discard it face up to any one of four

wastepiles. Playing it entitles you to turn the next card; discarding it

automatical y ends your turn.

Central sequences The first to turn an Ace must play it to the centre

of the table. Cards are then built on it in sequence, regardless of

suit, until it reaches the King. This is fol owed by another Ace, and

the cycle continues until one player runs out of cards. At each turn

you may build as many playable cards from your wastepiles as you

can before turning a card from stock.

Discarding A turned card not playable to the centre is discarded face

up to any one of your wastepiles, regardless of rank or suit. These

piles may be spread out in columns so that al cards are visible.

Obligations It is obligatory to start the centre run as soon as the first

Ace is turned. After that it is not compulsory to play any playable

card. Once a card is turned from stock, it must be immediately built

or discarded. This means you are not al owed to look at the next

turn-up before deciding whether or not to play from the wastepiles.

Turning the wastepiles When you run out of cards, sweep up your

wastepiles and turn them face down as a new stock. (Agree

beforehand whether to gather them up at random and shuf le them,

or whether to pile them on one another from left to right and turn

the newly consolidated stock without disturbing the order of cards.)

When you get down to four or fewer cards, you merely turn them

al face up, from which it wil usual y be obvious who gets to win.

Dictation(Sir Tommy)

2+ players, 52 cards each

Almost any form of Patience can be played by the ‘dictation’

method, one of the most popular being Poker Squares. This lesser-

known game is particularly compulsive.

Preliminaries One player, the dictator, shuf les a 52-card pack, and

the

othersarrangetheirsfaceupinsuchawayastoenablerapididentification

of any cal ed card.

Object Each plays a separate game of the patience cal ed Sir

Tommy (or any other that may be agreed), but al use cards turned

up in the same order. The winner is the player who completes the

greater number of thirteen-card sequences, which are built up from

Ace to King regardless of suit.

Play At each turn the dictator turns the top card of his pack,

announces what it is, and plays it to his own game. Everyone else

selects the same card from their own pack and plays it to their own

game. When al are ready, the dictator turns the next card, and so

on.Whenever an Ace turns up, set it out as the start of a sequence.

You may then, as and when the appropriate cards become

available, build it up in sequence towards the King, regardless of

suit. Unplayable cards are discarded face up to a personal layout

which may contain up to four piles, spread into columns so that al

are visible. Any card may be placed on any pile regardless of rank

or suit, and you are not obliged to start al four piles at once, but

may prefer to hold one or more open until it seems right to start

them. No card may be transferred from one column to another, or