The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (4 page)

col ecting and scoring for matched sets before deciding to go out.

Ordering games

21. Patience games, in which the object is to set the shuf led pack

in order. Most of these are solitaires (one-player games) but, as

there are enough of them to fil an encyclopedia of their own, this

section restricts itself to competitive varieties for two or more

players.

Vying games

22. Poker, Brag and other gambling games of skil , in which

players vie with one another as to who holds the best card-

combination, or is likely to finish with the best when their hands

are complete.

Banking games

23. A selection of gambling games, such as Pontoon (Blackjack)

and Baccara(t), limited to those that can conveniently be played at

home.

Original card games

24. Final y, I have appended a selection of some of my own

games. Some of these were first published in Original Card Games

(1977, no longer available). I have invented others since, and

(1977, no longer available). I have invented others since, and

include the best of these. One of my originals, Ninety-Nine, has

become so widely known, being described also in books by other

writers and turned into computer software, that I have included it

in the main body of this col ection.

Excluded from these contents are games played with non-

standard cards, whether proprietary cards (such as Rook cards and

UnoT) or with traditional cards other than the four-suited pack,

such as the Japanese Hanafuda, the Indian Ganjifa, the European

Cuckoo, the Jewish Kvitlakh, and many others.

Includedarewhat mightbecal ed children’s games, but

notinasepar-ate chapter of their own. Many are ancient games of

historical interest that throw up enlightening relationships with

standard card games.

Also included are several games of mainly historical interest. One

reason is that any cultural heritage is worth preserving and needs to

be re-assessed and transmit ed every generation or so. Another is

that many games mentioned only by name in history or literature

have recently become playable through the recovery of lost

descriptions, or even, in some happy instances, by the discovery of

communities that stil play them. By far the most important reason,

however, is that many of them are simply excel ent games, and wel

worth reviving.

Playing the game

Well, you were supposed to be teaching me the game, and I saw you were

cheating all the time, so I thought it was allowed by the rules.

Leslie Charteris, Enter the Saint

Card-play occurs against a backdrop of long-established

Card-play occurs against a backdrop of long-established

traditional procedures amounting almost to ritual. They are worth

observing, partly as a mark of civility (there is no fun in playing

with louts unless you are one yourself), and largely because they are

designed to prevent anyone from gaining, or appearing to gain, an

unfair advantage by doing anything out of the ordinary.

Love or money?

It is a mistake to characterize al card-play as a form of gambling by

definition. Al games (even Chess) can be played for money and, to

that extent, are potential occasions for gambling, but whether or not

they are so played depends partly on the inherent nature of the

game in question and partly on the inherent nature of its players.

Some seem incapable oftaking any card game seriously

unlessitisplayed for money, while others wil never, on principle,

play for money at al . Extremists of either sort (and I speak from

the non-monetary end of the spectrum) have no option but to

acknowledge the views of the other, and avoid meeting at the same

table.

As to the games, they fal into three groups. At one extreme lie

games of skil , such as Bridge, which so engage the intel ect as to

obviate the need for additional monetary interest. At the other lie

entirely chance-determined bet ing games involving no card-playing

skil at al . Some of these are potential y dangerous bet ing games,

but others are played for fun and not necessarily for cash: they

include children’s games, which can be played for sweets and treats,

and drinking games, which are traditional methods of deciding who

pays for the next round. Between the two lie games of skil like

Poker, in which the actual instruments of play are not cards but

money, and the skil involved has nothing to do with card sense but

everything to do with money management and ad hominem

psychology.

Scoring

Gambling games are normal y played for hard score – that is, coins,

or chips orcounters representing coins and eventual y redeemable

for cash. Intel ectual games are played for soft score, meaning

points recorded in writing, on which monetary transactions may be

based when the game is over. If you are playing for money, the

advantage of hard score is that you always know where you stand,

and the disadvantage of soft score is that the mind contains an

endless supply of points which the pocket may later be unable to

match. For those who are not interested in money, the disadvantage

of some intel ectual games is that they have not developed refined

scoring systems but retain the zero-sum format of their ancestral

hard-score gambling games, which can make for many

complications in any at empt to keep track of al the pluses and

minuses on the balance sheet. Unless you have a numerate and

trustworthy scorekeeper to hand, you may find it more convenient

to play such games for hard score, even if only matchsticks and

paperclips.

Some games are played with scoring devices of traditional design,

such as Cribbage boards and Piquet/Bezique markers. If you have

any of these, they can often be found useful for other games.

Players, partners and positions

Many card games are played by four in two partnerships of two

each, partners sit ing opposite each other and playing alternately

instead of consecutively. If partnerships are to be made at random,

it is usual for each player to draw a card from a pack spread face

down on the table, and for those drawing the two highest cards to

become partners, the one with the highest having choice of seats

and dealing first. Tied players draw again. When there are not

partnerships, the same system is used to determine seats and first

deal. The importance of seating may be regarded as a hangover

from more superstitious times, in which hardbit en gamblers stil

tend to live.

Rotation

The order in which cards are dealt around the table, the

participants take turns to play, and the deal passes from person to

person is normal y to the left (clockwise, viewed from above) in

English-speaking and north European countries, but othe right

(anticlockwise)insouthern Europe and many other cultures. The

player sit ing to the dealer’s left in clockwise games, or to the right

in anticlockwise, is cal ed eldest (hand) or forehand. In nearly al

games it is eldest who leads to the first trick or otherwise makes the

first move, or who has priority of some sort over everybody else,

and the dealer who comes last or has least priority.

The shuf le

The purpose of shuf ling is to ensure that cards are randomized

before being dealt. Perfect randomness is impossible to achieve in a

short time, but that is not the point: the object is merely to prevent

anyone from locating the position of any given card and to ensure

that, in games based on put ing cards in order, such as Rummy, the

game is not spoilt by having them come out in order to start with.

As a mat er of interest (because contrary to expectation), excessive

shuf ling in trick-taking games is more likely to produce freakish

suit distributions than relatively light shuf ling or none at al .

Shuf ling cannot be taught in words; it can only be copied from

watching good practitioners. However you do it, the most

important thing is to ensure that none of the cards can be located,

especial y the bot om one, for which purpose it helps to hold them

as close as possible to the surface of the table. In most games

(except Bridge, of course, which likes to be dif erent out of sheer

cussedness) it is axiomatic that any one or more players may shuf le

if they wish, but the dealer is entitled to shuf le last.

The cut

Between shuf ling and dealing, the dealer has the pack cut by the

player on his other side from eldest. The pack is placed, face down,

on the table, the cut er lifts of the top half and places it face down

beside the residue, and the dealer completes the cut by placing the

former bot om half on top of the other. The purpose of this is to

prevent anyone from identifying the bot om card of the pack, which

may have been seen during the shuf le. ‘Half’ doesn’t necessarily

mean exactly half. Games with codified rules usual y specify the

minimum number of cards that should be left in each portion of the

pack. A sensible minimum is about one-fifth of the total. If any card

is exposed in the deal, or if cards are dealt by the wrong player or

in the wrong order, anyone may demand a new deal, including a

new shuf le and cut.

The deal

Some games specify that cards be dealt singly, one to each player in

rotation, others that they be dealt in batches of two or three at a

time to each player in rotation. It is worth noting that this is not

done in order to ‘stack the pack’, thereby yielding more unbalanced

and ‘interesting’ hands, but mainly to save time.

Behaviour

When playing with people you do not know, it is advisable to

assume that bad manners wil get you ostracized. As to what

constitutes bad manners, here are some helpful guidelines (adapted

from Esquire magazine):

1. Remember that shuf ling is a dramatic art form, and is at its

most impressive when performed in mid-air.

2. Pick up your cards as dealt. You wil be ready to bid ahead of

the others.

3. Talk about other subjects during the game; it makes for good

fel owship.

fel owship.

4. Don’t try to remember the rules; they are too confusing.

5. Never hurry. Try several cards on a trick until you are sure

which one you prefer.

6. Occasional y as k what is trumps. It wil show that you are

interested in the game.

7. Trump your partner’s ace and make doubly sure of the trick.

8. Always ask your partner why he didn’t return your lead; this

wil remind him to lead it next time.

9. Always explain your play, particularly when you lose. It

shows your card knowledge.

10. Eat chocolate caramels or candied fruit while playing; it stops

the cards from slithering about.

Irregularities in play

The commonest irregularities are playing out of turn and playing an

il egal card, especial y revoking – that is, failing to fol ow suit in a

trick-taking game that requires you to do so. Highly codified games,

such as Bridge, are equipped with laws specifying corrections and

penalties for al conceivable irregularities, as wel as some

tortuously inconceivable. To detail them al in a book such as this

would double its size and is therefore out of the question.

General y, the at empted play ofanil egal cardin a game involving

partners gives useful information to one’s partner and ought,

strictly, to be penalized by forfeiture of the game by the of ending

side. An alternative is to play a legal card and to leave the il egal

one face up on the table, to be played at the earliest legal

opportunity. But in a game where a misplayed card conveys useful

information only to the opponents and is corrected before anyone

else has played a card, there is no need to impose a penalty.

Game

It is important to establish at the outset what constitutes a game, at

what point play wil cease and the group wil break up. Many

what point play wil cease and the group wil break up. Many

games specify what this end-point should be, but if a game is not so

defined then you should agree in advance to play up to a target

score, or for a fixed length of time or number of deals. If not

playing to a target score, it is desirable for al players to have dealt

the same number of times in order to equalize the advantages of

position.

Cheating

This interesting subject can be mentioned but briefly. To be

ef ective, cheating must be carried out by a dedicated expert, who

wil normal y either have doctored the pack in some way or be

working with the aid of a secret partner – not necessarily one

participating in the game. When playing with strangers for money,

assume everyone guilty until proved innocent, but make no

accusations in case you are wrong. If in doubt, just make an excuse

and leave. Note that it is your responsibility to hold your cards in

such a way that no one else can see them, and that dif erent

national traditions, or local schools, may have dif erent views on

what is and is not al owable (as Simon Templar observed in the