Card games

With a pack of cards in your pocket, you need never be bored. There are so many games to choose from, for any number of players from one upwards.

Literally hundreds of card games have been invented over the years — complicated team games for pairs, fast and furious games for all the family, or teasing patience games for only one. We begin our selection with one of the oldest, most popular forms of patience.

Round the clock
For this patience game you need one pack of 52 cards (without jokers).

Begin by dealing 12 cards face down in the positions of the hours on a clock face. Put another card face down in the centre of the clock. Continue to deal out all the cards in this way until you have made 13 piles of four cards in each. Turn up the top card of the centre pile — you are ready to play.

According to the number of the card you have turned up, place this next to the pile on the hour the number represents—i.e. if it is a 3, put it at three o'clock. Now turn up the top card of that pile and transfer this to the hour that corresponds to its number.

In this game, aces represent one o'clock, queens 12 noon, and jacks 11 o'clock, and kings go in the centre. The object of the game is to end up with all four kings in a pile in the centre and every other card in its correct place around the clock face.

However, what usually happens is that you find the four kings reach the centre before the rest of the clock face is complete, thereby forcing you to stop.

German whist
You need a pencil and paper for marking the score and a pack of 52 cards (without jokers).

The dealer puts down alternately 13 cards for each of you, places the rest of the pack face down on the table, and turns up the top card of the pack. Whatever is the suit of this card becomes trumps for the game.

You each look at your cards. The second player now leads with any card he likes from those in his hand, laying it on the table, face up. The dealer has to follow. If he is to win the trick, he must put out either a card of the same suit but with a higher value, or any trump card (in this game, a trump card beats any card of another suit and is only beaten by a higher value trump card).

The higher of the two cards, or the trump, now wins and these two cards are put on one side having no further use in the game. Whoever won the trick takes the exposed card from the top of the pack; his opponent takes the next card down (unseen), and turns over the top card on the pack. The winner of the last round now leads.

The game continues in this way (without any note of the score of tricks which is not important at this stage) until you have been through every card in the pack on the table. Now, the proper battle with each trick counting is about to begin...

You each hold thirteen cards in your hand and from these you must en-devour to win more tricks than your opponent. You play exactly as already described, though there are no cards to pick up from the table. Each person who wins a trick puts it on his side. When all the cards are played, tot up who has won what. The winner is the one with seven or more tricks. The way you score is that only the winner's tricks count — from his total deduct 6 points to give you a final total; i.e. if his total of winning tricks was 10, deduct 6 to leave 4. This is the figure entered on the score card.

It's up to you whether you play until one or other player reaches a set target of points, or play to a time limit making the winner whoever is ahead once you stop.

There is, of course, a strong element of skill in this game. Each player struggles in the early non-scoring rounds to build up a good hand for the last vital 13.

Sudden death
In this game, each player needs a pack of 52 cards (without jokers). Use packs with different designs on the back since you need to be able to identify which belongs to whom.

Each player shuffles his pack and places the pile on the table face down. Players take it in turn to play. First to go turns up the top card of his pack and puts it faces up in the middle. His opponent lays his top card — face up — over it. The highest of these two cards, in any suit, wins. (The numerical sequence is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace.) The winner claims both cards and puts them on his side but separate from his pack. The game continues in this way. Should both players put out cards of the same numerical value, each plays another card and the owner of the highest value picks up all four.

The object of this easy game is to win as many of your opponent's cards as possible. Once you have both dealt out all your original pack, each of you tots up how many of the other's cards you hold to find out who has won.

Cheat
If you play with more than five people you will need another pack of cards. Leave in the jokers — they are "wild" cards in this game, which means that the player holding them can use them to represent the suit and number he chooses. Begin by shuffling all the cards together thoroughly and dealing one at a time round the circle of players until they are all on the table. You may all look at your cards. Player on the dealer's left starts by putting down one of his cards (face down) in the middle and calling a number — say, 5. The player on his left is next to go. He must call a higher number as he puts down his card... even if this is a lie! Anyone round the table is free to challenge him as a CHEAT. If they do, he has to turn over the card he put down so that all can see. If he has lied, he must pick up the cards in the centre pile and add them to his own hand. If, however, he has told the truth, then his challenger must pick up the cards.

There is another legal form of cheating in this game which is that players can try to put down more than one card at a time — but the same rules apply to the challenge as previously described.

As you will have gathered, the object of this game is to get rid of your cards as soon as possible, and the first player to do so is the winner.

Donkey
This is played with an abridged pack of only 32 cards (without jokers). From the normal pack of 52 cards, take out the following numerical sequence in each suit: 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace. Shuffle these together very thoroughly and deal out, one at a time, these cards round the four players. Each player should then hold eight cards. Players will need something to represent their stake — match-sticks, counters or pennies — which should total 20.

The object of the game is to assemble eight cards of the same suit in your hand — this is known as the Donkey.

Player on the dealer's left begins, thereafter the turn moves clockwise round the table. Each player may look at his cards — in fact, this is a good moment to sort what you have into suits.

First player passes — unseen — a card to the player on his left (Obviously, he will be passing him one of the odd cards out that he holds.) Now the second player has to decide which of his cards to pass on to his neighbor... and so the game continues until a player achieves the Donkey.

At this stage, everyone puts their cards face up on the table. Each player declares the suit he was collecting, and for every other card he holds in his hand he has to give the winner one of his stake.

The game goes on until a pre-arranged time limit. The 32 cards must be carefully reshuffled before every round.

Blind hookey
Each player needs a fair quantity of stake "money" to play this game of chance. Dealer shuffles the pack (52 cards, no jokers) and gives each player five cards. These are placed; face down and unseen, in a mini-pack in front of each player. Everyone except the dealer now places their bet on this round. If a player puts his stake to the left of his pack — he is gambling that his top card will be higher than the top card of the dealer's pile. If, on the other hand, he puts his stake on the right of his pack — he is gambling that the dealer holds a higher card.

Once all the players have placed their bets, the dealer removes the top card of his pile of five and shows it. Now, in turn, each player starting with the man on the dealer's left shows his top card.

Players who guessed correctly receive the equivalent of their stake from the dealer. Those who were either wrong, or whose cards were the same value as the dealer's, have to pay the dealer their stake.

Once everybody's five cards have been played — the turn to deal goes to the man on the left of the dealer. And so the game continues until the pre-arranged time limit is up.

Snap!
Shuffle the cards thoroughly (packs of 52 without jokers) and deal them all out one at a time between the players, face down. Each player lifts his pack simultaneously and begins to turn up the cards one at a time. As each of you turns up a new card, you look to see if there is a card with a corresponding number on any of your neighbors' packs — if there is, you shout "SNAP". Of course, all the other players will also be watching out for matches and the winner is whoever shouts first; he scoops up the cards on the matching pile and adds them to his own. The game goes on with players turning over the cards in their hand when they have run through the pack, and starting again, until one person has scooped the lot.

(You can also play a rule in this game whereby if someone shouts "SNAP" by mistake, they are not allowed to win the next "SNAP" even if they spot the match and shout first.)

Pontoon
This is a real gambling game and the stakes can rise high — agree upon what each counter (or chip) stands for before you begin in terms of money, and agree on a limit for each bet. Players will need a good supply of counters — about 30 each, at least.

The game is played with one pack of 52 cards (no jokers). The first thing to do is to decide who takes the bank. Does this by making each player take a card from the pack — the highest numerical value (aces high) wins the bank.

In this game, each player is pitting his wits against the bank. The banker is also the dealer. He shuffles the pack thoroughly and then gives each person, including himself, a card, face down. Players look at their card and according to how valuable they think it is, put a bet on the table, (except the banker, who never bets). When all the stakes are out on the table, the banker gives everybody a second card (including him self) unseen. He asks the player on his left what he wants to do. The player looks at his cards in secret to make up his mind. His decision will be based on the score that the two cards he holds add up to. Scoring is as follows: aces count as one or eleven (the option is the player's); court cards (king, queen and jack) count as ten each; all other cards count at their face value.

The objective of every player is to achieve a total score of 21, or as near as possible up to 21, without going over this figure, with two or more cards.

To get 21 with two cards, you need an ace plus any court card or a 10 card. This combination is called PONTOON-it beats all other combinations and wins for its player the bank (unless the banker also has pontoon, or the bank has changed hands within the last two rounds. In either of these two cases, the bank stays where it is).

Supposing you are the player on the banker's left in this first round, and you hold pontoon — you simply declare it, and turn your cards up and wait to see what happens to everyone else and what cards the banker holds. But what is much more likely is that you will hold a more average hand — say, a court card and a 5. Your score is fifteen so far. Now you have to decide whether you think the banker's two unseen cards (and any he might draw at a later stage) will add up to more or less than your total of 15. If he gets the same or more than you (but under 21) he will beat you If he declares on less (which is unlikely) or goes "bust" (gets more than 21 by drawing a high card, which could be likely) you will win. You have the option of declaring that you are "sticking" or of asking the banker for another card. If you ask for another card, you may either buy one by putting out the equivalent of your stake, in which case you receive the card unseen — or by asking for a "twist", which is a card delivered free but face up. Let us imagine that you decide to "twist" and you receive a card value 5 — your score is now 20 which is a safe moment to "stick."

(A few words here about "twisting" and "buying" — once you have had one "twist" card you cannot buy any cards, you can only go on "twisting." But you can start "buying" and go on to "twist.")

Since you have decided to "stick", the banker moves on to the next player in line. Let us imagine that this player holds a 3 and a 6. He would probably buy a card — let's suppose he is given a 4. His score is now 13. He might now twist — let's imagine he is given a 9... Poor fellow, his score is now 22 so he is bust and all his money goes to the banker straight away!

When the banker has been round all the players, it is his turn to show his cards. He turns them up for all to see. Let's suppose that he has an ace and a 5.He can make the ace count for either one or eleven, so his total is either 6 or 16. If he thinks that by sticking on 16 he will have to pay out a lot of players who are also sticking, he will probably decide to draw another card and hope to get a 5 or under which will boost his score up over 16 without making him bust. (Yet at the same time he has the security of knowing that even if he drew a court card, his total would still be only 16 if the ace counts as one!) Let us suppose he draws a 4 — he now declares that he is sticking and will pay 21's. (In this round, any player with 21 receives the equivalent of the stake they had put out from the banker. Any player with pontoon receives double his stake from the banker (but doesn't win the bank on this round because it is too early in the game). Players who are bust have already paid out their stakes to the bank. (If, of course, the banker has gone bust he would have had to pay any player still in the game with a valid hand — i.e. anyone who had not already gone bust!)

And so the game continues along these lines. As you become experienced at pontoon, there are several variations that can be introduced to add spice to the game. For instance, the banker can insist, once everyone has laid their initial stakes, that they double them! Also, if you are dealt two aces or court cards in a round, you can ask the bank's permission to split your cards and receive two more cards so that you play two hands simultaneously.

You will also find if you play pontoon in other countries that each one tends to have its own version of the game, though the basics remain the same.