The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (16 page)

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
One

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

La Belle Lucie, also known as the Fan, is a fun solitaire game with multiple stacks. The objective of La Belle Lucie is to fill up the suit stacks by building them with available cards, with each stack containing one suit built up in the sequence ace to king. There are two areas to the playing field. Deal seventeen building stacks, each with three cards face up in a fan style with one card available and overlapping the other two cards. The last remaining card in the deck is placed as its own fan. You also leave an area for the suit stacks, which will be four stacks of cards in the upper right-hand corner of the playing field, above the building stacks.

A card is only available if it is not partially covered by another card, so at the beginning of play only the ends of the fans are available. An ace should be moved immediately to the suit stack and can be added to by placing a two of the same suit on that card, followed by a three, four, and so on until the suit stack is complete from ace to king. If a card cannot be moved to a suit stack, it can be moved to the end of another fan if the available card on that fan is of a higher value of the same suit. As an example, if the 3♥ is available at the end of one fan, it may be moved to the 4♥ if available on another fan. Once you have moved the 3♥ onto the 4♥, the second card underneath the 3♥ in the first fan is now uncovered and may be played. The 4♥ is now unavailable because it is covered by the 3♥.

When all possible moves have been played, with cards going to the suit stacks and on top of other fans, you should gather up all of the remaining fans. You’ll then shuffle the cards and re-deal them in fans of three, with any one or two remaining cards becoming a fan of their own. Only two re-deals are allowed—if you’ve re-dealt twice and can move no more cards, the game is over. You win when all fifty-two cards are in the suit stacks.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Four

EQUIPMENT:
Thirty-six-card deck (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 in all suits)

TIME:
One hour

PARTNERSHIP:
Yes

COMPLEXITY:
Medium

Marjapussi is a popular game in Finland. Your objective during play is to score points through taking tricks in order to be the first team to reach 500 points. The cards rank in order from high to low as ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine, eight, seven, and six. The ace is worth eleven points, the ten is worth ten points, the king is worth four points, the queen is worth three points, the jack is worth two points, and the nine, eight, seven, and six are worth zero points.

There are three ways to earn points during play. Card points are the total value of the cards in your hand at the end of play. There are a maximum of 120 card points available. Trump points are earned if your team holds the king and queen in the trump suit (hearts are worth 100 points, diamonds are worth eighty points, clubs are worth sixty points, and spades are worth forty points). Finally, the team to win the last trick wins an additional twenty points.

Each player cuts the deck to determine their partners. The player who cuts the highest card chooses his seat at the table, with the player who cut the lowest card becoming his partner and sitting across from him. The player who cut the highest card becomes the first dealer. He deals out nine cards, one at a time, face down, to each player. The deal passes to the left with each hand.

The player to the dealer’s left opens a round of bidding. He may pass or start the bidding at 120 points (indicating the number of points he believes that he and his partner can earn during play). The player to his left may in turn pass or bid higher than the previous bid, in increments of five. If you pass, you may no longer enter in the bidding process. If all players pass, there is no exchange of cards as described later, and no contract to be fulfilled. The contract is the number of points that you will attempt to win while playing the tricks. If a bid is called, the bidding continues until three players pass. The high bidder becomes the declarer. The declarer’s partner may choose to pass four cards to the declarer, and the declarer must then return four cards to his partner. After the exchange, the declarer announces his contract, which must be a number of points at least equal to his high bid or higher by an increment of five.

If you’re the declarer, and you win your contract, you only receive points equal to your bid. So if you think you can win more points than your high bid, it pays to raise your bid for your final contract.

The declarer leads the first trick, or, if there is no declarer, the player to the dealer’s right leads the first trick. He must begin the first trick by playing an ace. If he doesn’t have an ace, he must play a spade. If he has no ace or spade, he may play any card in his hand. Play continues around the table. At the beginning of the hand there is no trump suit, so each player must follow suit if he can, and he must always try to beat the highest card on the table. Otherwise, he may play any card in his hand. The winner of each trick leads the next one. Any tricks played after the first hand may be led with any suit and any value.

If your team holds a queen and king of one suit, you may call that suit as trump after you win a trick and before you play a card to the next trick. You are not obligated to call trump at any time. You can change the suit of trump at any time, as long as you announce it after winning a trick, and as long as you or your partner holds the king and queen in that suit as well. Your opponents can change the trump following the same rules.

You may ask your partner during play if she holds a pair or a half in her hand by asking one of the following questions: “Do you have a pair?” or “Do you have a half of ___?” and name the suit you are looking for. Your partner must answer, “No,” if she does not have the pair or half, and she must answer, “Yes,” if she does. If she has the pair, that suit becomes trump. If she has the half and you have the other half, that suit becomes trump. If she has the half but you do not have the other half, you declare this and just lead to the next trick. You may only ask one question or declare one trump per trick that you win. Once you ask about a particular suit, you may not ask about that suit again, although your partner may ask you about it if she wins a hand. If you ask your partner about a suit, you cannot on the next trick name a trump yourself. You must wait until at least the next hand to declare a trump if you ask your partner about a suit. Play continues until all cards have been played.

If the opponents think the declarer will fail to make her contract, they can say “Contra” (or “Kontra”) when they hold nine cards, doubling the value of the declarer’s contract. If you still believe that you will make your contract, you may double the value of your contract again by saying “Re” when you have eight cards. Double your hand only if you are positive you can win! Your opponents may double again when they have seven cards by saying “Contra,” and you may double again when you have six cards by saying “Re.” This can continue until the end of the game, with a maximum of nine doubles if each team chooses to redouble in each hand.

If you are the declarer and your team scores enough points to win your contract, you add the value of your contract to your score. If you do not win your contract, you subtract the value of your contract from your score. In either case, your opponents score as many points as they earned during play. Points are always rounded up or down to the nearest five. If, as the declarer, your team scores no tricks during play, you get double your contract value subtracted from your score. If your opponents score no tricks during play, but you win your contract, you score your normal contract value, and they must subtract double your contract value from their score (only the original contract value if the hand was doubled via Contra or Re). If your opponents score no tricks during play, but you do not win your contract, you subtract the value of your contract from your score, and your opponents get no penalty. The first team to reach 500 points wins the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Two to four

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

Also known as Concentration, Memory is a game of … well, just that! The game requires players to remember where previous cards are positioned in order to make a match. The objective of Memory is to collect the most matching pairs of cards.

A random dealer is selected, and he shuffles the cards and deals all of the cards face down in a grid pattern. The game begins with the first player turning over two cards, keeping them in their original position on the grid. If you make a match, you collect that pair and may turn over two more cards. If they do not match, you turn those cards back over, and it is the next player’s turn. The player to the left repeats the process. Play continues until the grid is completely gone. The player with the most pairs wins the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Three to eight

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards; A, K, Q, J from different suits from another set of cards; set of poker chips

TIME:
One hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

Also known as Chicago, Boodle, Newmarket, and Stops, this game is very simple to learn and is a great icebreaker for players who do not know one another. Aces rank high, and twos rank low. You’ll place the jack, queen, king, and ace from the second deck in the middle of the table, side by side and face up. These are called the boodle cards. The objective is to be the first player to discard all of your cards and also to collect chips by playing a boodle card (described later). You should establish a value for the poker chips so that each chip is of equal value. (In other words, you only need dollar chips, not a selection including $1, $5, and $10 chips.)