The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (24 page)

The first dealer is selected and deals the entire deck face down clockwise around the table. Some players may have one more card than other players. Future deals will be determined by the order of winners in that hand.

The game begins with the player to the dealer’s left. He may play any single card or any group of cards of the same rank by placing the card(s) face up on the table. Play continues clockwise and each player may either pass or play a card or group of cards, depending on and equal to the number that the first player led, that beats the most recent play. Any higher single card beats the previous single card, or a higher group containing the same number of cards beats the previous group of cards. It is not necessary to beat the previous play just because you can, and you can always pass.

Play continues until someone makes a play and everyone else passes. All the cards played are then turned face down and placed to the side. The player who played last starts a new round by playing any single card or any set of cards of the same value. If a player whose turn it is to play has no more cards in his hand, the turn passes to the next clockwise player.

The first player who is out of cards is awarded the highest social rank for the next hand (President). Next is Vice President, Citizen, or whatever names you choose to designate around the table. The last player is the Scum, Peasant, or other term of choice. The players of higher status are entitled to use their power over the lower-ranking players.

For the next hand, the players move seats. The President selects the premium location; the Vice President sits to the President’s left, all the way around to the Scum, who sits to the President’s right. The Scum becomes responsible for all menial tasks, including shuffling the cards, dealing, and clearing them away as necessary. Since the players are now seated in order of their rank, and the Scum is dealing, the first card is dealt to the President. When the deal is complete, the Scum gives his highest card to the President, and the President returns a card he does not want. The President then starts the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Four

EQUIPMENT:
Two standard decks of fifty-two cards and four jokers

TIME:
One hour

PARTNERSHIP:
Yes

COMPLEXITY:
Medium

Push is related to the game of rummy, but it is played differently when it comes to drawing and discarding cards. Wild cards are also used to increase the potential meld options. The objective of Push is to get rid of as many cards in your hand as you can by creating melds of sets and sequences. Push is played with four players forming two teams of two, and with partners sitting across from each other. You play with two standard decks of fifty-two cards and four jokers. Jokers and twos are the wild cards.

A game of Push has a total of five deals. The first dealer is randomly chosen. In the first deal, six cards are dealt one at a time face down to each player. The second deal gives seven cards to each player, the third deal gives eight cards, the fourth gives nine cards, and the fifth deal gives ten cards. The remaining cards are placed in a stack to form the stockpile. The top card of the stockpile is turned over and used to form the discard pile. If the card is a joker or a two, bury the card by placing it back in the stockpile and turn over another card. Deal rotates clockwise with each hand.

The player to the dealer’s left plays first and must complete a turn by drawing a card, melding if possible, and discarding a card. In order to draw a card, you can pick up the top card in the discard pile if you feel it adds value to your hand. Otherwise, you take the top card from the stockpile, put it on the top card of the discard pile and push it to the player on your left for that player to add to his hand. You then pick up the next card in the stockpile as your own and add it to your hand. After drawing a card, it is time to form any melds and play them on the table. A meld consists of a set of three or four cards with the same value or a run of three or more cards in a sequence in the same suit. A wild card may be used to replace a card in a set or sequence. You may meld your cards, add to other melds on the table, or replace a wild card with its natural card and use the wild card to form another meld on the table within that same turn. When your turn is complete, you must discard a card to the discard pile.

The first melds that you lay down must follow specific requirements, according to which hand is being played. For the first deal, the first melds you lay must be two sets of three cards. For the second deal, you must have one set of three cards and one set of four cards to lay as your first melds. For the third deal, you must have two runs of four cards in a sequence to lay as your first melds. For the fourth deal, you must have three sets of three cards to lay as your first melds. For the fifth deal, you must have two runs of five cards in sequence to lay as your first melds. Each hand is over when the first player gets rid of all his cards, either by melding the remaining cards in his hand or by melding all but one card and discarding that card at the end of his turn.

When the first player goes out, the remaining players must add up the points in their hands by counting wild cards (twos and jokers) as twenty points each, aces as fifteen points each, tens and face cards as ten points each, and the three through nine as five points each. The score is added to any previous score, and the team with the fewest points at the end of the five hands wins!

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Two

EQUIPMENT:
Deck of thirty-six cards (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 of each suit)

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

P’Yanitsa is Russian for “drunkard” and is similar to the game of War. It is typically played with two players, although it is possible to play with three or four. Depending on which version you are playing, the objective of P’Yanitsa is either to get rid of all of your cards or to collect all of the cards.

P’Yanitsa opens with the dealer dealing out the entire deck to each player, face-down. Players make a neat stack of their cards and place it in front of them. Simultaneously, you each turn over your top card. The player with the highest card, regardless of suit, wins the cards and puts them face-down at the bottom of his stack of cards. Ace is high and six is low, but if an ace and a six battle each other, the six wins. If the two cards tie in value, each player turns over another card face up. The player with the highest new cards wins all of the cards played, or, if there is another tie, the process is repeated.

Play continues until one player has all of the cards. In one version, that player is the drunkard because he has “all of the booze” and loses. In another version, the player who lost all of his cards is the drunkard because he “spent all his money” and loses the game!

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
One

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

You won’t be traveling to Egypt to play this solitary card game. Pyramid is a game of addition, and it requires you to strategize the sequence in which you pick up your cards. The objective of Pyramid is to place all fifty-two cards in the discard pile by moving pairs of cards totaling thirteen, or a single king with a value of thirteen, to the pile. There are three areas of the playing field. The area in the middle of the playing field is where you’ll place your pyramid. Deal the pyramid with twenty-eight cards arranged in seven rows face up. The top row has one card. The second row has two cards, placed partially over the first row. The third row has three cards, also placed partially over the second row, and so on until the seventh row has seven cards, placed partially over the sixth row. You’ll place the remaining twenty-four cards face up in a stockpile located in the upper left corner of the playing field with the waste pile below it. The first card on top of the stockpile is turned face up and is available, and as soon as any cards are placed in the waste pile, the top card there is available for play as well. You’ll want to leave an area for the discard pile on the right side of the field.

You cannot remove a card from the pyramid if it is covered by another card. Two cards must be removed to unlock a card in the upper rows in the middle of the pyramid, but the cards on the sides of the pyramid only need one removal to become available.

If there is a king available, you may move it to the discard pile. If there are two cards available within the pyramid, or one card that can be combined with the top card on the waste pile or stockpile to make thirteen, you may move both of those cards to the discard pile. The jack is worth eleven, and the queen is worth twelve for making pairs with ones and twos. If there are no more cards able to be moved, you may take the top card from the stockpile, place it on the waste pile, and attempt to use the next stockpile card to create a pair to be removed.

One variation of Pyramid is to remove three cards from the stockpile and attempt to make pairs using any of the three cards in play with the pyramid. The game ends when all fifty-two cards are in the discard pile or when no further pairs can be created.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Any

EQUIPMENT:
One or more standard decks of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Unlimited

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

Red Dog is a game in which each player plays against the dealer, so any number of players can play. Cards with values from two to ten count as their face value, jacks have a value of eleven, queens are twelve, kings are thirteen, and aces are fourteen. Suits do not matter. The objective in Red Dog is to bet correctly on the value of the third card that is dealt, betting on whether it falls in between the values of the first two cards.