The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (144 page)

game requires more wit and reason than Cot on’s original. Take out

al the lower numerals from Ace to Six and arrange these 24 cards

face up on the table. Each in turn takes a card from the array and

announces the total value of al cards so far taken. The player who

makes exactly 31 wins. This version has two levels of strategy.

When the punter discovers what appears to be a winning move, the

hustler raises the stakes and thwarts it by switching to Strategy Two.

Don’t forget…

Play to the left (clockwise) unless otherwise stated.

Eldest or Forehand means the player to the left of the dealer

in left-handed games, to the right in right-handed games.

T = Ten, p = players, pp = in fixed partnerships, c = cards,

† = trump,

= Joker.

17 First out wins

There are many and various games where you shed cards from your

hand in accordance with certain rules, and seek either to be the first

to go out by get ing rid of them al , or to avoid being the last player

left in when everyone else has gone out. This chapter covers the

‘first out wins’ variety. Typical y, everyone seeks to reduce their

hand by playing to a discard pile one or more cards that match or

beat the card last played. They include:

Stops group

(Newmarket etc.) Light-hearted staking games where players

contribute one at a time to a sequence of cards in numerical order,

but, instead of each playing in rotation, the next higher card is

added by whoever happens to hold it. The defining feature is that

some cards are left undealtand never drawn, and thereby stop the

sequence from fol owing its proper course.

Eights group

(Crazy Eights etc.) An ever-popular group in which players try to

shed cards by matching the preceding ones, and, if unable, must

enlarge their hands by drawing from a stockpile.

Eleusis

An invention of Bob Abbot that has become a classic. It belongs

here because players try to shed their cards by matching, as in Crazy

Eights, but the rule of matching is known only to the player who

devised it, which means the others have to deduce it.

Climbing games

(Zheng Shángyou etc.) Variations on a Chinese game that have

recently migrated to the West under a distinctive range of somewhat

unsavoury titles.

Newmarket

4-8 players, 52 cards

A light-hearted staking game stil played among friends and family,

and the chief British representative of the Stops family. These

started out as serious gambling games of the French aristocracy,

being much favoured by Cardinal Mazarin. Later, they became

genteel family games, played for penny stakes, as suggested by

references in both Sheridan and Dickens to the popularity of Pope

Joan with the rural clergy. Their subsequent decline in domestic

favour may have been caused by the success of Rummy games,

which occupy a similar social position. But they are far from dead,

and nowadays keep re-emerging in various forms as pub games,

providing the researcher with a promising field of study. The rules

of Newmarket vary. The fol owing are those current at my local

(South London) Day Centre.

Preliminaries Each player deals in turn and the turn to deal passes

Preliminaries Each player deals in turn and the turn to deal passes

to the left. The four Kings are placed in the centre as a staking

layout. The remaining cards are dealt round one at a time, the last

card of each round going to a dead hand. It doesn’t mat er if some

players get one more card than others. Everybody stakes an agreed

amount on each King and to a separate kit y.

Object A game consists of several deals and ends when al the Kings

have gone. In each deal the aim is to be the first out of cards. The

buy One player may ‘buy’ the spare hand in exchange for the hand

dealt him. Dealer has the first option, which passes to the left until

someone exercises it. Whoever buys pays a fixed stake to the kit y,

except the dealer, who exchanges free.

Play Cards run in sequence A23456789TJQ. Whoever holds the

lowest diamond starts by playing it face up to the table. The holder

of the next higher consecutive diamond plays it, then the next, and

so on for as long as the sequence continues. Cards are played face

up in front of their holders, not to a spread on the table.

Eventual y the sequence wil come to an end, usual y because the

next higher diamond is in the dead hand. A new sequence is then

started by whoever played the last card. That player must start with

a suit of dif erent colour, and with the lowest card held of it.

If the player on lead has none of the required colour, the turn

passes to the left until someone can change colour. If no one can,

the round ends and the next deal ensues.

Alternatively, the sequence ends when someone plays a Queen.

That player immediately wins everything staked on the King ofthat

suit, and starts a new sequence with the lowest card held of a

dif erent colour. The stripped King is then removed, and remains

out of play til the end of the game. In subsequent deals, whoever

plays the Queen of an absent King has nothing to win, and merely

plays the Queen of an absent King has nothing to win, and merely

starts a new sequence. End of round The round ends in either of

two ways. Whoever plays the last card from their hand thereby ends

the play and wins the kit y.

Alternatively, it ends when a sequence has been finished and no

one can change colour to start a new one, though al have at least

one card in hand. In this case the kit y is carried forward and

increased on the next deal.

Last King When only one King remains, a new rule applies. A

player who is dealt the Queen of that King’s suit says ‘Bury the

Jack’ (or ‘Johnny’). If it is not in the dead hand, then whoever holds

that Jack must swap their hand for the dead one, free of charge. If

the Queen-holder also holds the Jack, or any longer sequence, they

order the burial of the next lower card. For example, the holder of

T-J-Q says ‘Bury the Nine’. If the Queen is in the dead hand, the

Jack-holder says ‘Bury the Ten’. If the Jack is in the dead hand…

(etc.).

End of game The game ends as soon as someone plays the Queen

matching the fourth and last King, thereby winning both the stake

on the King and the kit y.

Original Newmarket

Ace counts low and the layout is an Ace, King, Queen and Jack, one

of each suit, taken from another pack. Deal the same number of

cards, as many as possible, to each player and to a dead hand, and

add any remainder to the lat er. Eldest leads from any suit, but must