The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (158 page)

with the lowest card in hand.

Old Maid (Vieux Garcon, Schwarzer Peter)

A famous old Victorian game suitable for three or more. If more

than six play, use two packs shuf led together. Remove the Q from

the pack before shuf ling the cards. Deal the remainder round as far

as they wil go – it doesn’t mat er if some receive more than others.

The aim is to col ect and discard pairs of the same rank and to

avoid finishing up with an unmatched Queen in hand.

Everyone starts by discarding from their hand as many pairs of

the same rank as they can. If, at this point or any later time in the

game, a player manages to get rid of al their cards by pairing, they

drop out of play and are safe from loss.

When no more pairing can be done, the player at dealer’s left

holds his hand of cards out, face down, to the player at his own left,

who takes one and adds it to his hand. If this gives him a pair, he

discards it face down. He then of ers his cards to his left, and so on

round the table.

Play continues in this way, with people gradual y dropping out

as they get rid of their cards in pairs. Eventual y they wil al be out

except for the player left with an unmatched queen, the eponymous

Old Maid.

Related games In Vieux Garcon (Old Boy) and Schwarzer Peter

(Black Peter), one black Jack is removed and the loser is the player

left with the other in hand.

Chase the Ace

(Ranter-go-Round, Cuckoo) A primitive gambling or children’s

game, cal ed Cuckoo in most European countries, though recorded

in Cornwal as Ranter-go-Round. Much played in Scandinavia with

special cards, such as Gnav and Kil ekort. It fits no convenient

category, but perhaps most resembles Old Maid.

Players deal in turn. Deal one card each face down from a 52-

card pack ranking A23456789TJQK. The aim is to avoid holding

the lowest card at end of play. Suits are irrelevant; Ace is always

low.

Each in turn, starting with eldest, may either keep his card – and,

if it is a King, must turn it face up – or demand to exchange it with

that of his left-hand neighbour. The lat er may refuse only if he

holds a King, which he must then show (saying ‘Cuckoo!’ in some

versions).

The dealer, on his turn, may either stand pat or reject his card

and cut a replacement from the pack. The cards are then revealed,

and the player with the lowest card loses a life. Players tying for

lowest al lose a life. Play up to any agreed number of lives.

Variants If the dealer rejects his card, and then cuts a King, it counts

lowest of al , and only he loses a life. Some do not cut, but take the

top card of the pack. Some have a rule that a player passing an Ace,

Two or Three to his right-hand neighbour must announce that fact.

Cheat (Bul shit,I Doubt)

3 or more players, 52 or 104 cards

This wel -known children’s game (or students’ game, to judge from

its cruder American title) theoretical y belongs to the first-out-wins

type covered in the previous chapter. I place it here because it

appears ancestral to a group of ‘lying’ games which are mostly of

the last-in-loses or ‘scapegoat’ type.

Preliminaries Deal al the cards round as far as they wil go. It

doesn’t mat er if some players have one more than others. The aim

is to be the first out of cards.

Play The player at dealer’s left goes first and everyone plays in turn.

The first player discards from one to four cards face down and says

‘Aces’. The next does likewise and says ‘Twos’, the next ‘Threes’,

and so on up to ‘Kings’, fol owed by ‘Aces’ again, and so in rotation.

Chal enging In theory, the cards you put out belong to the rank you

declare them to be. In practice, you may lie. Indeed, you may have

to, since you must play at least one card even if you haven’t any of

the required rank. Any player may chal enge another to show that

the cards they just played belong to the stated rank, by cal ing

‘Cheat!’ (or whatever else you cal the game). The chal enged player

must turn them face up, and whoever was correct must take up the

whole discard pile and add it to their hand. Play then continues

from the left of the chal enged player. You may not chal enge a

player once the cards they have played have been covered by the

next in turn.

Winning The winner is the first to get rid of al their cards – unless,

of course, they are successful y chal enged on their last turn and

have to take up the discard pile.

Variations Some play that the sequence runs downwards (A-K-Q-J

etc.); some that the next in turn may cal the next higher or lower

rank

(e.g. A-K-A-2-3-2 etc.).

Some play that the number of discards must be stated (e.g. ‘Three

Aces’) and that cheating maybe at empted by cal ing a false number

of discards. For example, if you are chal enged for saying ‘Three

Aces’ when you have actual y put out only two Aces, or three Aces

and a Jack, then you must take up the discards.

Verish’ Ne Verish’

(2-6p, 36-52c) A Russian game: its title maybe rendered ‘Believe

you, believe you not’ (source: Leo Broukhis,

ht p://www.pagat.com). It is an ingenious cross between Cheat and

Old Maid.

Two or three players use 36 cards, four or more use 52. Remove

one card from the pack at random and lay it face down to one side

without exposing it. Deal the rest round as far as they wil go. It

doesn’t mat er if some players have one more card than others.

The player at the dealer’s left starts by playing from one to four

cards face down on the table and declaring them to be of any rank

– for example ‘Jacks’. Each in turn thereafter must either play one

or more cards face down and declare the same rank as the previous

player, or else chal enge the previous player’s veracity by saying

‘Ne verish’ (‘Don’t believe you’) and turning that player’s cards face

up. Only the person in turn to play may chal enge.

The chal enger, if mistaken, or the chal enged player, if caught

lying, must take up al the cards so far played and add them to his

hand. He may then, before play proceeds, remove any set of four

cards of the same rank from his hand, reveal them to everyone, and

discard them face down, thus diminishing the number of cards in

play.

The next round is then started by the player to the left of the

The next round is then started by the player to the left of the

faulted player (thus the chal enger himself, if correct), who may, as

before, play and cal any desired rank.

Eventual y, al complete sets of four wil be eliminated, leaving

three of the initial y discarded rank. Whoever is left with these in

hand when everyone else has run out is the loser.

When playing instead of chal enging, it is proper, but not

compulsory, to say ‘Verish’ (I believe you’).

Paskahousu

3 or more players (4-5 best), 52 cards

This more elaborate, and purportedly more strategic, Finnish

derivative of Cheat was first communicated to me by Veikko

Lahdesmaki. Its name means ‘Shitpants’.

Preliminaries Deal five cards each and stack the rest face down.

Object To get rid of your cards and avoid being the last player with

cards in hand.

Play The game is started by the first person to initiate a discard pile

by playing a card face down to the table and declaring it to be a

three, whether or not truthful y. If nobody does so, make it a Four,

and so on. Play then proceeds from the left of the starter.

Each in turn plays one or more cards face down to the discard pile,

declaring them to be any rank equal to or higher than the last rank

announced.

Chal enging Whenever somebody makes such a play, and before

their cards are covered by the next player, they may be chal enged

to prove the truthfulness of the cal by turning the card or cards in

to prove the truthfulness of the cal by turning the card or cards in

question face up. If they conform to the cal , the chal enger must

add the whole discard pile to his hand, leaving an empty table. If

not, the chal enged player must do likewise. In either case, the turn

then passes to the left of the chal enged player.

Special rules Certain rules and restriction govern particular ranks, as

fol ows. (Note: a ‘cal ’ means a discard and its accompanying

announcement, and reference to ‘a’ rank means ‘one or more’ ofthat

rank.)

You may not cal a Jack, Queen or King unless the previous

cal was an Eight or higher.

You may not cal an Ace unless either the previous cal was a

Jack, Queen or King, or the discard pile is empty.

You may cal a Two at any time, but a Two may be fol owed

only by another Two.

Upon cal ing a Ten (after any lower rank) or an Ace (after a

Jack, Queen or King), and not being chal enged, you remove

the discard pile from play, face down, leaving an empty

space. You then start a new pile by playing and cal ing any

card from your hand. If the next player then cal s a Ten or an

Ace, the player after that must add it to their hand, leaving the

next in turn to start a new pile.

Drawing from stock Instead of playing from your hand to the table,

you may draw the top card of stock, so long as any remain, and

either add it to your hand, thus ending your turn, or play it face

down to the table (without first looking at its face) and claim it to

be any legal rank. You may even do this at the start of the game

and claim it to be a Three.

Outcome The last player left with any cards in hand is designated

‘Shitpants’, and has to buy the next round.

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.

19 Rummy family

Rummy denotes a wide range of closely related games, few with

universal y accepted names, let alone a code of rules. The play

resembles that of the Chinese game of MahJong, and probably

derives from it. The oldest western example is the nineteenth-

century Mexican game of Conquian, fol owed a lit le later by a

proprietary game published in England under the name Khan-Hoo.

The name Rummy, original y ‘Rhum’, first appeared in the 1900s,

and subsequently became a genericterm for the whole family.

Rummy games enjoyed an explosion of popularity and

development in the first half of the twentieth century, culminating

in the highly elaborate partnership game of Canasta in the 1950s.

Such rapid evolution in so brief a span of time has left dif erent

groups of players, blamelessly ignorant of the historical

background, practising a variety of informal games under an equal

variety of interchangeable rules and names. To some, al forms of

Rummy are ‘Gin’, to others, they are ‘Kalookie’; and so on – just as

there are those who cal al forms of card-solitaire ‘Patience’,

‘Klondike’, ‘Canfield’, or whatever.

Underlying al true Rummy games are a method of play by draw

and discard, and the twofold objective of col ecting sets of cards of

the same sort and eliminating them from the hand in matching sets

cal ed melds. Play ceases when one player goes out by playing the

last card from his hand. Other players are then penalized according

to the value of cards remaining in their hands – their so-cal ed

deadwood.

The family can be broadly divided into positive and negative

The family can be broadly divided into positive and negative

types. In negative games, which came first, the only scores or pay-

of s are penalty points for deadwood: melds score nothing, so the

general aim is to go out as soon as possible. In positive games,

melds carry plus-scores, so the primary aim is to meld as much as

possible, and to delay going out until you can do so most

profitably.

This section covers negative or ‘out-going’ Rummy games, which I

classify as fol ows:

Flat-out games (the oldest type), such as Conquian. No melds

are revealed until someone goes out by melding their whole