The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (49 page)

Score At the end of a hand everyone notes their score in the plus

or the minus column as the case may be. The results of any

doubling are then calculated for each of the six possible pairs of

players. If only one member of a pair doubled the other, the

dif erence between their two results for the deal is calculated, then

added to the score of whichever of them did bet er in the deal, and

correspondingly deducted from that of the other. If one doubled

and the other redoubled, the same applies, except that the

dif erence is doubled before being credited to one and debited from

the other. This procedure ensures that al scores continue to sum to

zero.

Example of scoring:

In deal 1, declarer Annie declared No Queens (Q in the leftmost

column). Benny, with a good hand for this bid, announced

‘Maximum’ to double everyoneelse. The ‘X’ for ‘doubleal ’is

underlined to show that it includes the declarer. Connie doubled

Annie, the Abeing underlined to show that she has fulfil ed one of

her two requisite declarer doubles. Denny passed, having a hand

too weak to risk redoubling Benny or doubling anyone else. Annie,

final y, felt confident enough as declarer to redouble Connie, but

not Benny, whose universal double implied unusual strength. This

is indicated by ‘C in Annie’s column.

In play, Denny took two Queens, for –12 points, and Annie and

Connie one each, for –6 apiece. Now for the doubles. Annie was

doubled by Benny, and did worse, causing her to score minus and

him plus the dif erence between their two scores for Queens (6).

Annie and Connie were mutual y doubled and redoubled, but as

they scored the same amount (-6) the dif erence was zero, so there

is nothing to record. Benny doubled everyone, was not redoubled,

and beat everyone, gaining 6 each from Annie and Connie, and 12

from Denny. As for the Connie-Denny pair, neither doubled the

other. Each player’s pluses and minuses are reckoned, and the total

entered in their rightmost column.

entered in their rightmost column.

In the first half of the check column is writ en the contract value

of 24 (four Queens at 6 each). The second half is for the running

total.

In deal 2, Annie chose No Hearts (H). Only Denny doubled

(‘Maximum’), but Annie then redoubled. Annie took no hearts,

Benny took hearts worth –6, Connie –20, Denny –4, total –30, as

entered in the check column. Denny did bet er than Benny and

Connie, gaining a dif erence of 2 and 16 respectively. He did worse

than Annie, however, who redoubled him, giving her twice the

dif erence between their two totals (2×4 = 8).

Variations

Scoring Dif erent scoring schedules may be encountered, especial y

in the score for Domino. Whichever you fol ow or however you

adapt, the important thing is to ensure that the five negative and

two positive games retain a total yield of zero. This is useful for

checking, and makes it easier to convert the result into hard score

(cash).

Doubling Some circles al ow players to double only declarer, not

one another. Conversely, a declarer’s redouble automatical y

applies to everyone who doubled, not just some of them.

Ravage city (additional contract) A negative contract played at no

trump in the same way as the others. Whoever takes most cards in

any one suit scores –36. In the event of a tie, with dif erent players

taking the same number of cards in (usual y) dif erent suits, it is

divided evenly among them (-18, –12, –9). If Ravage City is

admit ed, there wil eight deals per player, making 32 in al , and

the scoring schedule of other contracts wil need adjusting to

preserve the zero-sum feature.

Lórum

(4p, 32c) A Hungarian forerunner of Barbu, first mentioned in 1916

and described in 1928. The name may original y have denoted a

simple game of the going-out type (like Crazy Eights), perhaps

equivalent to the last deal of the compendium game described

below. (L órum means, if anything, a dock-leaf, but it may simply

perpetuate the final syl ables of an older German game cal ed

Schnipp-Schnapp-Schnurr-Burr-Basilorum.) Four players use 32

cards ranking AKQJT987, properly Hungarian cards with suits of

acorns, leaves, hearts, bel s ( , , , ), and courts of King, Ober,

Unter. Deal eight each, play to the right. Details vary, but al

accounts contain the fol owing core sequence of four deals:

1. No hearts. For each heart taken in tricks, pay 1 chip to the pot

– or, if one or two players took no heart, pay it to each of those

who took none. Hearts may not be led to the first trick.

2. Obers (Queens).

3. No tricks. As (1), but subsitute ‘tricks’ for ‘hearts’. A player

who wins al eight receives a total of 8 from the others.

4. Kirakó (Domino). Eldest plays a card face up to the table as the

starter of a sequence. The next higher card of the same suit wil go

to the right of it, the next lower one to the left of it, and so on until

the eight-card sequence is complete. Each in turn must either add

the next higher or lower card to this suit sequence, or play a card of

the same rank as the starter immediately above or below it.

Thereafter, each player may add a card to either end of any one of

the suit sequences, or start a new one with a card of the correct

rank. Aces and Sevens are consecutive, so when one of them has

been placed, the other can go on the vacant side of it. If you can

play a card, you must. The first to run out of cards sweeps the pool

and, in addition, wins from everyone else as many chips as they

have cards left in hand.

One or more of the fol owing variations may be inserted between

One or more of the fol owing variations may be inserted between

the third deal (no tricks) and kirakó, which is always played last.