Authors: Nikki Katz
The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (13 page)
Therefore, the rank in the trump suit from high to low is like so:
♥ 5 J A K Q 10 9 8 7 6 4 3 2
♦ 5 J A♥ A K Q 10 9 8 7 6 4 3 2
♣ 5 J A♥ A K Q 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10
♠ 5 J A♥ A K Q 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10
The nontrump suits rank from high to low as follows:
♥ K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
♦ K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A
♣ K Q J A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
♠ K Q J A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Spoil Five opens with each player anteing two or three coins to the pool, depending on how you choose to play the game. If you are the dealer, you deal five cards, face down, to each player in groups of two and three, or three and two. You then turn up the next card, and the suit of that card becomes trump. If the turned-up card is an ace, you may “rob the card” by adding it to your hand and discarding a card. If any other player has been dealt the ace of the trump suit, he may rob the card by taking the turned-up trump before playing his first card and discarding a card in his hand.
Play begins with the player to the dealer’s left leading the first trick by laying down any one card from his hand face up on the table. Play continues clockwise around the table. If a trump is led and you have a trump, you must follow suit. If a nontrump suit is led, you may play any card from your hand. This is where Spoil Five differs from most games—you do not have to follow suit, even if you’re able to. The highest card of the suit led, or the highest trump if trumps are played, wins the trick. The winner of the trick leads the next one until all five tricks have been played.
| The three highest trumps (5, jack, A♥) have the privilege of reneging when a lower trump is led. This means that if a trump is led, and you only have one of the three high trumps, you are not required to play it. You can play a nontrump instead. |
If a player wins three tricks, he takes the pool. If no player wins three tricks, the pool is carried forward, and each player but the dealer adds a coin to it.
If a player wins the first three tricks, he may either collect the pool, in which case a new hand is dealt, or he may call “jinx” and lead to a fourth hand. This means that he is attempting to win five hands. If he does, each player must pay him an additional amount. If he doesn’t win all five hands, the pool carries forward.
The game of 500 gets its name because the first team to reach 500 points wins the game. It’s the national card game of Australia, although it was invented in the United States and the rules were copyrighted in 1904 by the U.S. Playing Card Company. The game is played with four players divided into two teams with partners sitting opposite one another. The objective in each hand is to win 500 points through capturing tricks. A pack of forty-three cards is used, consisting of the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, and four of hearts and diamonds, and the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, and five of clubs and spades, and one joker. The trump suit has cards ranking from high to low as follows: joker, Right Bower (jack of the trump suit), Left Bower (jack of the same color as the trump suit), ace, king, queen, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, and four if it’s a red suit. Each of the other suits has cards ranking as normal with ace as high down to five or four.
The first dealer is selected at random and deals ten cards to each player in a clockwise direction. Each player is dealt a batch of three cards, then one to the kitty, a batch of four cards to each player, one to the kitty, a batch of three cards to each player, and a last card to the kitty. Deal continues to the player on the left with each hand.
A round of bidding begins with the player to the dealer’s left. When it’s your turn, you may pass, bid a number of tricks and a trump suit, bid a number of tricks and no trump, bid Misere, or bid Open Misere. If you bid a number, this is the number of tricks you believe you and your partner can take. The minimum bid is six. If you bid Misere, or Nullo, you believe you can lose all of the tricks with your partner out of play. If you bid Open Misere, you believe that you can lose all of the tricks with your cards showing to your opponents.
If each player passes, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals. If one player bids, the next player must pass or bid higher by bidding more tricks or a higher suit. The suits rank in order from low to high as spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, and no trump. As an example, you can bid seven hearts and the next player can bid seven no trump or eight spades to outbid you. Misere can only be bid after a player bids a seven, and is beaten by a player who bids an eight. Open Misere can be bid at any time, but is beaten by a 10♥ or higher.
Bid continues around the table until the other three players pass. If you pass, you cannot bid at any further point in the bidding round. The highest bid becomes the contract, the high bidder becomes the contractor, and the suit named becomes trump.
If you won the bid and are the contractor, you start by picking up the cards in the kitty. You must then discard three cards, using any combination of cards from your hand and the kitty. If your contract is Misere or Open Misere, your partner does not participate in the hand.
| The majority of euchre games can add a fifth player by adding this partner rule. The high bidder becomes partners with the player who holds the best card in the trump suit. The partner is silent until he can play that card. |
You start playing the tricks by laying your first card. You may play any one card in your hand. If you are playing Open Misere, you must then turn up your entire hand for your opponents to see. Play continues clockwise around the table. Each player must follow suit if he can, by playing a card of the same suit that you led. If a player cannot follow suit, he may play any card. The trick is won by whoever played the highest card of the suit led, or the highest trump played if the bid contained a trump suit. The winner of each trick leads to the next one.
If the hand is being played with trump, the joker is the highest card in that suit. If there is no trump, or the contract is Misere or Open Misere, the contractor can determine what suit the joker is (if he holds it) and the joker becomes the highest card in that suit. If the contractor does not hold the joker, it becomes the highest suit in the hand, but can only be played when you have no other cards in the suit led.
After all the cards have been played, the contract is scored according to the chart shown here.
Scoring of 500
A bid of Misere is worth 250 points, and a bid of Open Misere is worth 500 points.
If you are the contractor, your team scores your contract as above, with no bonuses for extra tricks won. If you win all of the tricks, this is considered a slam, and you win a minimum of 250 points. Your opponents receive ten points for each trick they won.
If your team does not take as many tricks as you bid, or takes a trick in Misere or Open Misere, you lose the number of points equal to your bid. Your opponents still receive ten points for each trick they won.
| If you are the contractor and bid fewer than eight spades and win a slam, you receive 250 points. If you bid higher than eight clubs, you receive the number of points equal to your contract in the table. |
The first team to reach 500 points on a contract that they bid wins the game. If either team scores negative 500 points, they automatically lose the game.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Three to eight
EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards
TIME:
One hour
PARTNERSHIP:
No
COMPLEXITY:
Easy
Fan Tan is an easy game that uses a solitaire-like layout of cards. With more players, the pot can build up quickly because each player has fewer cards and less chance of play. The objective of Fan Tan is to get rid of all the cards in your hand. A standard pack of fifty-two cards is used, with kings high and aces low.
You and your opponents cut the deck, and the player with the highest- value card deals first. After you each contribute two chips to the pot, the dealer deals the entire deck, one at a time, face down to each player. Deal then passes to the left for each hand.
Play begins with the player to the dealer’s left laying down a seven in the middle of the table. If he does not have a seven, he must contribute one chip to the pot. The next player may then play a six or eight of the same suit as the seven played, or a seven of a different suit. The six is placed on top of the seven, the eight beneath the seven, or the seven to either side of the first seven. The next player can then play off any of the cards available, by placing cards of a higher or lower value on the same suit, or laying down another seven, and play continues clockwise. If at any time you cannot play to the table, you must contribute a chip to the pot. The resulting display is a grid of four columns in each suit, running from low to high. A sample matrix after twelve plays might be the following:
