The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (17 page)

Each player must place the agreed-upon ante on a combination of any or all of the boodle cards. You can divide up your ante equally, put it all on one boodle card, or however you would like to arrange it.

A random dealer is selected, and he deals out all of the cards in the deck, one at a time, including an extra hand to his left. This hand will not be seen by any of the players. The player to the left of the dealer starts playing by laying down the lowest card in any of his suits. If you have the next card in sequence in the same suit, you play that card, no matter where at the table you sit. This continues with players playing their cards one at a time in order, until a card is not available (because it is in the extra hand) or when the sequence reaches an ace. When the play stops, the last player to play before the stop leads the next hand. He must play the lowest card in a new suit. If he does not have a card in a new suit, he passes the lead to the player on his left. Play ends with the first player to discard all of his cards. If you go out first, you get to collect one chip from each player for every card that he holds in his hand.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
One

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Medium

Montana is a relatively new game of solitaire that is also known by the names Gaps and Blue Moon. The goal is simple, but execution can be quite difficult. The objective of Montana is to rearrange the cards in four rows in ascending order, from two to king. Start out by dealing all fifty-two cards in four rows of thirteen cards each. All cards should be dealt face up, and they should not overlap one another, making all cards available for play. Then remove the four aces to create four “holes” within the playing area.

You’ll start playing by moving a card from any position on the playing area to one of the holes as long as that card is one value higher than, and the same suit as, the card to the left. For instance, you can place a 6♣ to the right of a 5♣. Only a two may be placed at the beginning of the row (to the left), and no cards can be placed to the right of a king. If no further cards can be moved, you’ll pick up all unordered cards from each row and shuffle them with the aces. Re-deal the cards into the empty spaces in the rows, and remove the four aces again. Play continues as before. Three re-deals are allowed before declaring the game over. The game ends when all fifty-two cards form four rows in ascending order or when no more plays are available.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
One

EQUIPMENT:
One standard pack of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Medium

Monte Carlo is an advanced matching game that requires you to think ahead and strategize the future movement of your cards once others have been placed in the discard pile. The objective of Monte Carlo is to place all fifty-two cards in the discard pile. There are three areas of the playing field. The “table” is created by dealing out five columns of five cards each, without any cards overlapping. You’ll want to leave an area for a discard pile on the right side of the playing field. Pairs of cards with the same value will be placed here. The remaining twenty-seven cards are placed face down on the right side of the playing field, below the discard pile, to create the stockpile.

To play Monte Carlo, discard pairs of cards of the same rank (for example, discard a 10♠ and a 10♥) that are adjacent to each other, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally—that is, any two cards that touch top to bottom, side to side, or diagonally at the corners. When there are no available pairs of cards to remove, move all of the cards left to fill up blank spaces. Then wrap the first card in a row to the end of the row above so that each of the top rows contains five cards. When you are done, use cards from the stockpile to complete the grid. The game ends when all fifty-two cards are in the discard pile or when no further cards may be moved.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Three to seven

EQUIPMENT:
One standard pack of fifty-two cards

TIME:
One hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy to medium

Oh Hell! is also known as Elevator, Blackout, Up-and-Down the River, and other various names. There are a fixed amount of hands played, rather than playing to a specific point value, and the objective of each player is to strategically bid the exact amount of tricks he plans on taking. The cards in each suit rank ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two. The trump suit beats any value of a nontrump suit.

A dealer is determined by each player drawing cards. The player with the highest card becomes the first dealer, and the deal then rotates clockwise. The number of cards that you deal out is based on what hand of the game is being played. In the first hand, each player is dealt one card, in the second hand two cards, in the third hand three cards, and so on. This continues until you reach a hand where the number of cards dealt would not be distributed evenly (one or more players would have one fewer card than another). When you reach that hand, you start decreasing the number of cards dealt to each player by one. Deals continue in this decreasing order until the final hand is dealt with one card to each player. For example, for four players, there are a total of twenty-five deals. The first deal has one card, up through the thirteenth hand with thirteen cards dealt to each player. Then the hands decrease back to one. With five players, there are a total of nineteen deals, and the maximum number of cards each player receives is ten.

After the cards have been dealt, you turn the next card face up. The suit of that card is considered trump for that hand. In a hand where there are no leftover cards, the hand is played with no trump. The game begins with players bidding the number of tricks they believe they can win in that hand. You may bid zero if your objective is to take no tricks. The dealer is the last to bid and must never bid a number of tricks that would cause the cumulative number of tricks bid from all players to equal the number of tricks available. The hand must always be over or under bid.

The player to the left of the dealer begins by playing one card from his hand. Each player in turn must follow that suit if he can. If you are unable to follow suit, you may play any card in your hand. The player who laid the highest card in the suit led, or the highest trump, wins that trick. That player then leads the next trick. Play continues until all cards have been played.

If you win exactly the number of tricks that you bid, you receive ten points for each trick. If you bid zero and did not take any tricks, you win ten points. If you miss your bid, you lose ten points for each trick that you were under or over your bid. At the end of all of the hands, the player with the highest cumulative score wins the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Two

EQUIPMENT:
Old Maid deck (or a standard deck of fifty-two cards minus one of the queens)

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

Nobody wants to be the Old Maid! That’s the mission of this game, to get rid of all of your cards so that you’re not the last player stuck with the Old Maid card. Old Maid helps to develop matching and pairing skills.

A random dealer is selected and deals all of the cards out clockwise around the table. Players then discard any pairs that they have in their hand. The dealer then begins play by offering his cards face down to the player on his left. That player may choose any of the cards displayed and add it to her hand. If this card makes a pair with any other card in her hand, she discards that pair. She then offers her cards to the player on her left. You are safe and out of the game once you have discarded all of the cards in your hand. Play continues until only one player is left holding the Old Maid card (or the last queen). That player becomes the Old Maid and loses the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
One

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
Half an hour

PARTNERSHIP:
No

COMPLEXITY:
Easy

Although it is often referred to as solitaire, the name of this game is actually Klondike. In most of Europe it is referred to as Patience, and in Spain it is called Solitario. Klondike is an easy-to-play, extremely well-known card game that is part chance and part strategy. It is also one of the most difficult games to win! The objective of Klondike is to fill up the suit stacks, each stack containing one suit in sequence, from ace to king.