The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (149 page)

expel ed. Everybody scores 1 point for each card left in the hand of

the player with the most cards, and deducts 1 point for each card

left in their own hand. The player with no cards in hand (if any)

adds 4 points. A bonus also accrues to the Prophet, if any. This

bonus is 1 for each card on the mainline fol owing his marker, and

2 for each card on any sideline fol owing his marker.

Eleusis. Sample layout (from Abbot , The New Eleusis). It shouldn’t

take more than fifteen seconds to deduce the governing rule of play.

The dealer, final y, gets a score equal to the highest score made

by anyone else, but with one possible exception. If there is an

undeposed Prophet at end of play, count the total number of cards

played (to mainline and sidelines) before the Prophet’s marker, and

double it. If this total is smal er than the highest score, the dealer

scores that smal er total instead.

Game If not enough time remains for everyone to have a turn as

dealer, those players who never dealt add 10 points to their score

(to compensate for the dealer’s inbuilt scoring advantage which

they did not enjoy).

Comment Beginners should keep rules simple to start with. It is

fatal y easy to be too clever too soon. If you play regularly, it is

fatal y easy to be too clever too soon. If you play regularly, it is

worth keeping a notebook of rules devised and their relative

success rate. The rule must be one which, on average, would give a

randomly played card at least a one-in-five chance of being

acceptable. For example:

1. Each card must be higher than the last until a face card is

reached, which must then be fol owed by a numeral.

2. If the last card correctly placed was odd, play red; if even,

play black.

3. If the last two cards match colour, play a high number,

otherwise a low number.

4. If the last three cards form an ascending sequence, play a

spade; if descending, a heart; if they go up and down, a

diamond; if they contain any two of the same rank, a club.

(This one is not easy!) If a rule is not meaningful until two or

more cards are down, as in examples (2) and (3), then any

cards played before it takes ef ect must be accepted.

Delphi

(3-7p, 52c) A simpler development of Eleusis devised by Martin

Kruskal of Princeton University.

A pool of chips is requied for scoring purposes. Each player starts

with one chip and a card or counter marked YES on one side and

NO on the other. One player, designated the Oracle, secretly writes

down a rule of card-matching, as at Eleusis, and the other players

(supplicants?) seek to deduce what it is. The rule may not be

related to any factors extrinsic to the cards themselves, such as the

current clock time, or the way in which each card is announced, but

the Oracle may give a clue as to its nature before the first card is

placed.

The pack is stacked face down and the top card is turned and

placed face up beside it to start a sequence. Each subsequent card is

turned face up and wil eventual y be placed next in the main

sequence if it correctly fol ows the previous card in accordance with

sequence if it correctly fol ows the previous card in accordance with

the rule. If not, it is put in a vertical line above the last card validly

placed in the main sequence.

At each move the Oracle turns the top card of stock and

announces its identity. Each player decides whether or not it wil fit

the main sequence and places their decision counter on the table

with either the YES or the NO face side up according to their

decision, but as yet covered by their hand. When al are ready, their

decisions are revealed simultaneously.

The Oracle then at aches the card to the main sequence if it fits,

or to the vertical column it if does not, and pays one chip to each

player who correctly foretold the oracular decision, and wins al the

chips of those who did not.

When al the cards have been placed, each player scores (a) the

dif erence between their own total of chips and the totals of al

who won fewer, less (b) the dif erence between their own total of

chips and the totals of al who won more. Their total for the deal

may therefore be positive or negative, or zero.

The Oracle scores the sum of al the part-scores made in category

(b). The scoring system ensures that the Oracle’s best interests are

served by formulating a rule which about half the players wil

correctly deduce by the end of the deal.

Ideal y, a game consists of as many deals as there are players (or

a multiple thereof), so that al can be the Oracle the same number

of times.

Arsehole (Asshole, Bum Game, Huberes, Pits,

President, Scumbag, Trouduc, etc., etc.)

4-7 players, 52 cards

This is the westernized version of a distinctive group of oriental

games, aptly dubbed ‘climbing games’ by John McLeod. No one

knows exactly when it reached the West, or in what form, but

closely related varieties of it seem to have become popular with

closely related varieties of it seem to have become popular with

children and students in Britain, France and America some time in

the last quarter of the twentieth century. A notable feature is the

prominence they at ach to the relative social status of the winners

and losers, which also accounts for their common range of graphic

titles. Fol owing the pat ern of some old four-hand games in which

the place-holders are designated, in descending order, King-

Nobleman-Poorman-Beggar, western games exhibit such gradations

as Boss-Foreman-Worker-Bum, or President-Vice-President-Citizen-

Asshole. In Huberes, the six-player Hungarian equivalent, the

positions are King, Big Landowner, Smal Landowner, Big Peasant,

Smal Peasant, ‘Swampy.’ A peculiarly western innovation is the

requirement for each of these characters to occupy a particular seat,

ranging from a comfortable armchair to a rickety old crate, and for

these to remain fixed so that players have to physical y change

places. In some versions they also wear dif erent hats.

The fol owing rules are typical rather than definitive.

Preliminaries From four to seven play, to the left, using a 52-card

pack ranking 2AKQJT9876543 in each suit. (Or: AKQJT98765432.)

Two Jokers may be added. Deal al the cards out one at a time. It

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

Object To play out al one’s cards as soon as possible.

Play In the first deal, eldest leads by playing face up to the table

any single card, or two, three or four cards of the same rank. (Or:

The player holding 3 leads.) Each in turn thereafter may pass or

play. (Or: Must play if legal y able.) One who plays must put out

the same number of cards as the leader, and al of the same rank,

which must be higher than that or those of the previous player. (Or:

May be equal in rank.) One who passes wil stil be al owed to play

on the next round if the turn reaches them again. (Or: Not.) The

round finishes when one person plays and everyone else passes.

round finishes when one person plays and everyone else passes.

The last player may not play again but must turn al the played

cards face down and lead to the next round. If he has run out of

cards, the lead passes round to the next player who has any left.

Play ceases when al but one player have run out of cards.

Jokers If there are Jokers, either or both of the fol owing rules

apply:

They rank above Twos; and, if they are distinguishable, one of

them outranks the other (and everything else).

They are wild, but are beaten by the equivalent natural

combination. Thus 6

counts as, but is beaten by, 666.

Social status The first and second to run out of cards are designated,

respectively, Boss and Foreman (or whatever titles may be agreed).

The last to run out of cards is the Worker, and the one left with

cards in hand is the Bum (or whatever). Intermediate positions may

be graded accordingly.

Score and seating The Boss scores 2 points, and in the next round

occupies the most comfortable chair. The Foreman scores 1 point,

and occupies the next best chair, which should be at the Boss’s left.

The others score nothing; the Bum sits at the Boss’s right, and the

Worker at the Bum’s right – opposite the Boss, if four play.

Next deal and card exchange The Bum is entirely responsible for

gathering cards in and shuf ling and dealing, get ing the others’

drinks, wiping their noses, and so on.

A In some circles, anyone else who so much as touches a card between deals,

even accidentally, is obliged promptly to swap places with the Bum.

The first card is dealt to the Boss, and so on round. Before play,

the Bum gives the Boss the highest card in his hand, and the Boss

gives the Bum any card he doesn’t want. (Or: The Worker and