The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (150 page)

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

Foreman exchange respectively their highest and least-wanted card,

the Bum and Boss their two highest and two least-wanted cards.)

The Boss then leads to the next round. (Or: The Bum leads.)

Game Play up to any agreed target, preferably at least 11, as the

system of card exchange makes it hard for the Bum and the Boss

ever to change positions in the short term. (Or: Ignore point-scores

and play for final position after any previously agreed number of

rounds.)

Variations A vast range of variations is listed on the Pagat website.

Many include rules and features borrowed from related games. The

fol owing may be worth mentioning.

Single or multiple sequences may be played, as at Zheng

Shángyou. A variety cal ed Big Two includes Poker combinations.

A given play may be fol owed by one containing more cards,

provided that it is the same type of combination and higher in rank.

The play of a given card or combination may induce a change in

the rotation of play (clockwise becomes anticlockwise, and vice

versa), or in the ranking of subsequent combinations (each new one

must be lower instead of higher), or both.

Cards other than Jokers may be declared wild.

Suits may be ranked as at Bridge ( ). Consequently, 5

may be fol owed by 5 or 5, but not by 5, and competing pairs

of equal rank are won by the pair containing the spade.

Zheng Shàngyóu ‘Struggling Upstream’

4-6 players, 54 cards

This skil -rewarding but very jol y Chinese game, ancestral to

Arsehole (above), was first described in English by John McLeod in

the February 1980 issue of The Playing-Card.

Preliminaries Four (or more) play, to the right, with a 54-card pack

including two distinguishable Jokers – e.g. one red and one black.

Four may play crosswise in partnerships.

Deal Shuf le the pack thoroughly and stack it face down. Each

player in turn draws a card to build up a hand until none remain in

stock. It doesn’t mat er if some have more cards than others. (This is

the Chinese method, but westerners may prefer to have them

distributed by a single dealer.)

Rank of cards The highest card is the red Joker, fol owed by the

black Joker, then al Deuces, Aces, Kings, and so on down to

Threes. Within certain limits, Deuces and Jokers are wild.

Object To get rid of al one’s cards. Players drop out as they do so

until only one remains with cards in hand, thereby losing.

Play In the first deal eldest leads to the first of a number of rounds

of play. The leader to a round may lead any one of the fol owing

pat erns:

a single card

two, three, or four cards of the same rank

a single sequence of three or more cards, not necessarily of the

same suit. Twos don’t count, so the lowest sequence is 3-4-5,

and the highest wil be topped by an Ace.

a multiple sequence of six or more cards. For example, 33-44-

55, JJJ-QQQ-KKK, etc.

Each in turn thereafter may either pass or play, but in the lat er

event must play (a) the same number of cards, which (b) form

event must play (a) the same number of cards, which (b) form

exactly the same pat ern, and (c) outrank the previous play. For

example, a pair can be fol owed only by a higher pair, a single

sequence by a single sequence of the same length but with a higher-

ranking top card, and so on. A player who passes although able to

play is al owed to come in later if the turn reaches him again.

However, as soon as a play is fol owed by a pass from everyone

else, the last player turns down al the cards so far played and leads

to the next round. If he hasn’t any cards, the lead passes round to

the next player who has.

The fol owing rules govern the constitution and relative values of

the playable pat erns:

1. Single card. Any single card is beaten by one of higher rank,

suit being irrelevant. A Deuce can be beaten only by a Joker,