The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (156 page)

If there are no cards in the spread, play any single card face

up to start a new one.

If the topmost or last-played card of the spread is Q, take

into hand the top five cards of the spread, or as many as there

are if fewer than five, and end his turn.

Otherwise, he must first play a bound card and may then play

a free card. A bound card is a higher card of the same suit as

the top card of the spread, or, if this is a heart or a spade, any

diamond, which may be used as a trump even if the player

can fol ow suit. A free card is any desired card. If unable to

beat the top card, he must take into hand the top three cards

of the spread (or five if it is headed by Q). The Q may be

played only as a free card, not as a bound one.

Whether or not he beat the top card, end his turn by restoring

his hand to five cards if necessary, by drawing from the top of

the stock, or as many as remain.

Endgame When the stock is exhausted, no ‘free’ cards may be

played: each in turn must either beat the top card or take the top

three into hand, or the top five if headed by Q. Players drop out

as they run out of cards. Last in, holding Queen, is known as Wan

Maria, and loses.

Comment As these rules stand, whoever goes into the endgame with

Q can never discard it, leaving the outcome a foregone conclusion.

It is quite feasible to simply ignore the change of rule and go on

playing a bound card fol owed by a free one. Alternatively, fol ow

the rule but permit Q to be the only card that can be played free.

Hörri (Fool)

3-7 players, 52 cards

The Finnish equivalent of Durak.

Preliminaries A 52-card pack is distributed randomly and unevenly

among two to five players as fol ows. Set the pack face down, then

turn the next eight cards face up and arrange them around the

stock. Each in turn draws a card from stock.

If it is a spade, heart or club, and the faced cards include a lower-

ranking card of the same suit, he adds both to his hand; but if there

is no such lower card, he leaves the turned card face up and takes

none.

If it is a diamond, and the faced cards include a lower-ranking

diamond, or any spade or heart, he adds both to his hand. If there

are several possibilities, he has a free choice, but if there is no such

lower card, he leaves the turned diamond face up and takes none.

This continues until the stock is empty. Whoever was the last to

take two cards adds any remaining faced cards to his hand. Players

now have playing hands of varying lengths, from none upwards. A

player with no cards takes no part in the play. This maybe boring

but at least it means he cannot lose.

Object To avoid having cards left in hand when everyone else has

gone out.

Trumps Cards rank AKQJT98765432 in each suit, except that Q is

not a spade but entirely independent. Diamonds trump spades and

hearts, but not clubs, which are invulnerable.

Play Whoever holds 2 plays it face up to the table to start an

eventual y overlapping spread of discards.

Each in turn may play to the spread either a higher card of the

same suit as the top card, or, if it is a spade or heart, any diamond,

whether or not able to fol ow suit. If unable or unwil ing to beat

the top card, he must take the bot om card of the spread and add it

to his hand.

If a player beats the top card and thereby ‘completes’ the spread,

i.e. causes it to contain precisely as many cards as there are active

i.e. causes it to contain precisely as many cards as there are active

players, he turns it face down, and starts a new one by playing any

card face up.

If there is no top card, because the last player has just taken the

‘bot om’ of a one-card spread, the next in turn may play any card to

start a new one.

Skitgubbe(Mas, Mjolnarmatte)

3 players, 52 cards

The legendary Swedish newspaper editor Herbert Tingsten, who was renowned

for his stuck-up manners, once found himself seated next to a young woman at a

formal dinner and virtually ignored her until coffee was served, when he eyed

her speculatively and asked how old she was. ‘Twenty-one,’ she replied. ‘Huh!’,

said the snob. ‘That’s not an age, it’s a card game.’ To which camethe prompt

rejoinder, ‘So is Skitgubbe.’

Source: Dan Glimne

‘Sk’ in Swedish is pronounced like ‘Sh’ in English, and the key word

means ‘dirty old man’, in the sense of unwashed rather than

obscene.

Preliminaries Three players receive three each from a 52-card pack

ranking AKQJT98765432, and the undealt cards are stacked face

down.

Object In Part 1, to win good cards for the play of Part 2. In Part 2,

to play out al cards won in Part 1. The last player left with cards in

hand is a skitgubbe.

Play (1) Tricks are played at no trump between two players at a

time. Each player draws a card from stock immediately after

playing one out. Eldest hand leads to the first trick against his left-

playing one out. Eldest hand leads to the first trick against his left-

hand opponent. Each may play any card regardless of suit, and the

trick is taken by the higher card played. If both are equal it is a

stunsa, or ‘bounce’: the same leader draws from stock and leads

again, and so on until one of them manages to play higher than the

other. The trick-winner takes al cards so far played, turns them face

down in front of himself and leads to the next trick, to which his

left-hand opponent replies. (Even if this is the same player as

before.)

Either player may, instead of playing from hand, take a chance by

turning the top card of stock and playing that instead. Once turned,

it must be played.

When only one card remains in stock, it is taken by the player in