The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (182 page)

it contained for the next deal. Play continues until only one player

wil play, thereby winning and emptying the pot.

If no one wil play, either keep playing with the same hands

until somebody bets (Hold your Guts), or reveal hands and make

the player who would have won match the pot (Weenie rule).

Gutsisalsoplayedwithanadditional‘ghost’handwhichtheotherwise

winning hand mustalsobeatifitistotake the pot. Manyother

variations: see also Buddha’s Fol y.

Indian Poker

Deal one card face down to each player. You mustn’t look at your

card – instead, hold it with one finger against your forehead, facing

outwards, like the lone feather of an Indian brave. With everyone

able to see one another’s cards but not their own, there fol ows a

bet ing interval and showdown in the usual way.

Knock Poker

Played like Knock Rummy, with five each, a stockpile and a

wastepile. As soon as one player is satisfied with his Poker hand, he

knocks after discarding. Others are permit ed one more draw and

discard, and the best hand wins. As there is no bet ing, the players

or (preferably) dealer alone should previously ante.

Put and Take

More of a banking than a vying game. Al but the dealer receive

five cards face up. Dealer turns up the top card of the remaining

pack, and anyone who has a card of the same rank pays him 1 chip

for it (or for each if he has more than one). Upon turning the

second he receives 2 chips for each card of the same rank held, then

3 for the third, 4 for the fourth, 5 for the fifth (or, in some circles,

respectively 1, 2, 4, 8, 16). He then turns up the next five, but this

time pays out to players with matching cards, fol owing the same

schedule as before.

Red and Black (Plus and Minus)

Draw Poker without Poker combinations. Instead, cards count face

value from 1 to 10, with courts 10 each. Red cards count plus, black

cards minus. The hand with the highest point total wins. Often

played High-low.

Rol over Stud

See Beat Your Neighbour.

Three Five Seven

Everyone having anted an agreed amount, deal three cards each and

decide who stays and who folds as in Guts. Those who stay in

reveal their hands to one another (but not to those who folded) to

decide who wins. Threes are wild, straights and flushes don’t count.

Those who stayed but lost each pay the winner the amount

currently in the pot.

Next, deal two more cards to everyone, including those who

folded. Play as above, except that Fives are wild, and straights and

flushes valid.

Final y, deal two more cards to everyone and play as above. This

time Sevens are wild, and each player chooses the best five out of

seven cards.

A player who is the only one to stay in for a hand earns a point.

The first to get three points takes the pot, ending the game.

Zebra Poker

Draw Poker, in which hands count only if they are zebras

(alternating in colour from high to low; see Freak variants). Tied

hands are decided on a high-card basis.

Brag

3-7 players, 52 cards

Brag is the traditional vying game of Britain and former colonies,

and enjoyed considerable popularity inthe United States before

being ousted by Poker, to which it contributed several distinctive

features. It derives from a family of three-stake games similar to

Poch, and formed the subject of a less than adequate treatise by

Poch, and formed the subject of a less than adequate treatise by

Edmond Hoyle in 1751. Many dif erent versions have been played

throughout its long history. Common to al is the fact that they are

based on three-card hands, as opposed to the four of Primero and

five of Poker.

Most book descriptions of Brag are outdated or inaccurate. For a

definitive study, see Jef rey Burton, ‘Bluf English Game – with

American Branches’, in The Playing-Card (Journal of the

International Playing-Card Society), XXIV, 3 (Nov.-Dec. 1995) and 4

(Jan.-Feb. 1996).

Basic essentials Brag is normal y played with a 52-card pack

basical y ranking AKQJT98765432, and recognizes the fol owing

range of ‘Brag hands’, from low to high:

Pair. Two cards of the same rank, the third unmatched.

Flush. Three non-consecutive cards of the same suit.

Run. Three consecutive cards, not flush. The highest is 3-2-A, followed by

A-K-Q, and so on down to 4-3-2.

Running flush. As above, but in the same suit.

Prial. Three of a kind. The highest is three Threes, followed by Aces, Kings,

and so on downwards.

A higher combination beats a lower. If equal, the one with the

highest non-tying top card wins.

Wild cards or floaters, formerly known as turners or braggers, are

less common in Brag than in Poker. Deuces may be wild, or the

Joker added as a wild card. A hand containing one or more wild

cards is beaten by one of the same type containing fewer wild

cards, regardless of rank. For example, 4-4-4 beats 5-5-W beats 6-W-

W.

W.Several typical versions are described below, al individual rules

being variable by agreement. Each can involve as many players as

there are cards to go round. Al are hard-score games, played for

cash or counters.

Three-Card Brag

From three to seven use a 52-card pack basical y ranking

AKQJT98765432. A game may end by agreement whenever

everyone has made the same number of deals. Cards are shuf led

before the first deal, but thereafter not between deals until a hand

has been won with a prial. Before the deal, players may be

required to ante one chip each (desirable if fewer than five play). It

may be previously agreed to place a limit on the amount that may

be bet at each turn. Deal three cards each, in ones, face down.

Play Each in turn, starting with eldest, may ‘stack’ (drop out,

placing his cards face down under the stock), or make a bet by

pushing one or more chips to the kit y. A player may open for any

amount. Each in turn thereafter must either stack or match the

previous bet, and may raise it. Equalizing the bets does not prevent

the last raiser from raising again.

Play continues until only two remain. These continue bet ing

until one player either stacks, leaving the other to win without a

showdown, or ‘sees’ the other by paying twice the amount required

to stay in. At a showdown, the kit y goes to the player with the

higher hand, or, if equal, to the one who was seen.

The next dealer then gathers in al the hands, including those that

have been dropped, and stacks them at the bot om of the pack

without mixing them up. Only if the kit y was won on a prial does

he shuf le them before dealing.

Bet ing blind A player may leave his hand face down, untouched,

and ‘bet blind’ for as long as he likes. So long as he does so, he

and ‘bet blind’ for as long as he likes. So long as he does so, he

need only add half the amount staked by the previous player, while

any raise he makes must be doubled by those who fol ow. If one of

the two final players is bet ing blind, the other may drop out but

may not see him til the blind bet or looks at his cards. ‘You can’t

see a blind man’, as the saying goes.

Covering A player who runs out of chips but wishes to stay in may

‘cover the kit y’ by laying his hand face down. Subsequent players

start a new kit y and continue play. When one of them wins, his

hand is compared with that of the covering player, and the higher

of them wins the original kit y.

Five-Card Brag

As above, but each receives five cards and discards two face down

before play begins. A prial of Threes ranks between Deuces and

Fours, but, by agreement, the top hand is a prial of Fives.

Seven-Card Brag

Al contribute equal y to a kit y and receive seven cards face down.

Anyone dealt four of a kind wins the kit y and there is a new deal.

Otherwise, each discards one card face down and forms the other

six into two Brag hands, laying the higher of them face down on his

left and the lower face down on his right.

Eldest begins play by turning up his left hand. Each in turn

thereafter may pass, or turn his left hand face up if it beats the

highest hand showing. Whoever is showing the best hand then turns

up his right hand. Again, each in turn thereafter either passes or

turns his hand up if it beats al other right hands.

The kit y goes to a player winning on both hands, or winning one

and tying for best on the other. In the unlikely event of two players

tying for best on left and right, it is divided between them.

Otherwise, the kit y is not won but carried forward to the next deal.

Otherwise, the kit y is not won but carried forward to the next deal.

A prial of Threes counts between Deuces and Fours, and a prial

of Sevens beats al .

Nine-Card Brag

As Seven-Card, except that each receives nine cards and arranges

them into three Brag hands, which must be exposed in order from

highest to lowest. Al three must win (or at least tie for best) for a

player to sweep the pool. The best hand is variously set at a prial

of Threes or Nines.

Crash

A Lancashire game briefly outlined by Arthur Taylor in Pub Games

(1976). Four players each receive thirteen cards and arrange them

into four Brag hands, ignoring the odd card. Each lays his hands out

in a row face down before him. (Source does not say whether they

need be in order of superiority.) The hands are revealed strictly in

order from left to right, the winner of each marking 1 point. The

kit y is won by the first to reach 7 over as many deals as necessary,

but a player receiving four of a kind in one deal wins the game

outright.

Bastard (Stop the Bus)

A cross between Brag and Commerce or Whisky Poker. Deal three

cards each and a spare hand of three face up to the table. Each in

turn must exchange one or more cards with the same number on

the table – or, in a particularly frustrating variant, one or three

cards, but never two. Play continues until someone knocks,

whereupon the others may – but need not – make one more

exchange. Best hand wins the kit y, or worst hand pays a forfeit, or

whatever.