The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (83 page)

is taken by the highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump

if any are played, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. A

if any are played, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. A

side wins one game point for taking 61+ card-points, two for 90+

(capote), three for winning every trick. A 60–60 tie doubles the

value of the fol owing deal, quadrupling it in the unlikely event of

two tied rounds. Game is 4 points.

Yukon

2-4 players, 52 cards

This fun game looks as if it had been invented by someone who

had forgot en how to play Skat. The earliest book description dates

only from 1945 (Ostrow), but Andrew Pennycook reports that his

father learnt it in Canada before the First World War.

Two to four players use a 52-card pack. Three must discard one

of the deuces; four may play in partnership. Each receives five cards

and the rest are stacked. After each trick, each in turn draws the top

card of the stock, starting with the previous trick-winner. The aim is

to capture card-points in tricks, for which purpose cards rank and

count:

Grand Yukon (SJ)

15

Other Yukons (Jacks) 10

Each Ten

10

Each Ace

5

Each King

3

Each Queen

2

These total 125, and the winner is the first to reach 250. Yukons

(Jacks) form a separate, four-card trump suit. Eldest leads to the

first trick and the winner of each trick leads to the next. Players

must fol ow suit if possible, otherwise must play a Yukon if

must fol ow suit if possible, otherwise must play a Yukon if

possible. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led, or by

a Yukon if any are played. If more than one Yukon fal s to the same

trick, the first beats the second, except that the Grand Yukon always

wins.

Catch-the-Ten(Scotch Whist)

2-8 players, 36 cards

An old Scot ish game also cal ed Catch-the-Lang-Tens (lang =

long). Scot refers to the ‘lang ten’ in Old Mortality, and Dr

Johnson’s Scot ish biographer Boswel knew it under the name

Catch Honours.

Preliminaries Cards rank AKQJT9876 except in trumps. If iveor

seven play, omit a Six; if eight, omit al Sixes, or (bet er) add the

Fives. Four, six, or eight may play in any agreed partnership

arrangement. Deal al the cards out in ones and turn the last for

trumps. If two or three play, deal (respectively) three or two 6-card

hands face down to each. Each hand is picked up and played

separately, the others remaining face down until the previous hand

has been played out.

Object To win tricks, especial y those containing any of the top five

trumps, which rank and count as fol ows:

Jack 11, Ace 4, King 3, Queen 2, Ten 10

These total 30. No other cards count.

Play Eldest leads to the first trick and the winner of each trick leads

to the next. Fol ow suit if possible, otherwise play any card. The

to the next. Fol ow suit if possible, otherwise play any card. The

trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led or by the highest

trump if any are played. Each player scores the point-value of any

top trumps won in tricks, plus 1 point per card taken in excess of

the number original y held (if any). Game is 41 points. If previously

agreed, play ends when anyone reaches 41 by winning a counter;

otherwise, play the last hand out.

French Whist

is similar, but play with 52 cards and count 10 for capturing 210

instead of the trump Ten. Game is 40 points.

Reunion

3 players, 32 cards

This eighteenth-century Rhenish game feels like a cross between

Euchre and Skat. Harjan (below) is stil played in Norway.

Preliminaries Three players, 32 cards, play to the left. A game is

three deals, one by each player. Points are recorded in writing and

set lements made in hard score.

Cards Cards rank from high to low in the fol owing order, and bear

the stated point-values:

RB LB A T K Q (J) 9 8 7

12 12 11 10 4 3 (2) 0 0 0

The highest trump is the Jack of trumps, or Right Bower; the

second highest is the other Jack of the same colour as trumps, or

second highest is the other Jack of the same colour as trumps, or

Left Bower. These count 12 each. Non-trump Jacks rank between

Nine and Queen, and count 2 each. With an additional 10 for the

last trick, the total number of points in play is 150.

Deal Deal ten each in batches of 3-4-3 and 2 face down to the table,

turning the second of them for trumps. The dealer then makes two

face-down discards, which may not include an Ace or a Bower. Any

card-points they contain wil count for him at end of play as if he

had won them in tricks. The two undealt cards belong to him, and

he may take the face-down card immediately, but must leave the

turn-up in place until the second trick has been quit ed.

Play Eldest leads first. Players must fol ow suit if possible, otherwise

must trump if possible. The trick is taken by the highest card of the

suit led, or by the highest trump if any are played, and the winner

of each trick leads to the next. If both Bowers fal to the same trick,

the holder of the Left Bower immediately pays a single stake to

whoever played the Right.

Set lement The player with most card-points after three deals is

paid a single stake by any opponent who took between 100 and

149 cardpoints. An opponent with 150 or more pays nothing, but

the other then pays double. Anyone with under 100 pays double,

under 50 triple. If two tie for most, the loser pays each of them

according to how many he took.

Harjan

(2p, 52c) A Norwegian two-hander resembling Sixty-Six, but

without the marriages. Deal six each in threes, turn the next for

trump, and half cover it with the remaining 39 cards, face down.

Cards basical y rank ATKQ(J)98765432, but the highest trump is

the Jack, fol owed by the other Jack of the same colour. These

count 12 points each, the other Jacks 2 each, and the top cards Ace