Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (10 page)

HOW TO PLAY
You may play only the topmost tableau cards, and you may play them only to the foundations. In Crescent there is no building or mov ing cards within the tableau. Empty tableau spaces are not refilled.

Suits do not matter in Crescent. So your 5 of hearts tableau card may be played, for example, on any foundation of 4 (all suits) or 6 (all suits), depending on whether you’re building up or down in rank.

Occasionally a card may be played both to the ace-up foundation and to the king-down foundation. If this happens, you are allowed (but not required) to
move this card temporarily to the reserve. The card may stay in the reserve until a card of matching rank is turned up (for example 9 of hearts may stay in the reserve until another 9 turns up).

There’s no redeal in Crescent. However, you may reshuffle the tableau by moving the bottom card of each pile to the top of the same pile (you must do this for every pile; you cannot skip some). You are allowed a maximum of three tableau reshuffles.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   short
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

If practice makes perfect, then hardcore Cribbage players will rejoice. This one-player Cribbage variant gives you ample opportunity to practice your fifteen once, fifteen twice, and run for three to make seven. Plus one for His Heels.

Huh? If this isn’t making sense, you’re probably not a Cribbage player, in which case you can safely skip this game and move on. Or, if your interest is piqued,
see “
Cribbage
”.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal three cards to your hand, three to the crib, and three more to your hand.

WINNING
The goal is to score 121 points before dealing the entire deck. Scoring is identical to Cribbage.

HOW TO PLAY
Look at your six-card hand, place two cards in the crib, then turn up the first card from the deck as a starter. Score your hand, score your crib, then place the nine used cards (eight from your hand plus the starter) on the bottom of the deck, and deal again from the top. Continue until the entire deck is exhausted. The last hand will have only four cards—score them as a hand, with no crib and no bonus for His Heels or His Nobs.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

The odds of winning Cruel are 1 in 7 games. The pain here comes from having to concentrate so hard. Luck plays almost no role in the game.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and set aside the four aces, face up, as your foundations. Shuffle and deal the remaining cards into twelve piles (four cards per pile), all face up and fanned out so that all cards are visible. This is your tableau, and it’s traditional to lay them out in four rows of three piles.

WINNING
Build the foundations by suit in ascending rank from ace to king.

HOW TO PLAY
Only the topmost tableau cards may be played, either on a foundation or to build (by suit in descending rank) on another tableau pile.

One of the game’s cruel twists is that you may not fill vacant tableau piles. Another twist is the method of redealing whenever you run out of valid moves. Starting with the last tableau pile (the bottom right, assuming you began dealing at the top left), pick up all the cards and turn them over, then stack them on top of the next pile of cards until all tableau piles are picked up. Do not shuffle. Simply deal a new tableau, creating as many four-card piles as possible before you run out of cards.

You may redeal as many times as you like. However, the fact that you can predict (with a little practice) the results of redealing means there’s no room for mindless play in Cruel. To succeed in this game, you must pay attention and concentrate. Undoubtedly this is the cruelest twist of all.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   high
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   short
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

Decade is the ultimate Solitaire-to-go game. On a bus, on a plane, on a train—you can play anywhere, because Decade does not require a playing surface. Instead, everything you need fits comfortably into the palm of one hand. This game’s motto is “have cards, will travel.” The odds of winning are 1 in every 25 hands.

if you like Decade, be sure to try hand, another one-handed Solitaire game.

HOW TO DEAL
Shuffle a fifty-two-card deck, and, dealing one card at a time from the bottom, turn up three cards and move them to the top of the deck.

WINNING
The goal is to discard every single card in the deck, according to the rules below.

HOW TO PLAY
In Decade, all cards are worth their face value (7 of hearts is worth 7, 8 of diamonds is worth 8, etc.) and face cards are each worth 10.