Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (47 page)

VARIATION 1: PARTNERSHIP FIVE HUNDRED

The partnership version of Five Hundred is played exactly like the basic game, with two exceptions. First, the deck: remove all 2s, 3s, and the black 4s, then add in one joker for a total of forty-three cards (players still receive ten cards each). Second, the scoring: partners pool all tricks and share a single score, and if either team scores -500 points, they immediately lose the game.

VARIATION 2: TWO-HAND FIVE HUNDRED

This is exactly the same as the main game, with one exception: the deck is limited to twenty-five cards, comprising ace to nine in each suit, plus one joker.

VARIATION 3: FIVE-HAND FIVE HUNDRED

This is an excellent five-player game, especially if all five players are hardcore lovers of the main game. There are only two rule modifications. First, a full fifty- two-card deck is used, plus one joker, for a total of fifty-three cards. Once a bid is made, the bid winner may select any other player to play as her partner. If the bid is for eight or more tricks, she may name two partners! Either way, the opponents play for themselves (and score individual points), while the bid winner alone scores points for winning or losing a bid (the bidder’s ad hoc partners cannot win or lose points when they’re partnered with the bidder).

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

There’s a hint of Hearts in this game, a taste of Bridge, and a strong flavor both of Setback and Briscola. This isn’t to say Seven Up is a completely derivative game. It’s an excellent and not-too-complicated game for three players.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck. Card rankings are standard, with aces always high. Deal six cards to each player, face down, and turn the next card on the deck face up. This is the proposed trump suit. If it’s a jack, the dealer scores 1 point.

The player to the left of the dealer may accept or reject the proposed trump suit. If it’s rejected, it’s the dealer’s decision whether to accept or reject the trump suit. If the dealer accepts, the player on the left scores 1 point and the game commences.

Otherwise, the dealer gives each player three additional cards, face down, and turns up another card as the trump proposal. If the proposed trump is the same as before, the dealer must give each player three new cards and try again with a new trump proposal. If it’s a different suit, the suit is now trump and the game begins (if it’s a jack, score the dealer 1 point).

All players must start with a six-card hand, so all excess cards are discarded (players may choose their discards). At any point, if there are insufficient cards in the deck to continue dealing, all cards are thrown in, shuffled, and redealt by the same dealer.

SCORING
The object is to score points. In each round, a maximum of 4 points are awarded for:

HIGH POINT (1 POINT)
to the player who captures the highest trump in play.

LOW POINT (1 POINT)
to the player
dealt
the lowest trump card, regardless of who wins it in a trick.

JACK (1 POINT)
to the player who captures the jack of trump.

GAME (1 POINT)
to the player who scores the most overall points, based on the following values: score 10 points for each 10, 4 for aces, 3 for kings, 2 for queens, 1 for non-trump jacks.

In some games, the jack of trumps will not be in circulation, so only 3 points are awarded. If only one trump is in play, the card is both high and low. If two players tie for the game score, no point is awarded. The first player to earn 7 points wins the game.

HOW TO PLAY
Once a trump is established and all players have six cards, the player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick. Players must follow suit if they can, or throw a trump (trumps may be played at any time). If a player cannot follow suit and has no trump, then he may play any other card.

Tricks are won by the highest trump, or by the highest card in the leading suit. The trick winner leads the next trick. Scores are tallied when all cards are played. The deal rotates clockwise.

The first player to score 7 points wins. So, if two or more players are close to winning a game, points are counted out in order (high, low, jack, game). If the dealer has 6 points, she cannot win a game during the trump-selection phase; any points she might otherwise earn are simply ignored. And if a player fails to follow suit when he could have, he is scored -2 (if the jack of trumps is in play) or -1 (no jack in play).

VARIATION: PARTNERSHIP SEVEN UP

Seven Up is a surprisingly good game for partnerships. The rules are identical to the main game, except that the partners’ tricks are added together at the end of the game, and points are earned as a team (not as individual players).

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

Skat is a three-player trick-taking game. Despite the multitude of rules and variations inherent in Skat, the fundamental goal is simple. If you’re the Player, you are trying to capture high-value cards in tricks and attempting to score the most points. Otherwise, you’re trying to prevent the Player from scoring points. Remember this basic fact about the game and you’re well on the way to mastering Skat.

Skat is one of the most popular card games in Germany, which reveals a bit about the national character when you consider that it is among the most complex, math-driven, rules-based games on the planet.

If you’re willing to persevere, Skat is full of rewards. No other three-player game comes anywhere near it in terms of variety of game play and overall strategy.
Skat was developed in Germany in the early nineteenth century, and it owes much to its predecessor, the less complicated but equally rewarding Schafkopf,
which is covered below as a variation.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and remove all 2s through 6s, leaving thirty-two cards total. Players are dealt ten cards in batches of three, four, three. After dealing the first batch, leave two cards face down on the table—this is called the
skat
.

In Skat, the dealer is known as
endhand
, the player to the dealer’s left is
forehand
, and the remaining player is
middlehand
.

HOW TO PLAY
Once the deal is complete, players bid for the right to select which version of Skat to play. In each round of Skat, four different games are possible, and card rankings vary, depending on which game is selected.

Suit games
feature trump (the suit changes from hand to hand) and, regardless of the trump suit, jacks are the highest trumps and rank as follows (high to low): J of clubs, J of spades, J of hearts, J of diamonds, followed by A, 10, K, Q, 9, 8 of trump. The remaining suits rank (high to low) A, 10, K, Q, 9, 8, 7.

In
grand games,
only jacks are trump, ranking J of clubs, J of spades, J of hearts, J of diamonds. All other suits rank (high to low) A, 10, K, Q, 9, 8, 7.

In
null games,
there is no trump, and suits rank (high to low) A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 (note how the 10 is back in its natural rank position).

In
reject games
(which may be declared by the forehand only if both opponents pass without bidding), jacks are trump, the skat is not used, and the goal is to score as few points as possible.

BIDDING
Only the forehand and middlehand compete in the first stage of bidding. The middlehand bids first, and the forehand either may pass (thereby relinquishing the bid) or declare a “hold”—which reserves the forehand’s right to match or improve on the middlehand’s bid. In order to win the bid, the middlehand must outbid the forehand, whereas the forehand becomes the bidder if the bids are tied.

Next, the winner of the forehand-middlehand bidding goes head to head against the endhand. The endhand must bid higher in order to actually win the bid. Whoever wins both rounds of bidding is called the Player. The other two players are known as the Opponents.

The bids themselves depend on what suit-game combination you’re hoping to play, though you don’t actually choose a game to play until after the bidding is over.

Remember that you need to bid a
minimum
of two times the base value of the games below (e.g., 18, 20, 22, 24, etc.), and by bidding, you’re agreeing to accept a contract of
at least
that value in game points. (Inevitably there is an exception to this rule: null games are considered “absolute” value, which is nothing you need to worry about—except that you’re allowed to bid plain old 23, rather than two times 23, if you so desire.)