Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (44 page)
Read Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games Online
Authors: Scott McNeely
HOW TO PLAY
The non-dealer starts the game by leading any card. At this early stage of the game, it is not required for the opponent to follow suit. However, the highest card in the leading suit (or the highest trump card) always wins the trick, and that player scores the point value of the two cards in the trick. The trick winner then takes a fresh card from the stock, followed by the trick loser.
Once either player wins a trick, he is allowed to exchange the 9 of trumps for whatever trump card was turned up at the beginning of the hand. Once the stock is exhausted, the game is said to be
closed,
and new rules come into play:
The last face-down card goes to the final trick winner, the face-up trump card to the trick loser.
Once the stock is exhausted, marriages are not allowed.
For the final six tricks, players must follow suit and win if possible; in other words, you must play a higher card of the same suit if you can.
Otherwise you must play—in order of priority—a lower card of the same suit, a trump, or a card from another suit.
Experienced players rarely let the game close on its own. As long as it’s your turn, you may close the game at any point by placing the face-up trump card on top of the stock. Once the game is closed, follow the rules above for playing out the final five or six tricks (note that you still may score points for marriages, since the stock is not exhausted). After the final trick is taken and the last card played, if the player who closed the game does not have 66 points or more, her opponent earns 2 game points.
At any point in the game, if you believe your score is 66 points or greater, you can go out by simply saying so. The game immediately stops and points are tallied. Normal game points are awarded to the winner, unless they fall short of 66 points. In that case, their opponent earns 2 game points.
- DIFFICULTY
:
low - TIME LENGTH
:
medium - DECKS
: 2
Back in the 1960s, Spite & Malice (also called Cat & Mouse) was among the most popular two-player games around. Sadly, Spite & Malice developed an unfair reputation as being a mere “kids’ game” because it is both easy to learn and hugely entertaining to play. That said, if you’re looking for a similar game requiring a bit more skill and strategy, try Russian Bank.
HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks, and shuffle them together. Deal twenty cards, face down, to each player’s
pay-off
pile, plus a five-card hand (dealt face down) to each player. The remaining cards are the stock. In Spite & Malice, suits are irrelevant, aces are low, and kings are wild.
SCORING
The object of Spite & Malice is to be the first player to empty your pay-off pile into the center stacks. Though rare, it is possible for the stock to run out before either player wins. In this case the game is a draw.
HOW TO PLAY
Start by turning up the top pay-off cards; the highest card plays first. In the case of a tie, reshuffle the pay-off piles and try again.
Move aces to the center stacks as they become available, and then build the aces up by rank. Suits and colors do not matter. Kings are wild and may represent any card except an ace.
Play as many cards to the center as you like, using your topmost pay-off or side stack cards, or any card from your hand. (You may not move cards from your pay-off pile to the side stacks or move cards among side stacks.) If you play all five cards from your hand to the center stacks in a single turn, deal yourself five more cards from the stock.
When you’re out of moves, signal the end of your turn by playing a card face up from your hand to your side stacks. You may have up to four side stacks. Once you reach this number, you must place your end-of-turn discards on top of an existing side stack. The problem, of course, is that the cards you’re burying in the side stacks may not be played until the cards above them are played.
Whenever a center stack is built up to the queen (or to a king representing a queen), the entire stack is removed from the board and shuffled into the stock. This creates an empty space in the center stacks, which is filled with any available ace.
VARIATION 1: CUTTHROAT SPITE & MALICE
The rules are identical to regular Spite & Malice, except that players are allowed to “load” cards onto their opponent’s pay-off pile. “Loading” means to play a card from your hand or pay-off pile (not from your side stacks) that is one rank higher or lower than, and matching in suit to, your opponent’s topmost pay-off
card. If that card is 6 of diamonds, for example, you may load 5 of diamonds or 7 of diamonds on top of it. You are allowed to load as many cards as possible, and even to switch directions (e.g., play 6 of diamonds on 5 of diamonds, then play another 5 of diamonds on the 6 of diamonds).
VARIATION 2: MULTIPLAYER SPITE & MALICE
This game is easily adapted to accommodate between three and six players. You need one deck of cards per player. All players are limited to four side stacks, but the number of center stacks varies by the number of players—four stacks for three players, five stacks for four players, etc.
Many of the three- and four-player games covered in the
Ultimate Book of Card Games
have variations specifically for two players. Here’s a complete list:
Games Especially for Three Players
THREE IS THE CARD PLAYER’S FAVORITE NUMBER in most parts of the world. With three players, there is room for alliances (temporary two-on-one partnerships) and something called “imperfect” card knowledge—basically, you can know quite a lot about the cards held by your opponents, but not everything. In three-player games, there is no single player or partnership that knows how the cards are actually distributed.
The fact that Britain and the United States cannot take credit for the truly great three-player games is a legacy of the fifty-two-card deck, which reigns supreme in English-speaking countries. The fifty-two-card deck historically has favored the development of four-player games. In Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and China, decks of thirty-six or twenty-four cards are far more common and lend themselves to three-player games such as Skat and Seven Up.
- DIFFICULTY
:
low - TIME LENGTH
:
medium - DECKS
: 1
This is an excellent three-player game that few people know how to play—not counting the Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian immigrants who brought the game to western Europe and the United States in the early twentieth century. It’s likely that 1,000 is a simplified version of the German game Skat, but we’ll pass no judgment on this heated historical argument. It’s part of the “marriage” family of games, and offers plenty of action and competitive thrills.
HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and remove all cards except the following (listed high to low in rank, with corresponding point values), leaving twenty-four cards total: