the ten best card games you've never heard of (preliminary manuscript)

8/12/2019 The Ten Best Card Games You'Ve Never Heard of (Preliminary Manuscript)

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7/29/2014 The Ten Best Card Games You've Never Heard Of (preliminary manuscript)

http://bantha.org/~develin/cardgames.html#ch4

So you're sitting around with your friends and a deck of cards, looking for a game to play. You're sick of such

retreads as hearts and spades, and you're not the gambling type. You consult among yourselves only to find that

each of you knows only a couple of card games, and there isn't a single card game that you all know. Well, we

have the answer! In this compact book we present the ten best card games you've never heard of, for you and

your friends to learn together and laugh together. While these games are long, they are by no means grueling;

rather, they are fun games with an emphasis on quick thinking and intuitive evaluation. Most importantly, all of the

games here have one or more unique features; this is not a book containing a hundred variants of poker, but

rather a book with ten very different novel games, each of which has the potential to provide you with countlesshours of fun.

If you just want a game to play and don't want to read through all of this... well, games in general fall into three

types. Thereare thefun games, which are fun to play and a good time, not requiring much strategy or deep

thought. Thereare the games for inveterate card-players, that involve lots of counting and knowing how suits

typically split and which have significant cardplay components; call these "veteran games." Then there are the

games which aresimply unorthodox, that aren't frivolous games but which don't have a big advantage to veteran

cardplayers; call these "abstract games." The last two categories are, of course, fun, but in a way that is perhaps

more appealing to people who like playing cards than to the general population.

Of the games in this book, Creights and Spielen are definitely fun games. Barbu, 99, and Oh Hell are definitely

veteran games. Psychological Jujitsu and Canadian Fish are definitely abstract games. Of the remaining three,

Ninety-nine is somewhere between a fun game and an abstract game, Napoleon is somewhere between a fun

game and a veteran game, and Liars' Poker is a mix of all three. So if you're just looking for one game, that's the

all-purpose preview.

Jump to:

-1. What is a Deck of Cards?

0. The Basic Idea of a Trick-Taking Game

1. Creights

2. Barbu

3.Ninety-nine

4. 99

5. Oh Hell (also known as Scotch Bridge)

6.Napoleon

7. Liars' Poker

8. Psychological Jujitsu

9. Canadian Fish10. Spielen

-1. What is a Deck of Cards?Whenever we refer to a deck of cards in this book, we mean a s tandard 52-card deck. This contains four suits (clubs , diamonds

hearts, and spades) and thirteen ranks (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack (often denoted "J"), queen ("Q"), king ("K"), and ace ("A")).

The 52-card deck contains one card for each suit-rank combination. Jacks, queens, and kings are referred to as "face cards" , as

the cards usually contain pictures of people, while the number cards (2 through 10) are occas ionally referred to as "spot cards."

The order of the ranks is usually as stated, although sometimes the ace is low instead of high (or worth 1, when spot cards are

worth their number and jacks, queens, and kings are either all worth 10 or worth 11, 12, and 13 respectively.) In s ome games,

there is an ordering of the suits, although in most games all suits are created equal.
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http://bantha.org/~develin/cardgames.html#ch4 2

0. The Basic Idea of a Trick-Taking GameIf you are familiar with trick-taking games such as hearts, spades, or bridge, you do not need to read this section

One of the more common types of card games is trick-taking games. The basic concept of a trickis as

follows: one player leads a card, and then each player in turn (usually clockwise) must play a card of the suit led.

If they do not have any cards of the suit led, they may play any card. Some trick-taking games have what is

known as a trump suit; this suit is higher than all the others, and if there are any cards of this suit in a trick, the

person who played the highest card of this suit wins the trick. Playing a trump to a trick that is not of the trump

suit (which necessitates being void of the suit led) is known as ruffingor trumping; trumping a trick that has

already been trumped with a higher trump is called overruffingor overtrumping. Playing a lower trump in a

trick that has already been trumped is rare, and is known as underruffingor undertrumping. If there is no

trump suit, or no trump is played in the trick, then the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The effect of

winning the trick is twofold; first of all, you collect the cards of the trick, and second of all, you lead the first card

of the next trick.

Trick-taking games have various goals, but the basic idea is that at the end of the hand, points are awarded

based on the cards that people have collected in the tricks they have won. The two main subtypes types of trick-

taking games are those where the results are based on who has taken certain cards in their tricks (as in hearts)

and those where the results are based on how many tricks players have taken (as in spades or bridge.) A

complete description of any trick-taking game should also contain instructions on who makes the first lead; this

can be determined by actions prior to the beginning of the play (as in bridge), who has a given card (as in hearts)

or may simply be the dealer or player to the left of the dealer.

1. CreightsCreights is a speed-based variant of Crazy Eights. Perhaps "variant" is not strong enough of a word; consider the

classic game of Crazy Eights, and ascribe an additional rule for virtually every card, and you end up with creights

a game which is guaranteed to liven up every party. The one drawback of the game is that people occasionallystart thinking, and creights is really no fun as a strategy game.

Players:3 to 5, 5 to 8 with double-deck rules.

Playing time:Depends almost entirely on the speed of the players. 1-3 hours for the long version, half that for

the abbreviated game with four players.

The Deal:Creights consists of fifteen deals. On the first hand, each player receives eight cards; on the second

hand, seven, and so forth. On the eighth hand each player receives only a single card, and the number of cards

goes back up to eight, increasing by one on each ensuing deal. In the short version of creights, only the first eight

hands are played. Deal rotates to the left. If the dealer deals too many cards, he or she must keep all extra cards

if the dealer deals too few, he or she receives a dumbass card (see later.)

The Play:At the beginning of the game, the dealer turns up the top card of the deck, and all remaining cards areplaced face down in a draw pile. The player to the left of the dealer ordinarily starts, with play proceeding

clockwise. In general, on his or her turn, a player must make a legal play if possible on top of the play pile; if not,

he or she must draw a card. Legal plays are usually cards of the same rank or suit as the top card of the play

pile; see below for exceptions. The deal typically ends when one player gets rid of all their cards.

The main feature of creights is that nearly every card does something to the game when played, as follows.

Jacks, queens, and kingsdo nothing.

Tensreverse the order of play. Thus, if play is proceeding clockwise, and a ten is played, play then


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proceeds counterclockwise. In particular, it is now the turn of the person who had last taken a turn.

Ninesare limited wilds. You may play any nine on any card; when doing so, you must name a suit. This

suit must be of the same color as the previous suit, notthe color of the nine or even necessarily the card

before it (if, for instance, the previous card was a nine.) The next player must then play a card of that suit

(or another wild.)

Eights, as in Crazy Eights, are wild. You may play any eight on any card; when doing so, you must name

a suit. This can be any suit and as above becomes the new suit in play.

Sevensforce the player across from you to draw a card. If there are an odd number of people, the playernearly-across from you closer in the direction of play must draw a card; for example, in a five-player

game, the player two after you in the current direction of play must draw a card. The exception is that if

there are only three people, then the player two down from you in the direction of play is the one who gets

the card.

Sixesforce you to play again. If you play a six, you must play again; if you have no ensuing legal play, you

must draw a card.

Fivesgive a card to everyone else, in the order of the direction of play (it will become clear in a minute

why the order of drawing is important.) Thus, if play is going clockwise, and you play a five, the player on

your left must draw a card, followed by the player on their left, and so on until the player on your right.

Foursskip the next player's turn.

Threesdo nothing during the play.

Twosstart a crank. During a crank, all rules of play are suspended. Instead, on each player's turn, that

player must play a two or an ace of any suit if they have one. If not, the crank ends, and that player must

draw a number of cards equal to the total value of the cards in the crank (i.e. two for each 2, and one for

each ace.) This counts as their turn, and turn passes to the player after them in the play order, with the

normal rules of play back in effect.

Acesdo nothing except during a crank, as above.

So, as you can see, creights is not your garden-variety backyard game of ringtoss. It will probably take you a

few deals to get comfortable with the rules; until then, we recommend you keep the rules for what the cards do

on a piece of paper nearby.

In addition to the play itself, there are a few other rules in creights. First of all, whatever card the dealer turns up

counts as if the dealer had played it (with play going clockwise.) Thus, for instance, if a six is played, the dealer

starts play; if a ten is played, the player to the right of the dealer starts with play going counterclockwise; if a five

is played, each other player must draw an additional card starting with left-of-dealer; if a two is played, the deal

begins in a crank with value two, and so forth. If an eight or nine is played, dealer must call a suit beforelooking

at his or her hand. In the case of a nine, dealer may call any suit.

Now, with all these rules, you might wonder what the penalty for erring is. The answer is appropriately named

dumbass cards. When a player does something stupid, he or she is eligible to receive a dumbass card (given by

any other player.) Such events include but are not limited to: calling an inappropriate suit when playing a nine,

making an illegal play (such as the jack of spades when the suit is not spades and the card showing is not a jack;

you'd be surprised at how often this can happen), being completely unaware that it is your turn, playing out of

turn, not calling the suit before looking at your hand on a wild as dealer, and just generally doing anything stupid.

As you gain experience, you probably also want to institute the five-second rule, giving a dumbass card for

taking too long. We recommend that on a player's first game of creights, he or she not be given dumbass cards,

or at least for the first few deals. You do not get dumbass cards for drawing when it is not your turn; instead, you


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get to keep these bonus cards. This can in fact (if you're clever enough) be a way to trick others into thinking it's

their turn, giving them a dumbass card (a useful ploy if someone is about to go out.)

Another miscellaneous rule is the one-card rule. If at any point during your turn other than the beginning you will

have exactly one card in your hand, you must say "one card" (or "last card") before making any motion to play

cards out of your hand. Failure to do so will result in a very harsh penalty; at your next non-crank turn, you are

skipped and must instead draw two cards from the top of the deck. Situations in which this applies include the

following.

You have two cards, and are planning to play one of them.

You have two cards, and one of them is a six. You are planning to play the six and then your other card,

going out.

You have two cards, and one of them is a six. You are planning to play the six, but cannot play your other

card, forcing you to draw.

You have one card, and it is a six. You are planning to play it, but will be left with no legal plays, not

having any cards. You must then draw.

The one-card rule applies as usual during a crank. The final situation brings up another rule of creights; when aperson plays his or her last card, all of the effects of that card are carried through before the game ends. If, as in

the situation with the six, this results in the person no longer having no cards, the game continues. Other situations

in which this can happen is if the person plays the nine and calls an inappropriate suit (receiving a dumbass card),

or if a person goes out during a crank and the crank comes back around to them, at which point (having no

crank cards left) they are back in the game with a lot of cards. Similarly, if a person plays a five, the other players

each draw a card before the hand is scored, and if a person plays a seven to go out, the person across from

them gets a card. If in addition the last card played is the seven of diamonds, that person not only receives an

extra card, but owes a beer to the person going out. This is a very important rule, and should not be dismissed.

The last, and possibly most important, part of creights, is shuffle pressures. If at any time you have to draw a

card and there are no cards left in the draw pile, you receive a shuffle pressure. This has three consequences:

1. You must shuffle the deck. Take the top card, leave it face up, and shuffle the rest of the play pile, placing

it face down as the new draw pile.

2. Everyone laughs at you.

3. For your first shuffle pressure, you get five points. Each additional shuffle pressure is worth twice as much

as the previous one, so the second is worth 10, the third 20, and so on. Shuffle pressures are

cumulative across rounds. If you get two shuffle pressures in the first round of eight, and then another in

the round of seven, this one shuffle pressure is worth 20 points, not 5. Shuffle pressures in a round are

denoted by a dot (one for each shuffle pressure) next to the player's score for that round.

If you need to draw, but there are no cards in the draw pile, and in addition there is only one card in the play

pile, you get a shuffle pressure and the round ends immediately. Note that for this to happen 51 of the 52 cards

must be in someone's hand.

And that's it for creights. This may seem like a lot of rules, but they can be internalized fairly quickly.

Scoring:As previously mentioned, the round ends when one player is bereft of cards. Each player then receives

points for each card they have in their hand (the player going out receives 0); the object is to accumulate the

fewest total points in the fifteen hands. In general, the better a card is during the play, the worse it is to have in

your hand at the end of the game. The scoring is as follows:


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8'sare worth 50 points each.

5's, 6's, and 9'sare worth 30 points each.

10'sare worth 25 points.

2's and 7'sare worth 20 points each.

4'sare worth 15 points.

J's, Q's, and K'sare worth 10 points.

3'sare worth 3 points. However, 3's are very useful. If you have a 3 and another card, you can use it to

cover the other card; you then get 3 points for the 3, but no points for the other card; for instance, if youhave a 3, a 5, and a 10, you can use the 3 to cover the 5, getting three points for the 3, none for the 5,

and 25 for the 10 for a total of 28, instead of 58. 3's cannot cover 8's, and can only cover 3's if they have

nothing else to cover (thus, for instance, 33A6 is worth six, since one three covers the six and the other

three must cover the ace, while 33A is worth three since one three covers the ace, and the other three

covers the first three.) If you are so lucky as to end a hand with only 3's left, you instead get -50 points for

each 3; this is the only way to get negative points. If you are so lucky as to have all four 3's, you are

promptly thrown out the nearest window. (For a long time, there was a parenthetical comment here saying

that this has never happened. Then it happened.)

A'sare worth 1 point.

Strategy:Creights is not inherently a game of strategy, and what little strategy there is you will figure out very

quickly. In general, 3's and aces are good cards to keep in one's hand (by not playing them if at all avoidable);

3's because they can drastically reduce your score, and aces because they protect you during a crank and are

low-point cards. One of the beautiful things about creights is that the game is balanced, as mentioned before, so

that the better a card is to play, the worse it is for you during scoring. In particular, keeping 8's and 9's will

ensure that you are always able to play, but keeping too many on hand is a recipe for disaster if someone goes

out. One of the most important elements of creights is the beer rule; this happens just enough (about once per

15-hand game) that it doesn't have a huge effect, but isn't entirely frivolous. For that reason, playing the seven of

diamonds not as your last card "ought" to be avoided.

1a. Double-deck rulesIf you're going to play hearts with more than five people, you ought to use two decks (for exactly five people, the

more adventurous can try playing with just one deck, but two is standard.) It is possible to play with identical

rules, but some people play with the following modifications.

First, one set of fives is removed from the deck to eliminate excess blood (however, both sets of crank cards are

left in, so cranks can now go up to 24 cards.) The other two modifications concern playing identical copies of the

same card. If it is your turn, you may play two copies of the same card (provided, of course, that the card is

legally playable.) The first copy acts naturally; the second copy, on the other hand, counts as if the next person toplay had played it; thus, if it is a seven, the player across from them gets a card, if it is a five, everyone other than

them gets a card, and so forth. Their turn is then skipped. Note that if you play a pair of identical tens, the first

ten played reverses order, sending it to the player who just played; the second ten reverses order again, though,

making it your turn again.

The second case of this occurs when you play a card identical to the card just played. It then remains your turn,

and your play (which may be drawing if you have no legal plays) takes the place of the next person's turn. This

may be combined with the previous rule, so that you may actually end up taking the turns of the two players after

you.


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These rules do not apply to sixes; sixes in double-deck creights function just as in single-deck creights.

2. BarbuBarbu is a very involved strategy game. Hailing from an Old French card game of the same name, its main

distinguishing feature is that it is composed of eight simple but different card games; the complexity in the game

lies not only in the play of the cards, but in judging how good one's hand is for each game. As such, Barbu has an

element of strategy absent from most other games, while at the same time remaining simple in structure. It is

intellectually engaging, but nowhere near as taxing as other such games, like bridge.

Players:4.

Playing time:2-3 hours.

The Deal:Barbu consists of thirty-two deals. Deal rotates to the left. On each deal, the dealer, after examining

his or her cards, chooses which of the eight subgames will be played. Each dealer must choose each of the eight

games exactly once in his or her eight deals.

Doubling:After the dealer deals out thirteen cards to each player, there is a round of doubling. Each player in

turn, starting with the player on dealer's left and proceeding clockwise, can choose to double any subset of the

other three players (or pass, doubling no one.) If you are doubled by another player, you may choose to

redouble them. Dealer may not double anyone, but may redouble anyone who doubles him. After the round ofdoubling, there is a round of redoubling, in which players may choose to redouble players who have redoubled

them (but no new doubling can take place.) Doubling (and redoubling) is symmetric; if I double you, it is the

same as if you double me. The effect of doubling is as follows: if you and I are doubled, then the difference

between my score and yours in that hand is added to my score and subtracted from yours. So, for example, if

we are doubled and I score -2 in the round, and you score -10, then I get in addition to my -2 eight points, and

you lose eight points; if neither of us is doubled with anyone else, I would thus get +6 and you would get -18. If

we are redoubled, double the difference is added to my score and subtracted from yours. Note that doubling

does not change the total points awarded in the hand. Now, you might ask why you would want to double the

dealer; having chosen the hand, dealer in all likelihood has a better hand for it than you do. Well, first of all, in a

few games only one player gets negative points, and if you are sure it won't be you, you may as well double the

dealer. The other, more important reason, is that during the game, each player mustdouble every other player

twice out of the eight hands that they deal. It is desirable to get these "dealer doubles" out of the way quickly, as

otherwise you will be forced to double the dealer on his last two deals.

The Play:Barbu is composed of eight subgames. After the deal, the dealer chooses the game, and the doubling

and redoubling, if any, takes place. Dealer then makes the first play, and play continues counterclockwise. All

but one of the eight games are trick-taking games, with scoring as explained below. Note that in many of the

games, only a few cards matter; the hand can be thrown in as soon as these cards have been collected.

Barbu:This is the namesake subgame of the overall game, and is quite simple. It is a trick-taking game where

the player who takes the king of hearts gets -15, and all other players get 0. In this game, no player can ever lead

hearts unless they have only hearts left.

Hearts:This game is quite similar to the traditional game of hearts. It is a trick-taking game, where each heart

taken is worth -2, and the ace of hearts is worth -6. Unlike the game of hearts, there is no queen of spades or

shooting the moon. No heart can be led until a heart has been played or the player on lead has only hearts left.

Queens:In this trick-taking game, all queens are worth -6 points to whoever takes them. The other 48 cards

are worth nothing.

Nullo:The object of this trick-taking game is simply not to take tricks; each trick is worth -2 to its winner.


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Last Two:In this trick-taking game, the first 11 tricks are worth nothing. The twelfth trick, however, is worth

-10 to its winner, and the thirteenth trick is worth -20. While this may seem simple, Last Two is probably the

most complicated of the eight subgames.

Ravage:Also called Ravage City, this is the most unique of the eight subgames. In this trick-taking game, the

player that takes the most cards of any one suit gets -36, and all other players get 0. For example, if I have nine

diamonds, and no one else has nine or more of any suit (in the tricks we've taken), I lose ("get ravaged"), and

take the -36. If two or more players tie, they split the -36 evenly, regardless of how many suits each has been

ravaged in.Trumps:In this trick-taking game, there is a trump suit, which dealer names when he chooses the game, before

the doubling round. The object here is simply to take take tricks; each trick is worth +5. Unlike in some other

games, if you can trump you must. If you are playing to a trick that has already been trumped, and you can

overtrump, you must, but you are not required to undertrump.

Dominoes:Dominoes is the only non-trick-taking game of the eight subgames. In dominoes, when dealer calls

the game, he also calls a "pivot card," which is a rank (so, for instance, "Dominoes around the nine.") On each

turn (starting with dealer and moving clockwise), a player may either play any pivot card (card of the specified

rank), or a card which is of the same suit and either one higher or one lower than a card already played. Aces

are always high and can be played only on kings of the same suit (unless they are the pivot card); similarly,

deuces can be played only on threes. All cards played are in open view, in four rows (corresponding to the suits)

face up on the table. If you cannot play a card on your turn, you must pass. The object of the game is to get rid

of all of one's cards first. The first player to go out gets +30 points; the second player, +20, the third player,

+10, and the fourth player, 0.

Scoring: Scoring for each of the subgames is as above. After scores for each subgame are determined, the

effects of doubling are imposed (simultaneously.) In general, points from doubling outweigh points from the

games (which tend to even out over the course of 32 deals), and thus a lot of the strategy lies in knowing when to

double. These scores are then added to a running total. As there are a lot of things to keep track of in a game of

Barbu, we suggest the following method of keeping score: first, have one column for each player. Mark off eight

lines corresponding to the eight subgames, and cross out the appropriate box when the dealer calls the game; this

keeps track of which dealers have called (and therefore cannot call again) which games. In each column, also put

two copies of the names of the other three players; these stand for dealer doubles, and are crossed out whenever

a dealer double is made. Below, simply add the score of each subgame to a running total after the subgame is

completed. After calculating each score (modified for doubling), you may want to check to make sure you have

it right, as it is very frustrating to complete a game of Barbu only to discover a scorekeeping error which may be

unrecoverable. A handy way to do this is to sum the players' scores; this is unaffected by doubling, and thus is

only dependent on what games have been played. The total score for each game should be as follows:

Barbu: -15

Hearts: -30

Queens: -24

Nullo: -26

Last Two: -30

Ravage: -36

Trumps: +65

Dominoes: +60


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When you are done with a game of Barbu, each game has been played four times, so the players' scores should

sum to -144.

Strategy:The strategy in Barbu lies almost entirely in hand evaluation. If you know which hands are good for

which games, you will be greatly aided in the processes of game choosing and doubling. Fortunately, as all of the

games are fairly simple, it is in general not too difficult to determine which game is best for your hand as dealer.

However, there are a couple of pitfalls.

First, it is worth noting that only one of the eight games favors having high cards; in six of the games, one wants

to avoid winning tricks. The eighth is dominoes, and because of this imbalance one generally calls dominoes with

a high hand. While it may seem that trumps is more an escape route for a generally high hand, in these situations it

is often better to play a low-risk game such as Barbu; with judicious use of trumps, dealer ought to win seven or

eight tricks. An ideal hand for Last Two can also contain many high cards; as long as they're complemented by

twos or threes to relinquish the lead, having aces and kings allows you to get control of the hand and play out

your problem suits to ensure they are not led in the twelfth or thirteenth trick. Similarly, you can get away with

high cards in Hearts; the ideal hearts hand is one with lots of hearts, including some low ones so that you take no

heart tricks. Often, you will find that no game is particularly good for your hand; in this case, put on a poker face

and call something that is unlikely to hurt you, such as Barbu, Nullo, or Queens. Getting -6 as dealer playing

Queens is not nearly as bad as getting -36 as dealer playing Ravage - or probably more, since it is likely that ifyou have a mediocre hand, one or more of the other players will have a good hand and double you.

The second part of Barbu strategy lies in the doubling. In general, doubling the dealer is best done in games

where only one player loses (Barbu, Ravage, typically Last Two) and you are sure it won't be you. But beware

on Ravage; you should have in each suit either two low cards (7 or below) or only one high card (9 or above)

and one low card. It often happens that each player is confident about his or her hand for Ravage, with the end

result that all players end up redoubled with each other. In this case, the player that gets ravaged gets -252, with

each other player getting +72. This 324-point swing is the largest possible in any subgame, and the player getting

-252 is virtually eliminated from contention. This is also the case in Last Two, with the loser getting -210. So, if

you are doubling in Ravage or Last Two, you should be as close to sure that you will not lose as possible. If

there is even a hint of a doubt, do not redouble.

Other good games on which to double the dealer are Nullo and Queens. Because these games do not provide

large swings, if you think you will take at most three tricks in Nullo or at most one queen, it is probably

worthwhile to use a dealer double (and double all of the other players as well.) Never double the dealer on

Trumps; even if you have a very good hand, the dealer probably has a better one. Be careful about doubling the

dealer on Dominoes; in all likelihood he or she will control the hand, and your one two may come back to haunt

you.

The game is largely determined by the doubling. Do not be afraid to double on instinct. Better than instinct,

however, is table knowledge; if a player passes, he or she likely has a bad hand, and even if you have a hand tha

is below average you should consider doubling them. Likewise, if a player doubles you, figure that player for an

above-average hand and redouble only if you have a very good hand. Towards the end of the game, if you are

losing by a lot you may need to double to get back in the game. Conversely, if you are winning, you don't want

to be forced to double the other players when they're dealing, so it is a good idea to get those dealer doubles out

of the way as quickly as possible. You should not confine your dealer doubling to hands where you have a great

hand for what the dealer has called; if you get no points in the hand, the dealer double cannot hurt you.

Otherwise, in the eighth round, you must be forced to double the dealer with a horrible Ravage hand; if the


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dealer redoubles, you will go down at least -108, even without the other players also doubling. This is quite

undesirable.

3. Ninety-nineNinety-nine starts out as a very simple game, but grows in complexity with each deal that is played. The beauty

of this game is that the players control how the game will change, making it a game of creativity rather than

analytic thinking, something very rare among card games. The game is not to be confused with 99, also in this

book; we have made the distinction between the two here by representing one by letters and one by numbers,

but in practice both games have the same name.

Players:2 and up. Probably best with 3-5.

Playing time:Ninety-nine is a game of indefinite length; it lasts as long as the players want it to. It becomes

rather untenable after about 10-15 hands, which should take about an hour.

The Deal:At the beginning of each hand, each player receives three cards. The actual identity of the dealer is

irrelevant; the player that won the last hand goes first (and typically deals also.) For the first hand, you can use

your favorite metric (oldest, youngest, longest beard, person whose birthday is coming up soonest, etc.) to

determine who goes first.

The Play:As stated before, ninety-nine starts out as an incredibly simple game. Play starts with the player thatwon the last hand, and continues clockwise. On your turn, you play a card face up and draw a card. The card

played adds to a running total, which starts at 0; you announce the total as you play the card. Aces through tens

add their numeric value. Jacks and queens add 10 each. Black kings can add either +10 or -10, as determined

by the player who plays them; red kings are -10. The only restriction on playing a card is that you cannot play a

card that makes the total greater than 99; if you have no legal plays, you are out of the hand. The last player

remaining in the hand wins. Note that you draw a card immediately after playing one; if you forget to draw this

card before the next player plays, you do notget a replacement card and are left with one fewer than you

started. As more cards gives you more flexibility, it is desirable to preserve your original quota of three, so do

not forget to draw.

After the Hand:The defining part of ninety-nine comes after the hand. After each hand, the winner of the hand

invents a new rule which then becomes a rule all subsequent hands. This rule can be anything at all; the only

constraint is that the rule must be symmetric to all players (e.g. the rule cannot be of the form "All players whose

names start with M start with four cards instead of three.") Also, the rule should not give a sizable advantage to

the player who plays first, lest the game degenerate into a trivial win for the player who won the last game. Some

common types of rules are those that do something to the order of play (e.g. "Playing a seven reverses the

direction of play"), things that do something to the total (e.g. "Playing a two can, at the player's discretion, add 12

to the total instead of two"), things that do something to the number of cards (e.g. "If you play a nine, you don't

get to draw a replacement card"), and constraints on the total (e.g. "The total can never be a multiple of ten.")

But these are just examples; the scope of possible rules is limited only by your imagination. If at any time a play ismade which violates a rule (initially, only plays that put the total above 99, but the number of illegal plays often

increases with the number of rules), the illegal play is discarded, the player does not get a replacement card, and

it is still that player's turn. (This typically happens when a player forgets some rule or another.) If a player has no

cards, he or she a fortiorihas no legal plays, and is out of the hand.

Scoring:Ninety-nine does not have actual scoring, just as it has no predetermined ending point (a logical point

to stop the game is when the rules become sufficiently complicated that players have forgotten most of them.) If

you're a very competitive person, you probably shouldn't be playing this game, but if you must, you can score by

giving each player one point for each hand won.

Strategy:There is no scoring in ninety-nine, and thus there really is no strategy also. Try to avoid playing kings,


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as having the ability to decrease the total as it approaches 99 is invaluable; keeping low cards is also good for

this. Always remember to draw a card immediately after you play one, as you will feel quite silly (and in all

likelihood lose the hand) if your opponents have a stash of two cards on hand, while you are forced to play the

card that you get. It goes without saying that remembering the rules is tremendously helpful.

4. 9999 is a delicious medium between a card-counting game where all 52 cards are in play, such as bridge, and a

game of imperfect information where there is a lot concealed, such as poker. In this trick-taking game, each

player strives for an individual goal unknown to the other players, with asymmetry between suits providing

complex nuances of strategy. This game is not to be confused with ninety-nine, also in this book; we have made

the distinction between the two here by representing one by letters and one by numbers, but in practice both

games have the same name.

Players:4. Can be adapted to five, but loses much of its charm; if this is done, remove the twos of diamonds

and clubs from the deck beforehand.

Playing time:45-90 minutes. Like most card games, the playing time of 99 is largely dependent on the speed of

the players.

The deal:Deal starts with an arbitrary player, and rotates to the left. All 52 cards are dealt out, with each playerreceiving thirteen cards.

Bidding:Each player sets aside three cards, which represent the number of tricks the player proposes to take in

the play of the hand. These three cards per player are out of the game, and are not revealed until the end of the

hand. The bidding is done simultaneously and independently, with this round being over when each player has

decided on his or her bid. The cards encode the bid as follows: a diamond is worth 0 tricks, a spade 1, a heart

2, and a club 3, with the bid being the total of the suits of the three cards. Note that there are 10 tricks in total

(as each player plays with a ten-card hand); three diamonds can represent either 0 or 10 tricks bid. A handy

mnemonic for this is that spades have one "point," hearts two, clubs three, and diamonds ... are mostly round.

The Play:Each hand has a trump suit, which is diamonds for the first hand, then spades, hearts, and clubs. The

fifth hand is no-trump, and then it wraps around back to diamonds. (This order corresponds to the order of the

suits in the bidding.) Player to the left of the dealer makes the opening lead, and play proceeds clockwise. During

the play, each player aims to get exactlythe number of tricks he or she bid before the play.

Scoring:At the end of each hand, each player gets a number of points equal to the number of tricks they have

taken. More importantly, each player who made his or her bid exactly gets a bonus of 10 points. If a player has

reached 99 or more by making their bid, and they have the most points, they win. In practice, this will be the first

player who reaches or exceeds 99 points, except that a player cannot win unless they made their bid on that

hand.

Strategy:99 is a simple game, but the strategy is quite complex. Unlike most trick-taking card games, the suits

will in general not split evenly; typically, spades are the least numerous suit, followed by diamonds, hearts, andclubs. Indeed, it is quite common for a player to be void in spades at the beginning, or at the very least have a

singleton; contrariwise, it is not out of the question for all 13 clubs to be in play. Make note of this when

determining your bid, as if you have the ace-king of spades (and spades are not trump), you should definitely not

count on scoring both of them.

Putting aside the three cards serves a dual purpose. Not only do these cards determine your bid, but they also

provide you with a way to modify your hand. This interplay occasionally results in a sticky situation, especially

when diamonds are trumps. In this case, often a player will want to bid low, but will be unable to do so without

discarding diamonds that make their hand even worse. A similar situation arises when spades are trumps.


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More often, however, you can make use of this by discarding cards of the appropriate rank. It is a naive strategy

to always determine how many tricks your hand can take, and discarding the lowest cards allowing you to make

that bid; frequently, you can be more sure of making your bid by discarding jacks and queens, or even aces and

kings, and making a lower bid than one might otherwise. Discarding high cards also has the effect of disrupting

the other players' planning; the vast majority of the points scored come from making one's bid exactly, and if the

other players end up taking more tricks than they bid, that's good news for you. Similarly, you want to try to void

yourself in a suit if possible (if you have two spades and want to bid 2, discarding both of them and a diamond is

preferable to discarding a heart and two diamonds), for this will both provide a trick source and nullifyopponents' aces that they are no doubt counting on. Do not be afraid to discard trumps if necessary; this, again,

will disrupt opponents' logic.

5. Oh Hell (also known as Scotch Bridge)Oh Hell is probably the best-known of the games mentioned in this book. However, it is still rarely played, and

seems to be dying today; a shame, as it is one of the more intriguing trick-taking games in existence.

Furthermore, like Barbu, it is in and of itself a diverse card game, with strategy for card play in each hand quite

different, which makes playing a game of Oh Hell far from a monotonous drone.

Players:3-5, best with four.Playing time:About 2 hours for the long game, half that for the short game.

The Deal: With four players, Oh Hell consists of 25 deals. First dealer is determined however one desires, and

deal rotates to the left. On the first deal, each player gets one card; on the second deal, each player gets two

cards, and so on up to the thirteenth deal, where each player gets 13 cards. In the remaining twelve deals (which

are not played in the short version), the number of cards goes back down from 13 to 1. (In the three-player

version, the game lasts 33 deals, with the number of cards going from 1 to 17 and back to 1; with five players,

the game is 19 deals, with number of cards per player going from 1 to 10 and back to 1.) In all but the thirteenth

deal, the top card of the remaining pile (which is otherwise unused) is turned up, and its suit becomes the trump

suit for the hand. In the thirteenth deal, there is no trump.

Bidding: Each player, starting with the player to the left of the dealer and continuing clockwise, announces the

exactnumber of tricks he or she proposes to take in the hand; this is noted on the scoresheet. Each player is

free to bid anywhere between 0 and the number of tricks in the hand, except dealer; dealer is not allowed to bid

the number which will make the total number of tricks proposed equal to the number of tricks in the hand. This

rule, known as screw the dealer, is not used in some variants, but adds an element of spice to the game by

ensuring that at least one player will fail to make their bid.

The Play:Once the bidding is completed, the hand is played. Player to the left of dealer leads to the opening

trick, and play proceeds as a trick-taking game, with as many tricks being played as there are cards in each

player's hand.

Scoring:As in 99, making one's bid exactly is the goal; in fact, this is more important than in 99, as each playergets points onlyif they bid the exact number of tricks they take. There are many scoring systems used in Oh

Hell. The one which is most well-balanced is as follows: for a bid of zero, a player receives the number of tricks

in the hand (which reflects the added difficulty of making this bid as the number of tricks in the hand increases.)

For any other bid, a player receives twice the number of tricks bid, plus a three-point bonus. Of course, these

points are only obtained if the player makes the bid exactly; otherwise, the player receives nothing. The game

ends after all 25 hands have been played, and the player with the most points wins.

Strategy:Strategy in Oh Hell is very different in the low-card (1-5), medium-card (6-9), and high-card (10-13)

hands. When there are few cards in the hand, one has very imperfect information; an added element here is that

the lead becomes incredibly important. In general, having trumps (even low trumps) is very important, as it is


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unlikely that the other players have many; furthermore, if they do have one or two trumps, it is quite likely that

they have a void in some suit or another, and will use their trumps to take those tricks. Contrariwise, if you have

high cards in other suits, the odds are high that they will be ruffed if the other players choose to. In the round of

one, the player leading determines the suit in play; if you are not the first person to play, and you do not have a

trump, you should bid zero as it is unlikely, even if you have an ace, that the player on lead will lead a card of

your suit.

In the medium-card hands, it becomes likely that a suit will go around at least once before it is ruffed. However,

it is still unclear what a high card is; in particular, it is quite difficult to know whether or not you can count on a

king for a trick. Similarly, low trumps also become hard to value, as some other player may have high trumps and

choose to lead them out. The medium-card hands are probably the most difficult to play, which explains why we

offer the least advice for them.

In the high-card hands, you should generally count on any given card being in play. You can also bank on each

suit going around twice before players can ruff; consequently, it becomes safe to count kings as tricks most of the

time. Trump length presents the biggest problem for bidding; if you have five small trumps, you don't really know

how many of them will win tricks. In general, a good rule of thumb is to assume that each trump after the second

will win a trick, more if you have high trumps. This is a slight undervaluing of your hand, but if necessary it ismuch easier to ditch low trumps under high trumps than to be forced to win tricks with trumps you do not have.

Obviously, this should be adjusted depending on the number of cards in the hand. At this point, you should also

start paying attention to what's been played, as most cards will be in play.

In each case, you should consider how many tricks you will win on a card-by-card basis. Remember, though,

that you may end up winning tricks by virtue of other players giving them to you; you should pay attention to bids

before yours to see how aggressive the other players will be during the play.

Most of the strategy during the play applies to all types of hands. A good strategy at the beginning of a hand is to

play the cards whose value you are uncertain of. Consider the following situation: in a hand of four, you have theace and four of diamonds, the queen of spades, and the three of hearts, with diamonds as trump, and you have

bid two. If you are on lead, you want to lead the queen of spades; if it wins, you do not want to win your four of

diamonds, and so you should play the four of diamonds on the next trick (which it will presumably lose.) If it

loses, you need to win the four of diamonds in order to make the contract, which will affect your play

accordingly.

In general, there are good cards such as the four of diamonds in this example, for which you have a lot of choice

over whether or not they will win a trick, and bad cards such as the queen of spades, whose trick-taking value is

uncertain. As illustrated above, you want to play your bad cards first so you know what to do with your good

cards. In the high-card hands, bad cards are holdings such as Q-10, where you have little choice over how manytricks you will win (with there being significant variance depending on how the other players choose to play the

trick); good cards are holdings such as A-K-5-2, which can win zero, one, or two tricks depending on what you

need from them to make your bid exactly.

During the play, it helps to be aware of how many tricks the other players have taken, and what their bids are.

Let's say you are on the sixth trick of a ten-trick hand, and the first player leads the two of spades; this is the first

spade that has been played. The second player follows with the ten, and you are in the third position with Q-4.

Will the queen of spades win a trick for you? If the player in fourth position has bid one and already taken one,

he is unlikely to play the ace or king if you play the queen. Conversely, if that player has bid three and so far has


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shown no high cards and taken no tricks, it is likely that they have either the ace or king of spades, and will take

the trick (indeed, they may have both.) In this case, if you want to take a spade trick, you should probably play

the four and hope to score a trick with the queen on the second spade trick.

Being aware of where the other players stand in relation to their bid also allows you to better interfere with their

plans. Suppose there are two tricks remaining, and you have the ace of trumps and the two of another suit,

needing one more to make your bid. A trick comes around to you, with the jack of a third suit the highest card

played thus far. If the player of the jack needs one trick for their bid, you can prevent them from making their bid

by playing the ace of trumps and leading the two (unless their remaining card happens to be either a trump or of

the same suit as your two.) If, on the other hand, that player has already made their bid, you should ditch the

two, forcing them to take one more trick than they would otherwise want. In general, if you are sure of your bid

and just wondering when to take the tricks, you should try to take the tricks that would otherwise be won by a

player that wants them.

You should also realize that other players will be trying to do the same to you. This is why bidding zero is difficult

in many-card hands; you may have a hand which is unlikely to take any tricks if every player is trying to win

every trick, but if you bid zero, the other players will be attempting to force you to win tricks. Perhaps on the

fourth trick of clubs, another player leads the three, and you play your last remaining club, the five (havingalready played the six, eight, and jack.) If the other players were trying to win as many tricks as possible, they

would trump here, but if you have bid zero they will gladly discard cards of other suits and give you the trick.

Consequently, with holdings such as 8-J, bidding zero is unadvisable as the other players can easily foist a trick

off on you.

On each hand, you should also know how many tricks have been bid in all; in particular, whether the total

number of contracted tricks is greater than or less than the number of tricks in the hand. If it is larger, players will

be more aggressive in trying to take tricks; if it is smaller, they will be less aggressive. In particular, if you are

third or fourth to bid and the number of tricks already bid is high, you can bid zero with more impunity, as the

other players will doubtlessly focus more on taking their allotment in a time of shortage than on forcing you totake a trick.

6. NapoleonNapoleon is a card game for five or six players, which in itself is rare. In addition to this, it also has the unique

feature of secret (and changing from hand to hand) partnerships, only known by one player. This intrigue in turn

leads to a type of strategy which is essentially unique, as players try to guess what the partnerships are, and avoid

putting all of their eggs in one basket.

Players:5-6 players. Rules described below are for six players; see the five-player addendum at the end.

Playing time:60-90 minutes; this time can be changed by playing to a different ending point.The Deal:Each player receives eight cards and the remaining four are set aside in the kitty; deal starts at an

arbitrary point and rotates to the left. Each player, starting with dealer, either bids a number higher than the

previous high or passes. The object of Napoleon is to take face cards in tricks; the number bid is the number of

face cards (between 1 and 16) that the bidder contracts to take. (Aces count as face cards in Napoleon.) You

must bid higher than the previous bid; you cannot bid equal to it. The bidding ends when all players pass; the

highest bidder then becomes Napoleon for the hand. If you pass, you may re-enter the bidding at a later time;

passing is not the same as folding in poker or other such games.

Pre-hand Procedures:After the bidding, Napoleon names the trump suit. He or she then looks at the four


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cards in the kitty, and can exchange up to four cards from his or her hand with cards in the kitty. If Napoleon

discards face cards in the kitty, they do not count towards his quota; so if you have bid 16, you will not want to

do this. At this point, Napoleon has the option of changing the trump suit; if he does so, his effective bid is

increased by one for the play (but not for scoring afterwards.)

Napoleon then chooses one of the fifty-two cards in the deck to be the secretary card. The player who holds

this card becomes secretaryfor the round; this player is on Napoleon's side, and all face cards he collects in

tricks count towards Napoleon's total. In addition, the secretary card becomes the highest card in the deck, and

is stripped of its suit. The secretary card may be played at any time, even if the secretary has cards remaining in

the suit led, and automatically wins the trick. If the secretary card is led, it counts as a trump for purposes of

following suit. Note that the identity of the secretary is unknown to both Napoleon and the other players until the

secretary card is played. If Napoleon names a card in his own hand as the secretary card, he has no partner (but

the card retains all of its value as above.)

The Play:Napoleon makes the opening lead, and play proceeds as an ordinary trick-taking game. If at the end,

Napoleon and the secretary together have taken a number of face cards equal to or greater than the number bid,

they win; otherwise, the other players win. Extraneous talking is of course allowed, but Napoleon is only allowed

to say two things relevant to the game: "Be careful, Secretary," and "Take it, Secretary." The latter comment

communicates to the secretary that Napoleon wants him to take the trick, and typically he will play the secretarycard. Of course, the secretary may have already played to the trick, in which case the command is useless. As a

variant, you can make the command requirethe secretary to play the secretary card at his or her next turn. The

former comment is just a general warning.

Scoring:If Napoleon wins, he gets a number of points equal to the following: 2 if the bid is eleven or below, the

bid minus nine if the bid is between 12 and 15, and 10 if the bid is 16. (This is the original bid, and is not

increased by 1 if Napoleon changes trump suit after looking at the kitty.) The secretary receives a number of

points equal to half Napoleon's total (round down.) If Napoleon names the secretary card to be in his own hand,

he gets the secretary's points in addition to his own.

If Napoleon is defeated, each player other than Napoleon and the secretary receives two points. Like Oh Hell,

Napoleon scoring systems vary; if you meet someone who knows how to play Napoleon and who did not learn

it from this book, they are likely to have a different scoring system.

The game ends when one player amasses a total of 21 points. This number can be changed up or down

depending on how long you want to the game to be.

Strategy:In the bidding, it pays to bid aggressively. Having a long trump suit is more important than having

exceptionally high cards; long trumps allow you to control the hand. Remeber that as Napoleon, you have lots of

things that can go right for you: you may find high cards or trumps in the kitty, defenders may be scared to drop

high cards early, or you may end up with a secretary who also has other high cards and can win tricks for you.

As a defender, your task is very difficult, as you do not know who the secretary is. In general, it may very well

be the case that your only hope is to discard face cards early in the play, as Napoleon will typically lose his tricks

early (as opposed to at the end, when players have probably saved face cards in order to have a chance at

winning tricks.) However, if you drop them on the wrong tricks, you may give them to the secretary and doom

your efforts; discarding face cards that may win tricks, in particular, is difficult to do, as you're giving the card to

someone whose loyalties you are unsure of as opposed to winning it yourself (and you know which sideyou're

on.) Nevertheless, often you must bite the bullet. Especially with face cards which will not win tricks, such as

jacks, you may be best served by giving them to another player in a trick, as opposed to possibly having to


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discard it on a trick of Napoleon's later. One good strategy as a defender is to realize that if a certain player (i.e.

one who has already collected numerous face cards) is the secretary, you have no chance at defeating Napoleon

and then proceed under the assumption that that player is not the secretary. Obviously, it behooves you to figure

out which player is the secretary as soon as possible; if Napoleon names a high card (as is usually the case), the

other players who have been bidding are more likely to be the secretary.

As Napoleon, your first task is to exchange cards with the kitty and then choose a secretary. Generally, it is a

good idea to void yourself in as many suits as possible; you should have at least four trumps, including two of the

top three. A secondary long suit is better than a balanced hand; after you draw trumps, you can then run the

cards in that suit. Don't be afraid to discard singleton jacks and queens, as these will almost certainly end up in

the hands of the opponents if you keep them in your hand (and prevent you from trumping that trick.) The

secretary card has two purposes; first of all, it gives you an ally, and second of all, it allows you to eliminate a

card from the game (remember, the secretary card becomes suitless.) Thus, if you have the king and queen of

trumps, and call the ace as the secretary card, your king and queen become the two highest trumps. Generally,

you should call the highest missing trump or, if you have no problem with trumps (having the top two and length,

or the top three), an ace in a side suit where you have a king (thus making your king high.)

During the play, you want to milk the confusion among the other players as much as possible. Generally, thisinvolves losing your tricks early in the game, where the opponents are suspicious of one another, not knowing

which one of them is the secretary. Also, remember that if everyone follows suit, you cannot lose more than four

face cards in a given trick; losing these tricks early increases the chance of everyone in fact following suit (and

being unable to drop jacks and queens of other suits on the trick.) Save the secretary card as long as possible;

invoke it only if you think that the trick being taken contains (or will contain) enough face cards for you to lose

your contract, or if the current trick is the last trick you cannot win in your hand. It is far more important for the

defenders to know who the secretary is than it is for you to know, and as such this should be concealed as long

as possible.

As secretary, you are the only player in the game who must keep a poker face. Try to encourage other playersto drop face cards on your tricks early; as defenders will be doing this as well, you should be able to blend in

somewhat (don't be too blatant.) In general, you should play the secretary card only when Napoleon instructs

you to; he knows what he's doing, and knows where his weakness that needs to be covered is. Of course, if

there's a trick with a lot of face cards, you may want to go ahead and take it - especially if you have strength in

other suits that Napoleon does not know about (perhaps a side suit ace you want to lead.) A good rule of thumb

is that you should reveal the secretary card on your own if and only if you are sure that you and Napoleon will be

able to take the rest of the tricks.

6a. Rules for Five PlayersFive-player Napoleon is similar to six-player Napoleon. Introduce a joker into the deck, making 53 cards in all.

The joker is similar to the secretary card; it has no suit, and can be played at any time, even if its owner is not

void in that suit. It is higher than any other card, and thus automatically wins the trick, except that it is outranked

by the secretary card (unless it is the secretary card itself.) Deal ten cards to each player, with the remaining

three cards in the kitty. Everything else is the same. In the five-player game, expect bids to be lower; Napoleon

has a larger percentage of the other players on his side, but this is offset by the fact that he gets to exchange a

much smaller portion of his hand with the kitty, severely limiting his ability to void himself of suits and otherwise

tailor his hand.


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7. Liars' PokerLiars' Poker is a rather unique game, in that there is no proscription against looking at your opponents' cards.

Indeed, this makes the game perfect for playing in cramped spaces, such as car trips or lines. The game itself is

very simple, but the element of espionage and coalitions makes Liars' Poker a primarily social game. Like poker,

the game involves lots of bluffing; unlike poker, wagering is not involved.

Players:At least two, and in theory unlimited. In practice, the game tops out at around eight or nine. Multiple

decks may be desired for games with many players.

Playing time:Can be adjusted based on the number of cards in the hand. A good rule of thumb is that eachround will take two minutes; the number of rounds is approximately equal to the total number of cards.

The Deal:On the first deal, each player gets some number of cards; this number can be adjusted depending on

how long you want the game to take. We recommend the following: with two players, nine cards; with three

players, seven; with four players, six; with five players, five; with six players, four; with seven or more players,

three. In each subsequent deal, the player who lost the previous deal gets one fewer card than in the previous

round; everyone else gets the same number of cards. Thus, in each successive deal, one fewer total card is in

play than in the previous deal.

The Play:Starting with the player who lost the previous deal (in the first deal, the dealer starts), each player

going around to the left names a poker hand orchallenge

the previous person. This poker hand must be one of

the following, in ascending order: a single card, a pair, two pairs, three of a kind, a straight, a full house, four of a

kind, a straight flush, five of a kind, six of a kind, etc.. Deuces are wild. When you name a hand, you must

provide all of the relevant information; for instance, "three queens," "a ten through ace straight," or "the six

through ten of hearts." You do not need to name every card; "a seven" rather than "the seven of hearts" suffices.

Note that a flush is not a valid Liars' Poker hand. Within each category, ordering is as in poker; for instance, a

full house of eights and fives is higher than one of fives and eights, and a six-through-ten straight beats a four-

through-eight straight.

The hand ends when someone elects to challenge the previous person rather than name a higher hand. When a

challenge occurs, everyone lays down their cards. If, among the cards of allthe players at the table, the pokerhand named exists, the challenger loses the deal; if the hand does not exist, the player who named it loses the

deal. Note that the person on the other side of the challenge gains nothing. The exact poker hand named must

exist; for instance, if the hand challenged is "three queens," and there happen to be four kings among the

collective cards of the table, this is irrelevant; the challenge fails if and only if there are three queens (including

deuces) among the cards in play.

Unlike most games, Liars' Poker specifically encourages cheating. Any trick is acceptable for gaining a glimpse

of other players' cards; for instance, you may look over their shoulder or off reflective surfaces. The only thing

which is verboten is physically touching their cards.

Scoring:As mentioned before, after each hand the player who has lost gets one fewer card in the next hand. If aplayer has no cards remaining, he or she is out of the game; as a courtesy, a player who has just been winnowed

down to one card is allowed to pick their card out of the fanned (face-down) deck. The goal of the game is to

be the last player with cards remaining.

Strategy:Don't be afraid to look at people's cards! The skill in Liars' Poker comes in estimating the

probabilities of various scenarios of cards in play based on other people's bids, and the more hard information

you have, the better off you'll be. To take an extreme example, if you've managed to peek at everyone else's

cards, you know precisely what the cards in play are, and when it comes around to you you know whether a

challenge will succeed or not.


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If no one looks at anyone else's cards, the amount of information you have is directly proportional to the number

of cards in your hand. This means that a player with more cards is less likely to lose a given round, making Liars'

Poker a positive-feedback game of sorts. As such, if you and another player have few cards left, it may be quite

advantageous for you to combine forces and share your cards with each other; this doesn't affect the procedure

of the game (i.e. you still take turns whenever your turn would normally come up), but it gives both of you more

information. Coalitions are common, especially when the game is down to three players, at which point the two

players who are behind will typically gang up on the player who is ahead. Remember, though, that at the point

when your hands are mutually visible, you are potentially quite vulnerable to the sneak attacks of other players'roving eyes. In extreme cases, it may be impossible for you to pick up your cards without anyone else seeing

them. Sometimes, it is better to not look at your cards at all, or at least until you have to; low calls will typically

not get challenged, since there is little benefit to challenging someone unless you feel that you yourself will get

challenged on any higher bid.

It is very important to take other players' bids into consideration. If a player bids three queens, he likely has

queens; if you are staring at a queen and a deuce, four queens or even five is a sound bid. (Remember that, at

least in theory, the other player made their bid ignorant of your hand.) Conversely, though, it is often worthwhile

to bid something you don't have at low levels where you're relatively certain you won't get challenged, in order to

trick others. At the beginning of the game, about half the deck will be in play; with the four deuces, a bid of threeof a kind will typically not get challenged, so use these bids to your advantage.

It is very difficult to be certain that the player before you doesn't have their bid, and because of the system it

tends to be unprofitable to challenge players unless either the odds are extremely against them or you think you

will get challenged and lose on any higher bid. In particular, if you bid something that the player in front of you

has bid (typically bids go around the circle about twice, so they are likely to have bid something), they will be

stuck between a rock and a hard place. In this vein, the player in front of you is the most important one as far as

looking at their cards goes; if you can look at their cards without them noticing, in particular, when you bid

something they have (especially if they haven't bid it yet), they are likely to think that you have some and not

challenge you. Remember, you can't lose if you aren't challenged and don't challenge anyone.

Liars' Poker is essentially a game of psychology. Try to figure out the tendencies of the other players; if someone

seems to never have what he bids (everyone's cards are revealed at the end of every hand, so you can actually

track this), don't take his bids into consideration. If someone is reluctant to challenge, try to sit behind them.

Make deals with people; if the guy in front of you wants to bid something, let him. Try to gang up on the player in

front, since his position will only get better as time goes on. Show your cards to other players when it's

advantageous to you; if someone is hesitating about challenging, and you don't have any of the cards in question,

you can often convince them to challenge by showing them your useless cards, especially if you once claimed to

have something useful for the current call. (A better strategy is to get them to commit to challenging if you don't

have any before showing them your cards.) Similarly, you can often avoid being challenged (the guy in front of

you doesn't want to challenge you since he might lose, but he may not know what to bid) by showing your hand

to the person in a position to challenge you; this is a win-win situation, since it gives him more information as to

what to bid. In a game with lots of players, team up with people early, and try to bid high enough that the bidding

will be challenged before it gets around to you (but not so high that you'll be challenged.) Bid confidently, as if

you know what you're doing, even when you don't. Last but not least, don't get suckered in by other people's

psychological ploys, like the ones mentioned here.


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8. Psychological JujitsuWhile Liars' Poker is mostly a game of psychology, Psychological Jujitsu is entirely a game of psychology. There

is very little luck involved in the game, and it's not a game where excessive thought or speed will help you. Simply

put, in order to win, you must figure out what your opponent is thinking.

Players:At least two; best with two or three. If more than three are playing, Psychological Jujitsu requires an

additional deck or additional decks of cards.

Playing time:5-10 minutes per hand.

The Deal:One suit of cards is set aside, shuffled, and placed face down on the table. Each player receives a fullset of cards, comprising A, 2, 3, ..., K; these represent the numbers 1 through 13 in the obvious way. The game

can in fact be played without a deck of cards, simply giving each player tokens labeled 1 through 13 (or any

other number), and having an extra set of tokens bearing these values.

The Play:Psychological Jujitsu consists of thirteen rounds. On each round, the top card of the extra suit is

turned up and auctioned off. Players choose secretly which of the cards in their hand they are playing, and

simultaneously reveal their choices. These are bids for the current card; the highest-ranked card played wins the

auctioned item, which is worth a number of points equal to its rank (ace being 1, jack 11, queen 12, king 13, and

all other cards their numeric value.) If multiple players tie, the card is thrown out. In any case, all cards played to

that round are discarded. Each player starts with thirteen cards, and there are thirteen rounds, so each player wil

submit each bid exactly once over the course of a hand. When a player wins a card, that card is placed face-up

in front of the player. In the case of a tie on a given round, the way we have presented is only one variant.

Another variant is to throw out all tied cards and give the card to the highest card that is not tied; another variant

is to have all players take back the cards they have played and put the card up for auction on the bottom of the

deck.

Scoring:At the end of a hand, each player's score is the total of the ranks of the cards they have won. There are

91 points in all. The game can either be played by the hand or cumulatively; in the latter case, players add their

scores from successive hands until a player reaches a predetermined limit (200, for instance.) In this case, one

can play to either end the game immediately once a player reaches 200, or finish the game at the conclusion of

any hand which puts a player over 200.Strategy:In the two-player game, the best strategy is to always play one rank higher than your opponent,

except that when he plays 13, you play 1. This will allow you to win 12 of the 13 cards, and even if your

opponent takes the king, you will win by the potent margin of 78 to 13.

Unfortunately, employing this strategy requires figuring out what your opponent is going to play. Clearly it makes

more sense to play high cards on the cards that are worth more, but there is no specific strategy that can work,

since your opponent can always play the above strategy to dominate you. Playing a card one higher than the card

up for bids is good, since the natural correlation is to play a card about equal to the one up for bids, but by the

same token playing a card two higher is also good, since your opponent is likely to play a card one higher. And

so forth. There's obviously a breaking point to this argument, since by playing a card two higher you are

essentially conceding the two highest cards, and this will eventually result in a loss.

Don't be afraid to play very low cards when very high ones are up for bid. You'll lose, but your opponent will

have expended a much higher card in the process, leaving you with a significant advantage for the remainder of

the game. In general, you want to try to lose by a lot when you lose and win by only a little when you win. With

more players, the strategy is murkier; assuming you play the main variant described here, it is a reasonable

strategy to play your highest cards on mid-range cards (8, 9, 10) and hope that the other players all play their

highest cards on higher cards, cancelling each other out. But in general the optimal strategy is obviously highly


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dependent on what your opponents are doing.

Finally, keep track of what your opponents have played; it's important when you're trying to figure out their

decision process.

9. Canadian FishCanadian Fish, like Creights, can loosely be called a variant of a simple children's card game. In this case the

game in question is Go Fish, and, like Creights, the variant is far more complicated than the original. However,

unlike Creights, the rules of the game are very simple; the complexity comes in the actual play. This provides an

excellent combination of a game that is easily explained but complicated enough to provide a superb form of

mental exercise. Unlike most of the games here, memory is an extremely important part of Canadian Fish, and

not just memory for what cards have been played, as is usually the case in card games.

Players: Exactly six. I suppose in theory the game could be played with a different number, but it wouldn't work

nearly as well.

Playing time: 15-30 minutes per hand. The length can vary wildly from hand to hand, and also depends heavily

on how analytical the people you're playing with are.

The Deal: Remove the eights from the deck, leaving 48 cards. This splits the deck into eight suits -- the twothrough seven of each suit, and the nine through ace of each suit. Whenever we say the word suitin this section,

we refer to one of these eight six-card suits. Deal eight cards to each of the six players.

The Play: In a hand of Canadian Fish, there are two teams of three; the teams alternate as you go around the

circle, so your teammates are the players two to the left and two to the right of you. You may wish to assign

teams randomly or mix things up after each hand. By convention, the eldest Canadian at the table goes first. If

there are no Canadians, decide who goes first however you want, such as picking the person who was in

Canada most recently, who has been to Canada the most times, etc.. On your turn, you do the following.

1. Ask any opponent for a specific card. You cannot ask for a card that is in your hand, and you cannot ask

for a card unless you have a card in that suit. For example, to ask for the seven of clubs, you must havethe two, three, four, five, or six of clubs (you can of course have multiple low clubs), and you cannot have

the seven.

2. If the player asked has that card, they must give it to you. If they do not, it becomes their turn.

At any time, any player, regardless of whose turn it is, may declarea suit by saying "declare." Once a player

does this, silence reigns until the declaration is finished. The player must now assign all six cards of a suit among

the three members of that team; if I am on a team with Bob and Rachel, I could, for instance, say, "Declare: I

have the two and five of clubs, Bob has the three, four, and seven, and Rachel has the six." Regardless of

correctness, all of the cards of that suit are removed from play; if I am correct, our team "wins" the suit, and if I

am incorrect in any way the other team "wins" the suit. You can only declare cards to be in your teammates'hands; if I have five of the low clubs and I know which of my opponents has the last one, I cannot declare this.

Similarly, if my opponents have all six of the cards, I cannot scoop them by declaring the suit. You are allowed to

declare suits even if you don't have any of them, though this is rare. The declaration, whether correct or

incorrect, does not affect whose turn it is; this remains the same, and play continues as usual. The only exception

occurs when the declaration removes all remaining cards from the hand of the player whose turn it is; in that case

that player must (with no input from anyone) transfer control to one of their teammates with remaining cards.

Players with no cards are out of the game, and are not allowed to declare suits. If at any point one team has all of

the remaining cards, nothing further can be said. They must declare all of the remaining suits; anyone can declare


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these suits, but the first person to say "declare" must declare the suit as usual. The game ends when all eight suits

have been declared. If at any point you screw up by asking for a card you have, or a card in a suit you don't

have, the suit containing that card is immediately removed from play and won by the other team. Conventions are

explicitly forbidden in Canadian Fish. You are of course allowed to make inferences, but you cannot, for

instance, agree beforehand that if you ask an opponent for the jack of a suit, you have the queen or king, either in

secret or openly.

Scoring:One point for each suit that your team has won. The team with more suits wins; score is typically not

kept, but if it is, each player gets a number of points equal to the number of suits their team has won. The gameshould consist of a fixed number of deals; six is a good number. Teams can either be kept the same throughout

or mixed up. In any case, the goal is simply to win as many suits as possible.

Strategy:Obviously, if one could remember everything that has been asked, one would be doing well. In

practice, most humans cannot remember this much, so you must decide what to remember. Since you can never

acquire cards in a suit that you don't have, it is obviously best to focus your attention on the suits you do have. It

is usually better to retain perfect information about a few suits than imperfect information about all of the suits,

though not always.

Something that is extremely important is to keep control away from dangerous opponents. Your team can

conspire to blackball one or two of the opponents so that it is never their turn, and this is often a good strategy.For example, suppose that everyone knows (because they've seen the cards being exchanged) that one of your

opponents has the two through six of clubs. He has asked both you and your right-hand teammate about the

seven, and neither of you have it. If one of your opponents had the seven, they would declare the suit now, since

they know the location of the other low clubs; therefore, your left-hand teammate must have the seven. If the

opponent with the low clubs gets a turn, he will take the seven from your left-hand teammate and they will win

the suit. If, however, you never ask him a question, it will never be his turn, and he cannot take the suit.

Therefore, you should never ask him a question. It is not permitted to say things like this explicitly; you can't tell

your teammates not to ask him, but hopefully they've been paying enough attention to realize what's going on. Of

course, your opponents, if they've been paying attention, should know not to ask your teammate with the seven

any questions. This is fairly frequent, and is one reason why you shouldn't totally ignore suits even if you don't

have any cards in them. Each game is different, and much of the skill in the game lies in figuring ou

the ten best card games you've never heard of (preliminary manuscript)

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