A worthy subject has recently surfaced at the h2g2 University which could be of interest to many people. The tradition of card playing has been around for centuries with most countries having a variation of the now-familiar 52 card pack¹.

There are already two completed guide entries covering the game of
Cribbage and also
Euchre. Three other games are currently under development... those of Poker, Scat and Mau Mau. This list is by no means complete though. Researcher PSG is looking for more contributors to help with this project! Are there any Whist, Rummy or even Patience fanatics out there who would be willing to write about their passion? If so, please visit the Project Card games forum and make yourself known! You will be given full credit for your contribution and have the satisfaction of knowing you may have encouraged others to try out your favourite game. In the meantime, here is the entry on the most essential piece of equipment you will need... at least one pack of cards!

• Deck = 52 Cards
• 4 Suits:
  Hearts ♥,
  Diamonds ♦,
  Spades ♠,
  Clubs ♣
• Each suit consists of :
  cards numbered 2 to 10,
  three "court" or "Face" card [ Jack, King, Queen],
  and an Ace card [representing 1 or the most powerful]

Rank

Meld

A meld is a scoring combination of cards in certain games. It is either:

• a) three or more cards of the same denomination; or
• b) three or more cards in consecutive order of rank and of the same suit.

Trumps

In games with tricks, one suit of cards or type of card is selected as more powerful than the rest, this suit is called Trumps.

In the case of trump suits they are more powerful than other suits but the ranking still remains. In other words a 10 in a trump suit is more powerful than any other card in the other suits but can be trumped by a Jack of the Trump suit.

Other games use certain cards within a suit as Trumps or a type of card [e.g. 10], but that will be dealt with in the game description.

Choosing Trumps

Different games have different ways of choosing Trumps, but there are 3 main methods:

1. By competitive bidding amongst the players.
2. By chance, for example turning over the top card of a shuffled deck, it's nature denoting Trumps.
3. By a set order of rotation among the suits.

Choice of Partners for Partnership Games

This is usually done by drawing cards at random from the deck, the pair with the highest ranking cards form one partnership and the other two players the second.

Choice of the Initial Dealer

There are 2 methods by which the first dealer is chosen:

1) One player shuffles the cards [This person is agreed on by the group] then another player [Also agreed on by the group] cuts the cards and puts the deck back together [putting the top slice on the bottom and the bottom slice on the top]. The test goes clockwise around the table from the person to the left of the person who shuffled the deck, now there are 2 options for test:

a) Each person takes a chunk of the deck, the players then turn their chunks of the deck over so the other players can see.

b) The deck is passed around and each person takes a chunk of the deck of any size, shows the bottom card to everyone else, and passes it to the next person.

The person who has displayed the highest ranking card is the 1st dealer. If there is a draw they each take another cut and the highest value wins.

2) One player shuffles the card [This person is agreed on by the group] then another player [Also agreed on by the group] cuts the cards and puts the deck back together [putting the top slice on the bottom and the bottom slice on the top]. Each player is dealt a card face up going clockwise around the table from the person to the left of the person who shuffled the deck, the first person to get an Ace is the dealer.

The Deal

Unless the rules say otherwise the deal goes clockwise around the table starting with the person on the dealers' left, giving each player one card before going onto the next. The deal goes around the table until everyone has the required number of cards. The cards are dealt from the top of a face down deck.

For some games more than 1 card has to be dealt per go around the table. Now this can work straightforwardly by giving a player a higher number of cards each go, for example 3 cards. But in some games it actually varies due to what time of going around the table it is [e.g 1st time, 2nd time, 3rd time, etc] . Any variations like this are usually covered in the rules of the game.

There are 2 obscure terms used with deals:

The Widow
This is a batch of cards dealt as well as the players' hand. Its role depends on the game it is being used in.

The Stock
This is, in certain games, the remains of the pack after the hands have been dealt but which the players have access to in the course of the game.

Tricks

These are generally the collection of cards played in a round and representing victory in that rounds' play. It is also a term applied to the round of play, the following is a description of the usual method of playing a Trick:

For each trick one person starts off the round of play (They "have the lead") and the play goes around the table clockwise until everyone has placed a card. The person who has the lead in most games is the person who, in the first trick, is sitting to the left of the dealer and, for tricks after that, the person who won the last trick.

The person with the lead may put down any card they wish, and the next player has to try and follow suit if they can [i.e. use a card of the same suit as the lead], if they can't they must place whatever other card they have. Now if you cannot follow suit you are said to have revoked, this usually means your card counts for nothing unless it is a trump [You're only usually allowed to play a trump if you cannot follow suit.] in which case it beats all but a higher trump card. But, in general, penalties for revoking vary from game to game.

When everyone has placed their cards the trick is awarded to the person that puts the highest card of the suit in play or Trump [remember trump always beats suit in play]. The cards of the round are collected together and are called a trick and are placed near the winning player to denote their score.

Whoops, it's all gone wrong.

If, through an error, a game goes to pot the rules on what to do tend to vary from game to game, but here are some general guides.

A misdeal should be declared if a) during the deal a card in the deck is found face up, or if b) the rules of shuffling or dealing are broken.

If you have an imperfect deck wth duplicate, missing, and/or extra cards get a new deck or just forget it.

Researcher PSG

16.08.01. Front Page

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