The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (139 page)

An Egyptian and Lebanese game widely playedin cof ee houses

throughout the Middle East, reported by Bonnie Smith and Thierry

Depaulis on the Pagat website. Ashush, in the Lebanon, means Jack,

but it is also col oquial Arabic for imam.

PreliminariesDeal four each and four to the ‘floor’, and when these

are gone deal four more each so long as any remain. If the floor

cards include any Jacks or 7, put these at the bot om of the stock

(they wil eventual y go to the dealer) and deal replacements.

PlayCapture by pairing or summing or both. A card that makes no

capture is merely trailed. Capturing al the cards from the floor is a

basra, and the capturing card is stored face up to mark it.

Kings and Queens have no numerical value, and can capture or

be captured only by pairing.

A Jack sweeps al the cards from the floor, but this does not

count as a basra. So does 7, and this can count as a basra, but only

if the floor cards are al numerals, and their combined values do not

exceed 10. Trailing a Jack or 7 is legal but pointless.

Any cards remaining on the floor after the final capture are taken

by the player who last made a capture, but (presumably) this does

not count as a basra.

Score 3 for cards, 1 per Jack, 1 per Ace, 2 for 2, 3 for T, and

10 for each basra. Game is 101 points. A rubber is won by the first

to win three games. If both players have won two, the fifth is

usual y played up to 150.

Basra is easily adaptable for three and four players. The Lebanese

version dif ers mainly in that each player receives six cards and 7

has no special power.

The fol owing games are self-evidently related.

Pishti

(2p, 52c) Reported by Harbin (Waddingtons Family Card Games,

London, 1972) as a Turkish contribution to the genre. Dealer cuts,

non-dealer takes the bot om card of the top half, and dealer half

covers it with the stock face down – unless it is a Jack, which is

immediately won by the non-dealer. Deal four each and four to the

table face up in a stack. If the top card is a Jack, it is won by the

dealer and replaced from stock. Each in turn plays a card. If it

matches the top card, or is a Jack, it sweeps the whole stack. If not,

it is placed face up on the stack. When the stack is taken, the next

player can only trail. If the next player immediately pairs the

trailed card, he cal s ‘Pishti!’ (said to mean ‘cooked’), and scores 10.

When both have run out of cards, deal four more each so long as

any remain. Score 3 for most cards, 3 for T, 2 for 2, 1 per Ace, 1

per Jack. Play up to 101.

Dry Game

(2-4p, 52c) Transmit ed by Harbin (see above) from a Greek

informant. Deal six each, then four face up to form a stack of which

only the top card is available. When players run out of cards there

is a new deal, including four to the stack. Each in turn plays a card

face up to the stack. If it matches the top card by rank it captures

the whole stack, and the next in turn has no option but to start a

new one by playing any card face up. If not, it is left on top. Any

Jack captures the whole stack regardless of the top card. A player

capturing a stack consisting of only one card immediately scores 10

for a ‘dry trick’. Score 3 for most cards, 3 for most clubs, 2 for T, 1

extra for 2, and 1 per Jack.

Pästra

(2 or 4p, 52c) Cypriot equivalent of Basra described to me by

Kyriakos Papadopoulos. Deal four each and four to the table, and

keep dealing fours when players run out of cards. Score 3 for