The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (146 page)

wins the pool, plus 2 from each opponent and 1 extra for each King

unplayed.

There is also a ridiculously complicated two-hand version played

with a doubled pack.

Pope Joan

Delightful Victorian family game played with an elaborate piece of

stake-and-layout equipment for which substitutes can easily be

made. The 51-card pack lacks 8, making it dif icult to play 9,

known as Pope Joan (also, in other contexts, as the Curse of

Scotland). The eight

Pope Joan. Stakes are deposited in the label ed compartments. Al

games of the Stops family involve such layouts, which may be

simply made by sticking old playing-cards on sheets of paper – or,

more elaborately but at ractively, card cut-outs in the compartments

of smal cake-baking tins.

divisionsofthe board arelabel edPope( 9), Matrimony (K-

Q),Intrigue (Q-J), Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Game. Ace is high.

Dealer starts by set ing 6 counters on Pope, 2 on Matrimony, 2 on

Intrigue, and 1 on each other. He deals al the cards around as at

Newmarket, including a dead hand. The last card of al is turned for

‘trumps’, and, if it is Pope, Ace, King, Queen or Jack, he wins the

stake from the appropriate division. Eldest leads by playing the

lowest card held of any suit he chooses. Whoever holds the next

lowest card held of any suit he chooses. Whoever holds the next

higher card of the same suit plays it, and so on until no one can

play. The last to play then starts a new sequence with the lowest

card held of any desired suit.

Whoever plays the Ace, King, Queen or Jack of trumps wins the

contents of the corresponding compartment. The contents of

Matrimony can be taken only when the same player plays both

King and Queen of the trump suit, and of Intrigue only by someone

who plays both Jack and Queen. (Anyone fortunate enough to hold

and play J-Q-K-A of trumps, therefore, col ects from six of the eight

pools.) First out wins the stake on Game. Everybody else pays him

one counter for each card remaining in his own hand, except that a

player who is left with 9 in hand is exempt from this penalty.

Unclaimed stakes are carried forward to the next deal.

Spinado

Simplified Pope Joan played with a 47-card pack made by

stripping out 8 and four Deuces. Dealer sets 12 counters on a

position marked Matrimony ( K Q), 6 on Intrigue ( Q J), and 6

on Game, and everyone else stakes 3 on Game. Deal and play as at

Newmarket. Aces are low, and are necessarily stops because there

are no Deuces. The A is known as Spinado, or Spin. Its holder

may turn any card he plays into a stop by promptly covering it with

A and declaring ‘And Spin!’ This nets him 3 counters from each

opponent, and he starts a new sequence. Anyone playing a King

immediately receives 1 counter from each opponent, or 2 for K.

The contents of Matrimony or Intrigue go only to a player able to

play both cards concerned, and the player of al three wins both

pools in addition to the K payment. First out wins the stakes on

Game, and need not then stake on it in the next deal, unless he