The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (147 page)

happens to be dealer. He also receives from each opponent 1

counter for each card left in hand, doubled from the holder of Spin

if he failed to play it.

Yel ow Dwarf

(Gelber Zwerg, Nain Jaune) The European ancestor of Pope Joan

had staking compartments for K Q J T and a yel ow dwarf

representing 7. Aces are low and cards go in sequence regardless

of suit.

Play or Pay

Deal al the cards out as far as they wil go. Eldest starts by playing

any card face up to the table to start a discard pile. Each in turn

thereafter must either play the next higher card of the same suit or

else pay a counter to a pool. The sequence ends when it reaches an

Ace, or any other card that can’t be fol owed. Whoever played the

last card of the sequence starts a new one with any card. First out of

cards wins the pool, plus 1 chip for each card left in other players’

hands.

Snip-Snap-Snorum (or –Snorem)

A distant relative of the Stops family, referred to by Fanny Burney

as early as 1782, and stil recorded as a children’s game. Deal the

cards round as far as they wil go. Eldest plays any card. The next in

turn who is able to pair it does so and says ‘Snip’, the next also

matches rank and says ‘Snap’, and the next plays the fourth of its

kind, announces ‘Snorum!’, discards the quartet, and leads afresh.

Anyone unable to match the previous card misses a turn, and in

some versions pays a counter to its player. If two or more are able

to play consecutively, the first of them is ‘snipped’ and pays 1

counter to a pool if he played the first of its rank; if he played the

second he is ‘snapped’ and pays 2, if the third, he is ‘snored’ and

pays 3. The pool goes to the first out of cards, who also receives

one counter from each opponent for each card left in hand.

Earl of Coventry

Dif ers only in its announcements: (1st card) ‘There’s as good as

[Ace] can be’, (2nd) ‘There’s an Ace as good as he’, (3rd) ‘There’s

the best of al the three’, (4th) ‘And there’s the Earl of

Coventreeeee’…

Jig

As above, but each in turn plays the next higher card of the same

suit, and the player of the fourth insequence starts a new series. The

sequence is cyclic, passing through K-A-2.

Schnipp-Schnapp-Schnurr-Burr-Basilorum

German equivalent of Jig, with five cards to a sequence instead of

four.

Muggins

A game played by Victorian children, including Mr Pooter (see

Diary ofaNobody).A simple version describedinthe Oxford English

Dictionary resembles Snap, but the fol owing is more demanding.

Deal one card face up to the table if three play, four if four, two if

five, four if six, three if seven. These cards are the mugginses. Divide

the rest evenly among the players. Players may not examine their

cards but must stack them face down on the table in front of

themselves. The aim is to be the first out of cards. Each in turn flips

the top card of his stack and places it face up on a muggins that is

one rank higher or lower than the one turned – for example, a Six

turned wil go on a Seven or a Five. Aces and Kings may not be

played on each other.

Anyone unable to place the card they turn must place it face up on

the table before them to start a discard pile. Thereafter, a turned

card must be played to a muggins if possible, otherwise to the next

higher-or lower-ranking card on top of the faced pile of the nearest

player to one’s left, otherwise – if it won’t legal y fit anywhere – to

one’s own discard pile, where it need not match.

Anyone whoiscorrectly chal enged for breakingarule-bydiscarding

to his own pile if it wil fit that of a player nearer his own left, or

to a player’s pile if it wil fit on a muggins – is himself a Muggins.

Everybody else takes the top card from their face-down pile and

gives it to the of ending Muggins, who must place them at the

bot om of his own.

When no cards remain in your playing pile, turn your discard

pile face down and continue from there. The winner is the first to

have no cards remaining in either their playing or discard pile.

Domino(Card Dominoes, Fan Tan, Parliament,

Spoof Sevens

3-8 players, 52 cards

A two-dimensional relative of Eights, very suitable for children, but

not without elements of skil .

Preliminaries Any number of players, but ideal y six or seven, use a

52-card pack running A23456789TJQK in each suit. Use smal

cards or a large table. Everyone starts by paying an agreed sum into

the pool.

Deal al the cards out in ones. It doesn’t mat er if some players have

one more than others.

Object To be the first to shed al one’s cards.

Play Eldest starts by playing any Seven face up to the table. If

unable, he pays 1 to the pool and the turn passes. With a Seven in

place, the next in turn must play one of the fol owing cards: the Six

of the same suit to the left of the Seven, or the Eight of the same

suit to its right, or any other Seven below it. Thereafter, each in turn

must play either a Seven, or the next higher or lower card of a suit-

sequence, in such a way as to build up four rows of thirteen cards,

each of the same suit and reading from Ace at the extreme left to

King at the extreme right. (See the il ustration on page 144.)

Penalties Anyone unable to play at his turn contributes 1 counter to

the pool. Anyone who fails to play, although able to do so, pays 3

to each opponent, plus 5 to the holders of the Six and Eight of a

suit if he holds the Seven of it and fails to play. Not that this obliges

him to play a Seven if prefers to play otherwise: holding up Sevens

is al part of the strategy.

Going out. First out sweeps the pool and gets 1 counter from

each opponent for each card left in hand.

Variant In Five or Nine (or Five and Nine), the first person able to

play may start with a Five or a Nine. Whichever is chosen must be

adhered to as the foundation rank for each row for the rest of that

hand.

Crazy Eights (SwedishRummy)

2-7 players, 5 2cards

Crazy Eights is not so much a game as a basic pat ern of play on

which a wide variety of changes can be rung. Anyone can invent

new rules for it, and combine them with old rules to produce a

version that can be explored for fun and then changed again when

new ideas come up. The basic pat ern itself forms a game that was

cal ed Eights when it first appeared in the 1930s. Crazy Eights is

cal ed Eights when it first appeared in the 1930s. Crazy Eights is

what it became when players started elaborating it.

A feature that has become common to most games of this group

in recent years is that of prohibiting anyone from explaining the

rules to beginners, who must be left to pick them up by trial and

error, and wil of necessity lose many deals before being able to

play with consistent success.

Cards 52, or 104 (two packs) if six or more play. Deal Five each, or

seven if only two are playing. Stack the rest face down as a stock,

then take the top card and set it face down on the table to start the

discard pile. If the starter is an Eight, bury it in the stock and turn

up the next card.

Object To be the first to shed al one’s cards.

Play Each in turn, starting with Eldest, plays a card face up to the

discard pile, which is spread slightly so al remain visible. Each card

played must match the previous card by either rank or suit. Eights

are wild: you can play one whenever you like, and nominate a suit

for the next player to fol ow, which needn’t be that of the Eight

itself. Anyone unable or unwil ing to fol ow must draw cards from

the top of the stock, adding them to his hand until he eventual y

plays one, or the stock runs out.

Ending Play ends the moment anyone plays their last card, or when

no one can match the last card. The player who went out col ects

from each opponent a payment equivalent to the total face value of

cards remaining in the lat er’s hand, counting each Eight 50, courts

10 each, others face value. If the game blocks, the player with the

lowest combined face value of cards remaining in hand scores from

each opponent the dif erence between their two hand values. In the

four-hand partnership game both partners must go out to end the

game.

Rockaway

The same, but Aces are wild instead of Eights and count 15 each at

end of play.

Hol ywood Eights

Eights count 20 each and Aces 15. Several games are played and