The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (164 page)

a spare hand, for which reason I have added ‘Rum’ to the title. The

dif erences are minimal.

Deal three cards each and stack the rest face down, turning the

top one as the first upcard. Each in turn takes the top card of stock,

or the upcard, and makes one discard. The aim is to get cards

total ing 31, or as close as possible, in a single suit. Ace counts 11,

courts 10 each, numerals face value.

Examples: A K J counts 31, 5 3 2 counts 10, 8 9 J counts 17, A

9 9counts 11.

Play continues until either of the fol owing happens:

someone gets 31 exactly, in which case they cal for an

immediate showdown, and everyone else loses a life; or

someone with less than 31 knocks instead of drawing a card,

in which case everybody gets one more turn before the

showdown, and the player with the lowest flush score loses a

life.

Lose three lives and you’re out. The last player left in wins.

Lives are usual y represented by pennies or chips, but (to quote

from the Pagat website), ‘Ride the Bus has a dif erent way of

keeping track of wins and losses. Al players start out “seated” at

the back of the bus. Players who lose a hand move toward the front

in a sequence. The sequence is usual y: first, you stand at the back

of the bus, then you are in the middle of the bus, then at the front

of the bus, then you are on the stairs, then you are of the bus.

Players who are no longer “riding the bus” are out of play. Winning

a hand simply keeps your position; you do not move back a step if

you win a hand.’

Wushiyi Fen (Fifty-One)

2-8 players, 54 cards

A Chinese game, first described in English by John McLeod in The

Playing-Card (Vol. VI I, No. 3, February 1980).

Preliminaries Deal from two to eight players five cards each in ones

and stack the rest face down. Play to the right.

Object To go out by col ecting five cards of the same suit,

preferably with a high face value. For this purpose Aces count 11,

courts 10 each, and numerals at face value. Jokers belong to any

suit and count as any card of that suit not already held.

Play Eldest draws the top card of stock and makes a discard face up.

Each in turn thereafter may either:

draw the top card of stock and add one face up to the discard

pile, which should be kept spread out so al are visible; or

take the whole discard pile after previously discarding the

same number of cards from hand to act as a replacement for

it.

The pile of discards may never exceed five. When it contains

exactly five, each in turn has the further option of drawing any one

card from it in exchange for any replacement. As soon as one player

draws from stock instead, the five discards are bunched and

discarded face down from play. The discard of the player who drew

from stock starts a new discard pile, and play proceeds as before.

Going out When you have five of a suit you may, on your turn to

play, either draw in the hope of increasing their total face value, or

‘knock’ by laying al five on the table before you. You may not