The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (174 page)

riddance pile, and a more popular number is twenty.

The number of centre piles varies. Three or four is typical. As

soon as a pile is completed it is reshuf led into the stockpile.

Discard piles need not be packed in sequence: you can throw

any card to a discard pile (except an Ace). This means you

always end your turn with a discard, and you never get

‘frozen’.

If a game blocks through stalemate, neither player being able

or wil ing to continue play, the game ends, and the winner is

the one who has played of more cards from their riddance

pile. If equal, it is a draw.

Spite and Malice. South could play 7 to 6, al owing North to

play of his 8, and then continue the sequence to remove the

K from his own riddance pile. But this wil be no good if

North holds a Nine, as he himself could then block it by

playing up to the K. South wil therefore play his 3 4 5 to the

2, discard 9 to 10, and draw four new cards, keeping the

situation in tension and perhaps improving his hand.

If you play without Jokers, you may agree to designate the

four Kings ‘wild’, and use them to represent any desired rank.

In this case a centre pile is completed when it contains 12

cards headed by a Queen (or a King in drag).

Russian Bank (Crapet e, Robuse, Rabouge)

Several virtual y identical games, amounting, in ef ect, to Spite and

Malice played with a single pack each and no Jokers.

Racing Demon (Race Canfield, Pounce,

Scramble, Nerts, etc.)

2+ players, 52 cards each

Racing Demon is the oldest name for the game now played under

the name Pounce, or (in America) Nerts.

Preliminaries Each player has a complete pack, which must be

distinguishable by its back colourordesign from everyone else’s.

Everybody starts by shuf ling their own pack and arranging it as

fol ows:

Deal thirteen cards face down in a pile and turn the top one face

up. This pile is your Demon, or Pounce pile, or Nerts pile, or

whatever else you cal the game. To be neutral and descriptive, I

wil cal it your of -pile, because your aim is to be the first to play

of al its cards.

Next, deal four cards face up in a row in front of you. If three

play, these rows wil form a triangle; if four, a square; and so on.

The space between them is a common playing area, and should be

large enough to contain more than four piles of cards that have yet

to be built.

Your four upcards mark the start of four work-piles, each of

which wil take additional cards spread face up towards you so al

which wil take additional cards spread face up towards you so al

are visible. If any of these four is an Ace, play it to the centre space

and replace it with the top card of your pack, which you hold face

downwards in one hand. If the top card of your of -pile is an Ace,

do likewise, and turn up the card beneath it.

Ace-piles Each Ace set out in the common playing area acts as the

foundation of a pile which is to be built upwards in suit and

sequence until it contains 13 cards, headed by a King. Anyone can

play a card to one of these piles whenever they have the next

higher card in sequence. If two try playing to the same pile at once,

only the card that gets there first stays put and the other goes back

to where it came from.

Play At a given signal, everybody starts playing at once. The top

card of your of -pile, and the exposed card in each of your work-

piles, may be played to one of the Ace-piles when it fits.

Work-piles The cards in your work-piles are to be built downwards

in alternating colour (e.g. red Jack on black Queen, etc.). You can

also transfer any card from one work-pile to another, together with

al the cards lying in alternating sequence on top of it, provided

that the join fol ows the rule. For example, if the exposed card of

one pile is 9, and another pile contains 8, with 7 and 6 on

top, you can play these three to the black Nine.

If you empty a work-pile, you may fil the space it leaves with

any available card, whether from the of -pile, another work-pile,

your hand, or your wastepile (when it gets going).

Wastepile When stuck, deal the top three cards of your pack face

up to a single wastepile and consider the topmost card. If possible,

you may play this to one of the Ace-piles (upwards in suit) or to

one of your work-piles (downwards in alternating colour), thus

revealing the next card for similar play. When stuck, deal the next

three cards from your pack face up to the wastepile, and again

three cards from your pack face up to the wastepile, and again

make whatever plays you can.

When your pack contains only one or two cards, turn them over

in the usual way; then, when you get stuck again, turn the wastepile

upside down and take it in hand to form a new pack to play from.

Get ing stuck If everyone gets stuck, being either unable or

unwil ing to make any further legal move, everyone turns their

wastepile to form a new pack, then transfers the top card of their

pack to the bot om before continuing play.

Completed Ace-piles When an Ace-pile is complete, with a King on

top, turn it face down to show that nothing else can be played to it.

Going out Play ceases when somebody plays the last card from their

of -pile and cal s ‘Out!’ (or ‘Nerts’, or whatever). Everybody then

scores

1. point for each card they managed to work into the Ace-piles

(this is why it is necessary for everyone to have a distinctive

pack), and deducts

2. points for each card left in their of -pile. It is just possible for

the player who went out not to finish with the best score. Play

up to 100 points, or any other agreed target.

Variants There are many local variations to these rules, of which the

most commendable is to turn cards from the stock one at a time

instead of three. (One is natural; three is purposeless.)

In the original version, each starts by dealing thirteen down, then

one card face up to act as the first base, then four face up to start

the work-piles. Each of the other cards of the same rank as the first

base is set out as a base when it becomes available, and these bases

are built upwards in suit until they contain 13 cards, turning the

corner from King to Ace if necessary. You can play to anyone else’s

main sequences as andwhenpossible, and it is for each player to

main sequences as andwhenpossible, and it is for each player to

note what the terminating rank wil be.

Spit (Speed)

2 players, 52 cards

I first col ected this game from my daughter Lizzi, who was playing

it with school-friends in the 1980s. The fol owing is a more