The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (3 page)

After trump is determined, the player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick by laying down one card face up on the table from his hand. Play continues to the left. When it’s your turn, if the original card led was from the trump suit, you must follow suit if you can. If the original card was not from the trump suit, you must follow suit or play a trump card. If you can’t do either of those, then you can play any remaining cards from your hand. The highest card in the suit led, or the highest trump, wins the trick, and that player leads the next trick. More tricks are played until everyone is out of cards.

After the hand has been played, each team scores their hands (as mentioned following). The first team to reach seven points over multiple hands wins the game.

All Fours games and variations are each scored using a unique method. This method carries across all of the All Fours games, although additional scores are sometimes added in. There are four specific scores. “High” awards one point if you hold the highest trump during play. “Low” awards one point if you held the lowest trump in your hand (not if you won the trick containing the lowest trump). “Jack” awards one point if you win a trick with the jack of trumps. If the jack was not dealt, no point is given. “Game” awards one point if your team contains the most valuable number of tricks.

In determining the highest tricks, aces of any suit are worth four points, kings are worth three points, queens are worth two points, jacks are worth one point, and tens are worth ten points. If both you and your opponent have the same number of trick points, neither of you wins the one Game point. When it’s close to the end of a game, the points are counted in the order High, Low, Jack, and Game to determine who has reached seven first. This makes it impossible for the two teams to tie.

Below are some of the most popular variations on this game.

In All Fives points are also scored for each of the trump cards used to make the point of Game. The objective of All Fives is for players to score points by winning tricks containing court cards.

A random dealer is selected and deals out six cards, one at a time or in batches of three, face down, to each player. The dealer turns up the next card to determine the trump suit. If the card is a jack, the dealer scores one point for Jack. The deal passes to the left for each hand.

Play begins with the player to the dealer’s left deciding if he’s happy with the trump suit, based on the cards in his hand. If he is, he says, “I stand,” and play begins. If he wants a different trump suit, he says, “I beg.” If you are the dealer, and you prefer to keep the trump suit as the card you turned up, you respond, “Take one,” and give your opponents one point. If you agree and want a new trump suit, you say, “I run the cards,” and deal three more cards to each player. You turn up the next card, and if it’s a new suit, play begins. If it is the same suit as the original trump suit, you deal three more cards to each player and continue the process until a new suit is played or the deck of cards runs out.

After trump is determined, the player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick by laying down one card face up on the table from his hand. Play continues to the left. When it’s your turn, if the original card led was from the trump suit, you must follow suit if you can. If the original card was not from the trump suit, you must follow suit or play a trump card. If you can’t follow suit or trump, you can play any of the other cards in your hand. The highest card in the suit led, or the highest trump, wins the trick and that player leads the next trick. This continues until all of the players are out of cards.

All Fives is best scored using a cribbage board. While playing, as you win tricks with various trump cards, you automatically receive points as follows: the ace scores you four points, the king scores you three points, the queen scores you two points, the jack scores you one point, the ten scores you ten points, and the five scores you five points. After the game is over, you all view your cards to see who won High, Low, and Game. The first player or team to earn sixty-one points wins the game. On a cribbage board, that will be the first team to cycle around the board once and pass the starting line. If you’re playing with three players, you should each take one column and go up and back down that same column, or keep track with paper instead.

California Jack is a game based on All Fours that uses the entire standard deck of cards and is played with only two players. The objective is to earn points by winning or losing tricks and receiving cards from the stockpile.

A random dealer is selected who deals out six cards, one at a time and face down, to each player. The remaining cards are turned face up in a stockpile, and the top card determines the trump suit. Deal then alternates with each hand.

If you are the dealer, play begins with your opponent laying down one card from his hand. You must follow suit, if able, or you must play a trump if you have a card in the trump suit. Otherwise, you may play any card in your hand. The winner of the trick takes both cards and places them face down beside him. He then takes the top card from the stockpile to add to his hand. The loser of that trick takes the second card to add to his hand. Play continues until the stockpile is depleted, and each player then plays the remaining six cards in his hand.

The players score their hands and receive one point each for High, Low, Jack, and Game. The first player to ten points wins. If both players reach ten in the same hand, the points count in order of High, Low, Jack, and Game to avoid a tie.

Also known as Double Pedro and High Five, Cinch is another game of the All Fours family and was a popular game before the introduction of bridge. Cinch is usually played with four players in teams of two, with partners sitting opposite one another. The objective of Cinch is to be the first team to reach fifty-one points. A standard pack of fifty-two cards is used. Aces are high, and twos are low, but the five that is the same color as the trump suit is also counted as a trump card, and the trump suit ranks as follows: ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, five again (same color as trump suit), four, three, and two.

In Cinch, the players draw cards to determine their partners, the two highest playing against the two lowest. The highest card drawn determines the first dealer, who deals nine cards to each player in groups of three. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table to be used later on in the game. After the deal, a round of bidding occurs. Each player has one chance to bid or pass, starting with the player to the dealer’s left. If you choose to bid, you state the number of points that you believe your team can make within that hand. The minimum bid is one point, and the maximum bid is fourteen points. Each player may make a bid higher than the previous bid. The player with the highest bid names the trump suit without consulting his partner. If the first three players pass, the dealer may name the trump suit but is not obligated to take a minimum number of points.

Play starts with each player discarding a minimum of three cards, face up to the dealer. If a player discards more than three cards, the dealer then deals enough cards, face down, to bring the player’s hand back up to six cards. You may not discard any trump cards unless you have more than six trumps in your hand. In that case, you may only discard three cards. When it is the dealer’s turn to discard his cards, he may “rob the pack” and choose any cards out of the remaining stack that he wishes.

The player who made the highest bid leads the first trick by laying down any one card in his hand face up on the table. Play continues to the left, and when it’s your turn, you must follow suit (if able) or lay down any other card in your hand. The highest card in the suit led, or the highest trump, wins the hand and that player leads the next trick. After all six tricks have been played, each team adds up the points collected in their hand for High, Low, Jack, Game, Right Pedro, and Left Pedro. If the high bidder’s team scored the number of points bid, they win the difference in points between their hand and their opponent’s hand. If they failed to score the number of points bid, the opponent’s team scores the number of points that they collected, plus the original number of points that the high bidder’s team bid. If the dealer selected a trump without a bid, the team with the most points scores the difference in their points and their opponents’ points. The first team to fifty-one points wins the game.

Pitch is a North American derivative of All Fours, with bidding added for an element of strategy. The objective of Pitch is for players to score points by winning tricks containing valuable cards. Pitch is typically played with four people forming two teams, with partners sitting across the table from one another. A standard pack of fifty-two cards is used. An enhanced version of Pitch can be played by adding a joker. The joker becomes the lowest card in play, but it does not count toward the point of Low. Low is given to the player who holds the lowest natural trump card. The joker counts as one extra point to the player who wins it in a trick, making the total available points five instead of four. The order of points scored is High, Low, Jack, Joker, and Game.