Getaway
Getaway is a unique trick-taking game for three to eight players. In most trick-taking games, players have to follow suit, but if they can’t, they simply can’t win the trick. Also, after the trick is finished, it’s discarded to a won-tricks pile and the cards are out of play. Getaway turns all that on its head—a player being unable to follow suit ends that trick, and the player that was winning the trick takes the cards into their hand!
Getaway is popular in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
Object of Getaway
The object of Getaway is to avoid being the last player with any cards.
Setup
To play Getaway, you’ll need a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. Treat your players to the best game you can give them by playing with a deck of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards.
Shuffle and deal out the entire deck as far as it will go. Some players may receive more cards than others; this is fine.
Game play
The player that holds the A♠ leads it to the first trick. Each player then plays a card to the trick, in order proceeding to the left. All players must follow suit if able. After all players have played, the person playing the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. Cards rank in their usual order, with aces high, so the person holding the A♠ will always win the first trick. The cards are placed face down in a discard pile after the trick is played, and the winner of the trick leads to the next trick.
When a player cannot follow suit, they may play any card. Beginning on the second trick, play to a trick stops whenever a player cannot follow suit. Players later on in turn order do not contribute to the trick. The player who, at that point, had played the highest card of the suit led takes the cards from the incomplete trick into their hand. That player then leads to the next trick.
Between tricks, a player may choose to take the entire hand of the player to their left. Since that player is then left with no cards, they instantly get away (see below). Exercising this option is sometimes in a player’s best interest, because the player to the left does not have any cards in the suits the player holds. Thus, the trick will always end prematurely by the player to the left failing to follow suit, and the player will never be able to play their cards. In such a situation, it makes sense to take that player out of the game in hopes of being able to pass control to another player.
Getting away
Unlike most trick-taking games, not all players are going to play cards to every trick, and players will be bringing new cards into their hand. Because of this, players will run out of cards at different rates. A player that runs out of cards is said to have gotten away. When a player has gotten away, they are out of the game and are not at risk of losing. If a player who was supposed to lead gets away, the player to their left leads instead.
Ending the hand
The number of players will gradually shrink as more and more players get away. Special rules apply when only two players are left and one of them runs out of cards. If the other player plays a higher card of the suit led, as usual, that player wins the trick, and the player who depleted their hand gets away. The player with cards remaining loses the game. However, if the player with more cards can play a lower card of the suit led, that forces a special situation called a shootout.
The discard pile is shuffled, excluding the two cards from the trick just concluded. The player with no cards randomly draws a card from the deck and exposes it. This card serves as their lead. If the other player can again play a lower card of the suit led, the game continues with the player with no cards drawing a new lead from the shuffled discard pile. If the player with cards is forced to play a card of a higher rank than the card drawn from the deck, the player with no cards gets away and the player with cards remaining loses. Should the player with cards have no cards of the suit drawn, however, the player with cards gets away, and the player with no cards loses.
Stop the Bus (Bastard)
Stop the Bus, also known as Bastard, is a simple English card game for two to six players. It is part of the Commerce family of games, where players gradually build up a good hand by exchanging cards from their hand with better ones. It plays somewhat similar to Knock Poker, but using Brag hands rather than poker hands.
Object of Stop the Bus
The object of Stop the Bus is to form the best three-card Brag hand.
Setup
Stop the Bus is played with a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. If you want to treat your players to the best game of Stop the Bus possible, make sure you play with a deck of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards. You’ll also need some sort of counter or token, such as poker chips.
Give each player an equal number of tokens (higher numbers of tokens will produce a longer game). Shuffle and deal three cards to each player. Then, deal three face-up cards to the center of the table. Set the remaining deck stub aside; it has no further part in game play.
Game play
The player to the dealer’s left goes first. They draw one card from the three face up on the table. They then choose one card to discard, face up, replacing the card they drew. The turn then passes to the next player.
Game play continues in this way, with players seeking to improve their hands through successive draws and discards. When a player is satisfied with their hand, they may call out “Stop the bus!” Each of their opponents then takes one more turn. When the turn reaches the player who called “Stop the bus”, the hand ends. All players then turn their hand face up and compare their hands. Whichever player has the worst Brag hand surrenders one token.
The cards are collected and the deal passes to the left. Another hand is played. Game play continues in this fashion, with players dropping out whenever they run out of tokens. The last player with at least one remaining token wins the game.
See also
King
King is a trick-taking card game for four players. A game of King consists of ten hands. During the first six hands, players lose points if they capture certain tricks or tricks containing certain cards. These conditions change on each hand. During the last four hands, players score points by either capturing tricks or not capturing them, as determined by the dealer.
King is played throughout the world, especially in Europe, Russia, and South America. It’s unclear where it ultimately originated from, though; despite the English name “King”, it is not well known in any English-speaking countries.
Object of King
The object of King is to have the most points after ten hands. For the first six hands, players avoid capturing tricks to avoid negative scores. For the last four hands, players scored points by capturing tricks, or avoiding them, depending on the rules decided by the dealer.
Setup
To play King, you’ll need a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. To provide your players with the best game-night experience they’ve ever had, though, you’ll need a deck of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards. You also need something to keep score with, like pencil and paper or a smartphone app.
Choose the first dealer randomly by shuffling the deck and dealing cards one at a time, face up, until a player receives the king of hearts. That player is the first dealer. Shuffle and deal thirteen cards (face down) to each player, dealing out the entire deck.
Game play
On each hand, game play follows much the same formula, though the goal and thus the players’ strategies are different on each hand. The player to the dealer’s left leads to the first trick. Each player in turn plays a card to the trick of the same suit, if they have one; otherwise, they may play any card. After all four have played, whoever played the highest card of the trump suit, or the highest card of the suit led if no trumps were played, takes the trick. Cards rank in their usual order, with aces high.
Whoever takes the trick takes the four cards in it and places them in a face-down won-tricks pile in front of them. For some hands, it is necessary to know how many tricks each player has taken; on these hands the tricks should be placed at right angles to each other to keep them separated. The player that captured the last trick then leads to the next one.
After thirteen tricks, the hand is over. The score is then computed according to the rules of the hand.
The negative hands
The first six hands of the game are called the negative hands. The one thing all of these hands have in common is that there is no way to score positive points. Rather, on each hand, one or more players will lose points by taking tricks or tricks containing certain cards. The scoring for each hand, in order, is as follows:
- −20 for each trick captured
- −20 for each heart captured
- −50 for each queen captured
- −30 for each king or jack captured
- −160 for capturing the K♥
- −90 for capturing each of the last two tricks
There are no trumps during the negative hands. After the sixth hand, the four players’ scores should total −1,300.
The positive hands
After the six negative hands are the four positive hands. Players have the opportunity to score positive points on these hands. On some hands, players may score for capturing tricks, while on others, they may be rewarded for avoiding doing so.
The dealer decides whether they would like to designate one of the four suits as the trump suit, play with no trump, or auction the right to choose trumps to the other three players. If they choose to auction, the player to the dealer’s left starts the bidding with some number of tricks. Each player in turn then may either bid higher than the previous high bid, or pass. The dealer is skipped. Once there have been two consecutive passes, the high bidder gets the right to name the trump suit, or declare no trump.
After the trump suit has been determined, the dealer (not the winner of the bidding) chooses whether the game will be played playing up or playing down. If the game is played up, then capturing each trick scores a player 25 points. If the game is played down, each player starts with a hand score of 325 points, and 75 points are deducted for each trick captured. Note that a player can still have a negative hand score if they capture more than four tricks!
The hand is then played out. After the thirteen tricks have been played, each player counts the number of tricks they captured. If the dealer auctioned off the right to name trumps, then the high bid is deducted from the bidders’ trick count and added to that of the dealer. The scores are then calculated from these adjusted trick totals.
Ending the game
After the four positive hands, whoever has the most positive points wins the game.
The total hand score for the four positive hands is 325 points per hand, or 1,300 points altogether. This cancels out the −1,300 points scored across the six negative hands. Thus, the scores can be checked by adding all of the players’ scores together at the end of the game and ensuring that they balance (the sum is zero).
