Fan Tan
Fan Tan, also known as Parliament, is a member of the Stops family of card games. Like its cousins Newmarket and Crazy Eights, the game is characterized by play continuing until a necessary card is unavailable, thus stopping play. In fact, this mechanic is so well-associated with Fan Tan that another alternate name for it is simply Stops. Fan Tan is best for three to eight players.
Object of Fan Tan
The object of Fan Tan is to end play with the most chips. Players win chips by being the first to run out of cards.
Setup
Fan Tan requires the use of a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. As is customary, we remind you that we recommend Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards.
Fan Tan accounts for scoring with some form of counters, such as poker chips. If you like, each chip can represent some amount of money, in which case players are given chips equal to the value of their buy-in. Otherwise, give each player an equal amount of chips.
Shuffle and deal the cards out as evenly as they will go, starting with the player to the left of the dealer. All players ante one chip to the pot to begin play. Any players that happen to have received fewer cards than others due to the deck dividing unevenly between the number of players in the game ante an additional chip to make up for the advantage.
Game play
Play begins with the player to the left of the dealer. Initially, the only card that may be played is a 7; if the player to the dealer’s left cannot play a 7, they add one chip to the pot and play continues to the left. Once a 7 has been played, it is placed in the center of the table, and the 6 and 8 of the same suit may be played by subsequent players, with the 8 being placed to the left of the 7 and the 6 to its right. Plays continue in sequence, with descending cards being placed in a stack on top of the 6 and ascending cards played on top of the 8. As the 7s of the other suits are played, they form new rows underneath the first 7, with the 6s and 8s being placed alongside them, forming a three-by-four grid in the center of the table.
Note that play is compulsory—any player that can play a card cannot elect to simply pass. If a player is found to have been able to play but passed instead, they pay an additional three chips to the pot; if they held a 7 at the time, they pay five chips each to the players holding the 6 and 8 of that suit. However, if a player has multiple options on a turn, they of course are not penalized for selecting one option over another (even if this means that a 7 goes unplayed for awhile).
Game play continues until one player runs out of cards. Each other player counts the number of cards remaining in their hand and pays one chip per card to the pot. The pot is then collected by the player who ran out of cards.
Pirate
Pirate is essentially a two-person solitaire game, because the two players basically play their own games and only interact at certain points in the game. Gameplay is quite simple, making it a great game for children.
Object of Pirate
The object of Pirate is to capture more ships (sequences from king down to ace or vice-versa) than your opponent.
Setup
Pirate requires two standard 52-card decks of playing cards. The two decks are not intermixed, at least initially, and it doesn’t matter if their backs are different. A two-deck set of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards will fit the bill perfectly. Because there are no turns in Pirate, with players making their plays simultaneously, cards can unintentionally get bent, meaning that the added durability of plastic cards will be handy.
Each player shuffles the other’s deck, and then cuts their own deck, exposing the bottom card of the top half of their deck. The player with the lower exposed card is the low player and the other player is the high player. Players then shuffle their own decks, each deck forming their own personal stock, which they keep held in their hand.
Game play
Players begin turning cards face up from their deck into a face-up waste pile. When the low player encounters an ace, they place it in front of them as the keel to a new ship. Likewise, the high player may lay a keel to a new ship with a king. New keels are placed across the table from a keel of the same suit on the opponent’s side, if there is one. Upon these keels, players may build upon their own ship with cards of the same suit, in sequence, with the low player building up from the ace and the high player building down from the king. Players may not play to their opponent’s ship. When the stock is exhausted, the waste pile is turned face down to form a new stock.
When two ships meet up to form one uninterrupted 13-card sequence, the ship is captured by the player that played the card that connected them, and the ship is squared up and put aside next to the capturing player to be scored later. If, however, both players attempt to capture the ship at the same time, it is sunk and the entire ship is discarded, with no score being awarded to either player.
After a ship has been captured or sunk, a new ship of that suit is built, with the players laying the opposite keels as before—the high player lays the ace and the low player lays the king.
When a player exhausts both their stock and waste pile, they cease normal play, but continue to observe their opponent. If the opponent draws any cards that the observing player could use to build upon their own ships, they may claim the cards as their own, provided they do so before the opponent plays the card or draws another. If a card is drawn that would capture a ship, the first player to claim it gets the capture—or, if both players claim it simultaneously, the ship is sunk.
The first player to capture five ships—or four, if a ship has been sunk—is the winner.
Spider
Spider, also known as Spider Solitaire, is one of the most popular two-deck solitaire games. Like many other solitaire games, including Golf and Pyramid, Spider owes a part of its modern popularity to being adapted by Microsoft for inclusion in its Windows operating system.
Spider is said to be one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s favorite games. Apocryphal sources say Roosevelt found playing the game a way to relax from the stress of being President during the Great Depression and World War II and that he would sometimes play with as many as five decks shuffled together.
Someone who is afraid of playing Spider is called an arachnophobe. I think? That doesn’t sound right…
Object of Spider
The object of Spider is to remove all 104 cards from play by assembling sequences of thirteen cards of the same suit.
Setup
Shuffle two decks of playing cards together. Since it’s a solitaire game, it’s up to you to decide how important it is that the backs match. If it isn’t, one set of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards is all you need.
Shuffle and deal ten cards, face down. Then deal another row of cards, overlapping the first. Repeat this until each column has four cards. Deal a fifth card to the first four columns, then one face-up card to each column. (Refer to the image at right.) When you are finished, you should have a 54-card tableau; set the remaining 50 cards aside, forming the stock.
Game play
Cards can be moved to other positions in the tableau, so long as the card they are placed upon is one rank higher. So a 9♠ can be placed on the 10♦, which can be placed on the J♥, etc. However, cards may only be moved as a unit if they are all of the same suit—so of the aforementioned J♥-10♦-9♠ sequence, only the 9 would be able to be moved. A J♣-10♣-9♣ sequence, however, may be moved together onto a queen. Aces are low and can only be played on twos; kings are high and cannot be played on any other card (but can be moved to an empty space).
When face-down cards are exposed, they are turned face-up. If an empty space is formed in the tableau, it may be filled by any card (or sequence of cards).
When no further moves are possible or desired, ten cards are dealt from the stock, one on each of the tableau piles. No empty spaces may be present in the tableau in order for cards to be dealt from the stock.
If a sequence of thirteen cards of the same suit, from king down to ace, is built, the entire sequence is removed from play. The game is won when the entire deck is discarded in this manner. Game play continues until the game is won or no useful moves are possible.
Oh Hell!
Oh Hell! is, essentially, an amped-up, non-partnership version of Spades for three to seven players. Unlike in most trick-taking games (with the exception of Spades), collecting extra tricks beyond that which you’ve bid is a bad thing. Oh Hell! goes one step further and requires one to bid exactly right to avoid losing points. Presumably “Oh Hell!” is the exclamation one makes when collecting an overtrick.
Object of Oh Hell!
The object of Oh Hell! is to score points by exactly predicting the number of tricks you will take.
Setup
Oh Hell! requires one standard 52-card deck of playing cards. You could use something other than Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards, but why would you?
The starting hand size varies by number of players:
- Three to five players: ten cards
- Six players: eight cards
- Seven players: seven cards
The deck stub is placed in the center of the table, and the top card is turned up. The suit of this card becomes the trump suit for the hand. The remainder of the stub takes no part in game play.
Game play
Prior to the play of the hand, bidding takes place. Players examine their hand and, starting with the player to the left of the dealer and going clockwise, declare the number of tricks they will be attempting to take. A bid of zero is acceptable. The dealer, who bids last, is compelled to bid sufficiently high enough so the total value of all the bids exceeds the starting hand size for that hand (e.g. with an eight-card hand, the total of all bids, including the dealer’s, must equal at least nine). This is to ensure at least one person will not be able to fulfill their bid.
The player to the left of the dealer plays first, leading any card. Players must follow suit if possible; if they cannot, they may play any card, including a trump. Tricks are won by the player who played the highest card of the suit led, or if the trick contains a trump, the highest trump. Collected tricks are not added to the player’s hand, but are placed face-down in a won-tricks pile in front of the player, with succeeding tricks placed at right angles to one another to allow them to be counted later.
At the end of the hand, the score is tallied. Any player who successfully collected exactly the number of tricks that they bid scores ten points for each trick bid (or ten points for a winning bid of zero). All other players lose ten points for the number of tricks they are short or long (for example, if a player bid five tricks and collected three, they would score –20).
On each succeeding hand, the number of cards dealt is reduced by one, until a one-card hand is dealt. Thereafter, the starting hand size increases by one on each hand, until the number of cards dealt equals the number dealt on the first hand. The player with the highest score—even if it’s negative!—after this hand is the winner. In case of a tie, play another one-card hand as a tiebreaker.
I Doubt It
I Doubt It, also known as Cheat or B.S. (what those letters stand for is left as an exercise to the reader), is a unique game for three or more players where you merely have to assert that you’re playing the correct cards. Occasionally, flagrantly lying to your friends is a good way to get ahead.
Object of I Doubt It
The object of I Doubt It is to be the first player to run out of cards.
Setup
I Doubt It requires at least one 52-card deck of playing cards, such as Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards. For a larger game, it may be desired to add a second deck of cards to increase the hand size of each player.
Shuffle and deal the cards as evenly as they will go. It is okay if some players have one card more than others.
Game play
The player to the dealer’s left goes first. They are required to play one or more aces, declaring as they do so “Two aces” (or however many cards they are playing). Or rather, they claim to be playing one or more aces—the cards are played face down to a discard pile, so nobody can know for sure if they are telling the truth or not. The next player to the left then theoretically plays 2s, then the next player 3s, and so on up to kings, which are followed again by aces.
If another player is suspicious that the active player is taking liberties with the truth, they may challenge that player by declaring “I doubt it!” (or “Cheat!” or “B.S.!”) When this occurs, the last set of cards played is revealed. If the active player was lying, they take the entire discard pile into their hand. If they were telling the truth, the challenger is saddled with the discard pile. Challenges may not be made on a play after the succeeding player has made their declaration.
Game play continues until one player has run out of cards (and wins the inevitable challenge accompanying their final play).
Crazy Eights
Crazy Eights is a simple game of the Stops family, where play is periodically stopped by the unavailability of a card needed to continue play. Many players who have not played Crazy Eights will find it familiar if they have played Uno, a similar game marketed by Mattel that makes use of a custom deck.
Object of Crazy Eights
The object of Crazy Eights is to get rid of all your cards by matching them to the top card of the discard pile by either suit or rank.
Setup
Crazy Eights requires the use of a standard 52-card deck. Optionally, jokers may be included. A single deck can support up to five players; more can play if a second deck is shuffled in. Crazy Eights probably isn’t the sort of game that you’ll play if you’re trying to impress your guests, but that doesn’t mean you can’t break out your set of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards. I mean, you have them for a reason, right?
Shuffle and deal eight cards to each player. Place the remainder of the deck in the middle of the table, forming the stock. Turn one card from the stock face up; this card, the upcard, is the top card of the discard pile.
Game play
The player to the left of the dealer goes first. They must play a card to the discard pile matching the upcard in either suit or rank. For example, if the upcard is the 5♠, they must play any other 5 or any other spade. When they have played a card, play passes to the next player to the left.
8s serve as wild cards. An 8 may be played at any time, and the player who plays it names any one of the four suits, with the next player required to play a card of that suit, or switch suits with another 8. Jokers, if used, also serve as a wild card, but do not grant the player the option to select a suit—the next player may play any card they wish.
If a player is unable or unwilling to play a card, they draw from the stock until they are able to play. If the stock is depleted, the upcard is set aside and the discard pile shuffled to form a new stock.
The first player to run out of cards wins.
See also
Game rules index, November 2014
Since April we’ve posted the rules to 36 different card games! Here’s a list of them, sorted by game family:
Betting games
- 3-5-7
- Blackjack
- In-Between
- Knock Poker (not an actual betting game, but in the poker family so it goes here)
- Mexican Sweat
- Mini Baccarat
- Newmarket
- Red Dog
- Seven Twenty-Seven
- Thirty-One
Counting games
Children’s games
Fishing games
Partnership games
All games that are traditionally played in pairs or teams.
Reaction games
Games where a player has to quickly react to a particular action, such as a signal from another player, or a particular card being revealed.
Rummy games
Shedding games
Games in this family are won by the player who runs out of cards first (or, in some games, are lost by the last player stuck with cards).
Solitaire games
Stops games
Games in this family have the distinction of the progression of game play sometimes being brought to a halt by the unavailability of a needed card.
Trick-taking games
Scopa
Last week, we shared the rules of Cassino with you. Scopa is a similar game, found in the same “fishing” family as Cassino, although it is much simpler than the latter game. Scopa, meaning sweep in Italian, was described by David Parlett in The Penguin Book of Card Games as “one of Italy’s major national card games”. Like Cassino, Scopa is best for two players.
Object of Scopa
The object of Scopa is to use the cards in your hand to capture cards on the table, with particular attention given to nabbing certain high-scoring cards.
Setup
Scopa requires a 40-card deck of playing cards. Traditionally, an Italian deck is used, with suits of swords in place of spades, batons instead of clubs, cups instead of hearts, and coins instead of diamonds. The Italian deck used for Scopa also has different face card ranks: re (king), cavall (knight), and fante (footsoldier). You can create an equivalent pack by taking a deck of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards and removing the 8s, 9s, and 10s; the English queen will substitute for the knight, and the jack for the footsoldier. It does not matter that the suits don’t match up; suits generally do not matter in Scopa, although diamonds take on the role of coins in the Italian game.
You will also need some form of scorekeeping apparatus, like pencil and paper.
Shuffle and deal three cards to each player, then deal four more face up to the center of the table. The remainder of the deck forms the stock. If three or more of the four board cards are kings, it is customary to abandon the hand, throw in the cards, and deal again.
Game play
The non-dealer plays first. On their turn, a player may use any card in their hand to capture one or more of the board cards. The cards so captured, as well as the one played by the player, are placed face-down in a score pile in front of them.
Capturing is achieved in one of two ways. The first is by pairing a card from the hand with a card matching in rank. The card captures only one other card of that rank on the board. (This is unlike in Cassino, where one card may capture as many as three others of the same rank.)
The second way of capturing is by addition, wherein the player captures two or more other cards that total the value of the card being played. For the purposes of addition, aces count as one, numerical cards as their face value, jacks as eight, queens as nine, and kings as ten. If a card can perform a capture by both pairing or by addition, the pairing takes precedence and must be performed rather than performing an addition capture. It is possible to clear the entire board of cards, called a sweep or scopa; this is recorded by putting the card performing in the sweep face-up in the score pile.
If a player cannot make any other play on their turn, they must trail by discarding one card face-up to the board. A player may not simply trail if they are able to capture something with that card, however.
Every third turn, the players exhaust their hands; new three-card hands are dealt from the stock. The board does not receive any further cards, and the cards already on the board remain in play.
Ending the hand
Game play continues until both the stock and the players’ hands are exhausted. The last player to make a successful capture adds the remaining board cards to their score pile. This does not constitute a sweep, even if the player actually captured all of the cards on the board. The hand is then scored, with players awarded one point for each of the following, in order:
- collecting the most cards overall*
- collecting the most diamonds*
- capturing the sette bello (7♦)
- primiera (see below)
- 1 point for each sweep
*In the event that the players are tied for the most cards in these categories, neither player gets the point.
In order to be eligible for primiera, a player must have collected cards of all four suits. A player then finds the highest-scoring card in each suit according to the following list, and adds up the total of all four cards:
- a 7—21 points
- a 6—18 points
- an ace—16 points
- a 5—15 points
- a 4—14 points
- a 3—13 points
- a 2—12 points
- a face card—10 points
The player with the higher count by this reckoning scores the point for primiera.
The first player to score eleven points wins. Points should be added in the order listed above, and whenever the first player reaches eleven points, scoring ceases, with the remaining categories going unscored.
See also
Cassino
Cassino is the lone entry of a family of so-called “fishing” games to gain popularity in the English-speaking world. Cassino, a game for two players, revolves around capturing cards on a field of play by matching cards in your hand against them. Its name is sometimes hypercorrected to Casino. The spelling with two S‘s is the traditional spelling, and helps distinguish it from people’s usual association with the word casino, which is a place where you will probably never see a Cassino game.
Object of Cassino
The object of Cassino is to use the cards in your hand to capture cards on the table. Particular attention is given to nabbing certain high-scoring cards.
Setup
Cassino requires one standard 52-card deck of playing cards. Naturally, we recommend Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards. You will also need some form of scorekeeping apparatus, like pencil and paper.
Shuffle and deal four cards to the board and four to each player, in the following pattern: two to the opponent, two to the table, two to the dealer, then repeating. The remainder of the deck is set aside and forms the stock.
Game play
The non-dealer plays first. Most turns, a player will either capture a card on the board, or set up a capture on a subsequent turn by building, as described below. If a player cannot make any other play on their turn, they must trail by discarding one card face-up to the board. A player may not simply trail if they are able to capture something with that card, however. Trailing usually happens immediately after someone has cleared the board of cards.
Every fourth turn, the players exhaust their hands. New four-card hands are dealt from the stock, two at a time, as before. The board does not receive any further cards, and the cards already on the board remain in play.
Capturing
On their turn, a player may use any card in their hand to capture one or more of the board cards. The cards so captured, as well as the one played by the player, are placed face-down in a score pile in front of them. Capturing is achieved in one of two ways. The first is by pairing, in which case the card captures all other cards of that rank on the board. The second is by addition, wherein the player captures two or more other cards that total the value of the card being played. For the purposes of addition, aces count as one and numerical cards as their face value. Face cards have no value and cannot be captured by addition.
A single card may capture an unlimited number of cards, so long as all of the cards captured match the card being played. It is possible to clear the entire board of cards in one play. This is called a sweep. When a sweep occurs, it is recorded by putting the card performing in the sweep face-up in the score pile.
Building
A player may also use a card from their hand to build. This is using a card from your hand to create a combination that can be captured on a subsequent turn. Builds can be created with intent to capture them either by addition or pairing. With a 5 on the board and a 2 in the hand, for example, a player may announce “Building seven” and add the 2 to the 5, then later capture both of them with a 7 from the hand. Or, with a pair of 8s in the hand and a third 8 on the table, a player might build one 8 onto the other, announcing “Building eights”, and capture the pair with the third eight from their hand on a later turn.
Note, however, that an opponent can capture a build if they happen to have a card of the right rank to do so. A build can only be captured by what it was previously declared to be a build of. For instance, if a 5 was played on another 5 with a declaration of “Building fives”, the build could not be captured with a 10.
In order to build, player must have another card actually capable of capturing the build as declared. Builds must be captured as a unit; one cannot capture just one or two cards from one.
A previously-established build may be augmented with further building before it is captured. Further building must continue in the manner it was started. For example, a build composed of a pair of 2s, announced as “Building twos”, could only be extended with more 2s. A 5 could not be added to convert it to an addition build.
Ending the hand
Game play continues until both the stock and the players’ hands are exhausted. The last player to make a successful capture adds the remaining board cards to their score pile. (This does not constitute a sweep unless the player actually captured all of the cards on the board at once.) The hand is then scored as follows:
- Each sweep—one point.
- Each ace—one point.
- Collecting the most spades—one point.
- Little Cassino—capturing the 2♠, one point.
- Big Cassino—capturing the 10♦, two points.
- Collecting the most cards overall—three points. In the event of a tie for most cards overall, neither player is awarded these three points.
The first player to score 11 or 21 points (as previously agreed by the players) wins.
See also
Thirty-One
After posting the rules to Thirteen, Twenty-One, and Ninety-Nine, we couldn’t resist covering yet another numerically-titled game. Thirty-One shares more of a resemblance to Knock Poker and Gin Rummy than any of the previously-named games, however.
Object of Thirty-One
The object of Thirty-One is to obtain a total count of cards in one suit which is the closest to 31 without going over.
Setup
Thirty-One requires a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. If you’ve read more than a few of these posts, you know that statement is bound to be followed by a recommendation that you use Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards. Well, guess what? This post doesn’t have one.
Each player will also usually place a stake on the outcome of the game in the form of a single banknote of the appropriate currency. What denomination it is doesn’t matter, so long as everyone’s is equal, but often a $5 bill is used. The game can be played without wagering, however, by distributing four markers or tokens of some kind (such as poker chips) to each player.
Shuffle and deal three cards to each player. The remainder of the pack is placed in the center of the table, forming the stock. The top card of the stock is flipped face-up and placed next to it and is called the upcard, the top card of the discard pile.
Game play
The value of each card in Thirty-One is as follows: aces are worth eleven, face cards are worth ten, and all other cards are worth their face value. Each player is trying to obtain as closest as possible to a score of 31 in one suit.
The player to the left of the dealer goes first. This player draws either the upcard or a card from the stock, then discards one card face-up to the discard pile. Play then continues with the next player to the left.
If a player has obtained a score of exactly 31 in one suit, this is called a blitz, and the player immediately reveals it, ending the hand. If a player is satisfied with their score before someone reveals a blitz, they may knock on the table rather than drawing and discarding. Each player after them has one additional turn to improve their hand. When the turn of play returns to the player who knocked, the hand ends.
At the end of the hand, whether by a player revealing a blitz or by knocking, all players reveal their hands, and each is scored. If a hand contains three cards of different suits, the highest card is the hand’s score; if the hand contains two or three of one suit, the values of these cards are totalled to score the hand. The player with the lowest score is the loser of the hand; this player folds one corner of their bill (or forfeits one marker) to signify the loss. If a player knocked to end the hand, and this player is the loser, the penalty is doubled.
Play continues until one player has folded all four corners of their bill (or has run out of markers). This player remains in the game, but if they lose a fifth hand, then they are eliminated and surrender their stake into the center of the table. Game play continues until all players but one have been eliminated. The remaining player is the winner of the game and keeps all of the money.
