The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games Read Free

7 6 5 4 3 2 A
    The numerals are not complete in al traditions. Most French
    The numerals are not complete in al traditions. Most French
    games are played with 32 cards (formerly 36), Spanish and Italian
    with 40, sometimes 48, rarely 52. Most Spanish and Italian games
    omit the Tens, and the Ten is replaced by a Banner in Swiss games.
    Aces are merely Ones in Spanish and Italian games. The Swiss
    equivalent of an Ace, although so cal ed, is actual y a Deuce, as it
    bears two suit-signs.
    Plan of attack
    I have made a heap of all I have found.
    Nennius, Historia Brittonum
    Most of the games are accompanied by a ‘working description’,
    which means enough of a description to enable you to play the
    game in its most basic form.
    This is not the same as the so-cal ed ‘of icial rules’ of play. For
    one thing, such rules include detailed instructions on how cards
    should be shuf led and cut, what to do if someone deals out of turn
    or exposes a card while dealing, etc., and there isn’t enough room
    to be fussy about such niceties. For another, most games are played
    informal y and are not equipped with of icial rules. Of icial rules
    are drawn up for games played at tournament level, and should be
    regarded as the of icial rules of the appropriate governing body, not
    the of icial rules of the game itself. The vast majority of card games
    are not book games but folk games. As such, they are played
    informal y, without reference to books, by schools of players who
    are quite able and wil ing to make up rules to fit whatever disputes
    may arise (referring, if necessary, to the local oldest inhabitant as a
    final arbiter), and to inject new ideas into the game that may, with
    time, eventual y cause it to evolve into something else. The proper
    time, eventual y cause it to evolve into something else. The proper
    function of a card-game observer and col ector lies in describing
    how games are played rather than in prescribing how they should
    be played. Far too many card-game books have been perpetrated
    by writers who, being primarily Bridge-players, imagine that the
    only true way of playing every other card game is to fol ow what
    was writ en about it in a book whose original text may be a
    hundred years out of date. (And that’s no exaggeration. Nearly al
    descriptions of Brag published in the twentieth century describe
    only the nineteenth-century game.)
    Since many games are played in dif erent ways by dif erent
    schools, or even by the same school at dif erent times, I have
    restricted my descriptions to the most basic form, and have marked
    additional or alternative items as variations.
    In some cases I have given a sample deal and made suggestions as
    to skilful play, but this is not the primary function of the book,
    which is designed to be extensive rather than intensive in its
    coverage. I have preferred to devote space to introductory notes on
    the historical and ethnic background of the game in question, since,
    unlike skilful play, this is not something you can pick up for
    yourself as you go along.
    The col ection is divided into two dozen chapters, each covering
    a group of similar or related games. This has necessitated classifying
    card games according to their various methods of play, which may
    be introduced and explained as fol ows.
    Trick-taking games
    The vast majority of European card games are based on the
    principle of trick-play. Each in turn plays a card to the table, and
    whoever plays the best card wins the others. These cards constitute
    a trick, which the winner places, face down, in a winnings-pile
    before playing the first card to the next trick. The ‘best’ card is
    usual y the highest-ranking card of the same suit as the card led –
    that is, of the first card played to it. Anyone who fails to ‘fol ow suit
    to the card led’ cannot win it, no mat er how high a card they play.
    to the card led’ cannot win it, no mat er how high a card they play.
    Winning a trick is therefore doubly