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

Games in which the aim is to col ect sets of
    matched cards (‘melds’).
    19. Rummy games, and others, in which the aim is to be the first
    to go out by discarding al your cards in matched sets.
    20. Rummy games of the Canasta family, in which it is to keep
    col ecting and scoring for matched sets before deciding to go out.
    Ordering games
    21. Patience games, in which the object is to set the shuf led pack
    in order. Most of these are solitaires (one-player games) but, as
    there are enough of them to fil an encyclopedia of their own, this
    section restricts itself to competitive varieties for two or more
    players.
    Vying games
    22. Poker, Brag and other gambling games of skil , in which
    players vie with one another as to who holds the best card-
    combination, or is likely to finish with the best when their hands
    are complete.
    Banking games
    23. A selection of gambling games, such as Pontoon (Blackjack)
    and Baccara(t), limited to those that can conveniently be played at
    home.
    Original card games
    24. Final y, I have appended a selection of some of my own
    games. Some of these were first published in Original Card Games
    (1977, no longer available). I have invented others since, and
    (1977, no longer available). I have invented others since, and
    include the best of these. One of my originals, Ninety-Nine, has
    become so widely known, being described also in books by other
    writers and turned into computer software, that I have included it
    in the main body of this col ection.
    Excluded from these contents are games played with non-
    standard cards, whether proprietary cards (such as Rook cards and
    UnoT) or with traditional cards other than the four-suited pack,
    such as the Japanese Hanafuda, the Indian Ganjifa, the European
    Cuckoo, the Jewish Kvitlakh, and many others.
    Includedarewhat mightbecal ed children’s games, but
    notinasepar-ate chapter of their own. Many are ancient games of
    historical interest that throw up enlightening relationships with
    standard card games.
    Also included are several games of mainly historical interest. One
    reason is that any cultural heritage is worth preserving and needs to
    be re-assessed and transmit ed every generation or so. Another is
    that many games mentioned only by name in history or literature
    have recently become playable through the recovery of lost
    descriptions, or even, in some happy instances, by the discovery of
    communities that stil play them. By far the most important reason,
    however, is that many of them are simply excel ent games, and wel
    worth reviving.
    Playing the game
    Well, you were supposed to be teaching me the game, and I saw you were
    cheating all the time, so I thought it was allowed by the rules.
    Leslie Charteris, Enter the Saint
    Card-play occurs against a backdrop of long-established
    Card-play occurs against a backdrop of long-established
    traditional procedures amounting almost to ritual. They are worth
    observing, partly as a mark of civility (there is no fun in playing
    with louts unless you are one yourself), and largely because they are
    designed to prevent anyone from gaining, or appearing to gain, an
    unfair advantage by doing anything out of the ordinary.
    Love or money?
    It is a mistake to characterize al card-play as a form of gambling by
    definition. Al games (even Chess) can be played for money and, to
    that extent, are potential occasions for gambling, but whether or not
    they are so played depends partly on the inherent nature of the
    game in question and partly on the inherent nature of its players.
    Some seem incapable oftaking any card game seriously
    unlessitisplayed for money, while others wil never, on principle,
    play for money at al . Extremists of either sort (and I speak from
    the non-monetary end of the spectrum) have no option but to
    acknowledge the views of the other, and avoid meeting at the same
    table.
    As to the games, they fal into three groups. At one extreme lie
    games of skil , such as Bridge, which so