Original Card Games by David Parlett
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Players 2 Cards 54   Type Arithmetical

Click here for versions in German and French

This arithmetical game for two can conveniently be played for a small stake. (Preferably through the heart.) I invented it years ago while on retreat on the East Sussex coast and found it enjoyably challenging, even taking the parts of both players.

Cards
Use a 54-card pack including two Vampires. (If you haven't any, use Jokers instead.) Start by giving each player one Vampire. Place your Vampire face up on the table before you. You may play it at any time during the game, but once only .
Start
There are six deals to a game and you each deal in turn. Whoever deals in the first game announces, before dealing, whether they will score the Queen's way (horizontally) or the King's way (vertically). The other player then has no option but to score in the opposite direction, or refuse to play such a stupid game.
Deal
Deal four cards each (or three, to a player who has one card left after playing their Vampire) face down, turn the next one face up on the table, and stack the rest face down. The faced card defines the centre of an eventual square of nine cards in three rows and three columns (as at Noughts & Crosses or Tic-tac-toe), which the players gradually build up on the table. This layout is called the coffin, and the initially faced card is the first nail in the coffin.
Object
To make the highest-scoring line of three cards in your scoring direction - that is, the Queen-player scores only in the horizontal direction (rows) and the King- player only in the vertical direction (columns). For this purpose numerals count at face value from Ace = 1 to Ten = 10 and Jack counts 0. For the Queen-player a Queen counts 10 horizontally but 0 vertically. For the King-player a King counts 10 vertically but 0 horizontally.
Play
Each in turn, starting with the non-dealer, plays a card face up to the table in any of the other eight positions that may be vacant, provided that it goes side by side to a card already in position (not just corner to corner). Keep going till all are full.
Score
You each score the total value of the highest-scoring line of cards in your own direction, across or down. If both your highest-scoring lines are equal, you each score your second-highest line, or, if still equal, your third highest (even if equal). The score for any line of three is found by counting each numeral card at face value and face cards as follows:
  1. A Jack counts 0 in either direction.
    A Queen counts 10 horizontally but 0 vertically.
    A King counts 10 vertically but 0 horizontally.
  2. The total face value of any line is -
    doubled if it contains two cards of the same suit,
    trebled if it contains three cards of the same colour (red or black);
    quintupled if it contains three cards of the same suit.
    (The suit of a King, Queen or Jack that counts zero still remains valid for doubling, trebling or quintupling the score of the line in which it appears.)
  3. A Vampire drains all the score out of the row and column in which it appears, resulting in a whole line counting zero in both directions.
Example
In the illustrated example (right ) Example the Queen-player (across) scores 38 for her best horizontal line and the King player (down) 30 for his best vertical line.
Subsequent deals
The next dealer clears the coffin away, takes up the stock of unused cards, and deals four cards each face down, followed by one face up as the first nail in the second coffin. Play and score as before.
Game
The winner is the player with the highest aggregate score, or, if equal, whoever scored most in the sixth deal. (Here I've deleted an original complicated bit about bonuses.)
Scoring with cards
If you don't want to keep writing down and adding up scores you can use cards as counters. When you make the highest valued line you take from the played cards one for each multiplier by which the basic card score was increased - that's one card if your winning line was not so increased, two if it was doubled, three if trebled, or five if quintupled.
ADVANCED VERSION
In this extravagant variation the total face value of any line is -
  1. doubled if it contains two cards of the same suit or of the same rank (thus x4 if both, such as heart8 heart3 club8 = 76)
  2. trebled if it contains three of the same colour, or three cards in sequence, such as heart8 diamond9 club10 = 81
  3. quintupled if it contains three cards of the same suit
These multiples can be combined, producing some potentially very high scores. For example:

heart8 heart9 club10 = 162 (19 x 3 for the sequence x 2 for the suit pair )
heart8 diamond9 heart10 = 243 (19 x 3 for the sequence x 3 for the same colour)
heart8 heart9 heart10 = 405 (19 x 3 for the sequence x 5 for the same suit)

Face cards produce some oddities, like

heart9 heart10 heartJ = 135 (19 x 3 for the sequence x 5 for the same suit)
heartJ heartQ heartK = 150 for either the Queen or the King-player (10 x 3 for the sequence x 5 for the same suit)

Of course, such ridiculously high scores are highly unlikely to occur, since once two cards of the combination are in place the opponent can almost inevitably prevent its completion by playing a destructive third card.
Copyright 2003 -