Card Games For Dummies E-Book

Barry Rigal

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 682

Beschreibung

Card games offer loads of fun and one of the best socializing experiences out there. But picking up winning card strategies is a bit of a challenge, and though your buddies may think that picking up the rules of the game is easy, winning is a totally different story. With Card Games For Dummies, Second Edition, you'll not only be able to play the hottest card games around, you can also apply game-winning strategies and tips to have fun and beat your opponents. Now updated, this hands-on guide shows you everything you need to know--the basics, the tricks, and the techniques--to become a master card player, with expanded coverage on poker as well as online gaming and tournaments. Soon you will have the card-playing power to: * Pin down your opponents in Texas Hold'em * Show off your power in Stud Poker * Hit wisely in Blackjack * Break hearts ruthlessly in Hearts * Mix up the night with Gin and Rummy * Build yourself a victory in Bridge * Send them fishing in Go Fish This straightforward, no-nonsense guide features great ways to improve your game and have more fun, as well as a list of places to find out more about your favorite game. It also profiles different variations of each game, making you a player for all seasons!

Leseprobe

Card Games For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

by Barry Rigal

Card Game Writer, Journalist, and World-Famous Bridge Author

Foreword by Omar Sharif

Bridge Columnist and Academy Award–Nominated Actor

Card Games For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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About the Author

Barry Rigal was born with a deck of cards in his hand. Having started with the children’s games, Whist, Rummy, and Solitaire, he moved on to Bridge at the age of 12. After graduating from Oxford University (where he captained the Bridge team), he worked in accountancy. Highlights of his work career were learning how to play Piquet and Clobyosh in the Tax Department of Thomson McLintock. After four years with Price Waterhouse, supervising the partnership’s Bridge team, he went into the world of business, working seven years in the Oil Taxation department of Conoco. During that time he began a career as a journalist and commentator on card games. Over the course of the last two decades he has written newspaper and magazine articles and six books on Bridge. Barry lives in the United States and is happily married to Sue (despite the fact that she is a far more successful player than he).

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife Sue, who made the whole project (and indeed everything else) worthwhile and has saved my life on countless occasions by fixing all my computer problems.

Author’s Acknowledgments

My principal vote of thanks goes to Technical Editor John McLeod, who has provided invaluable assistance for just about every chapter in this book. John gave me essential information when I asked him, and he never got tired of my stupid questions. (You can visit his site at www.pagat.com.) In addition, I have used the assistance of many others who have created Web pages about card games, and who have been generous with their help and advice. Thanks are also due to the following people: Katie Sutton (for help on Canasta); Matt Schemmel and Erin O’Neil (Euchre); Melissa Binde (Fan Tan); Matt Ginsberg and Umesh Shankar (Setback); Richard Hussong, Jeff Goldsmith, and Bruce McCosar (Eights); David Dailey (Pinochle); Bruce Blanchard (President); Ernst Martin, Billy Miller, Tysen Streib, and Andy Latto (Poker); Michael Fosse, Dave Wetzel, and Pat Civale (Spades); John Hay, David Barker, and Alan Hoyle (Hearts); Carter Hoerr and David Parlett (exact trick games); Phil Gordon and Willy Ehlers (Omaha); Billy Miller (Hold ’Em). To everyone who answered my questions, thank you. And anyone I’ve accidentally omitted — sorry for not including you here! Special thanks to Carolyne Krupp and Mikal Belicove for getting me started on this project, and to Brian Kramer, my Project Editor, for helping me finish it. A tip of the hat also to my excellent Copy Editor, Josh Dials.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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Foreword

M any people think of me primarily as an actor rather than as a card player. In fact, I discovered cards more years ago than I care to mention, and I played Bridge at an international level in the 1960s. Acting may be my business, but Bridge is my passion.

However, it is fair to say that if I limited my card-playing to Bridge, I’d be a much richer man than I am today! I’ve always been interested in playing card games for high stakes, and over the years, I’ve collected my fair share of returns from the casinos. At the same time, I’ve also had my share of losses, and by a course of judicious investment, I’ve provided many casinos with the wherewithal to refurbish their dining rooms!

Does that mean I’m a bad card player? I hope not. It just means that no matter how often you play, there is always room for improvement in your game. That’s where a book like this one proves so useful.

Card Games For Dummies provides an outline to insure that even the beginner can understand the structure of the games under discussion. The book also offers tactical and strategic hints to enable the beginner to improve. I read the new edition of Card Games For Dummies with interest, to see where, if anywhere, I’ve been going wrong. I know I’ll return to the fray with increased confidence.

By covering so many games that are popular today, rather than covering a selection of outdated games like many other books do, Barry Rigal has made a significant contribution to the literature of cards. I look forward to playing many of the games that I read about in this book. I’m sure that you will derive an equal amount of pleasure from it.

Omar Sharif

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Discovering Card Games

Chapter 1: Card Game Basics

Talking the Talk

Preparing to Play

Making a Declaration

Playing the Game

Selecting the Best Card Game

Chapter 2: Solitaire

Acquainting Yourself with Solitaire Terms

Putting the Squeeze on Accordion

Piling It On in Calculation

Reserving Your Time for Canfield

Striking Gold with Klondike

Living La Belle Lucie

Practicing Poker Patience

Befriending Spite and Malice

Chapter 3: Children’s Games

Beggar My Neighbor

Snap, Animals, and Slapjack

War

Fish and Friends

Cheat

Old Maid

Spit (or Speed)

Part II : Getting Rid of Cards

Chapter 4: Rummy

Rummy: Throw a Combo and Go

Gin Rummy: Knocking Your Foe Down

500 Rummy: Moving the Pile

Chapter 5: Canasta

Accepting Your Canasta Mission

Tallying Your Scores

Making Do with Two (or Three): Short-Handed Canasta

Hand and Foot

Chapter 6: Eights

Eights: Simple Is as Simple Does

Mau Mau: Staking Out a Stock Pile

Neuner: Matching and Stacking

Switch: Avoiding the Double Agents

Chapter 7: Fan Tan

Accepting Your Fan Tan Mission

Double-Deck Fan Tan

Trump Fan Tan

Crazy Tan

Part III : Taking Tricks

Chapter 8: Whist

What’s the Whist All About?

Incorporating Basic Whist Strategy

Three-Handed Whist

German (Two-Handed) Whist

Bid Whist

Chapter 9: Oh Hell! and Other Exact Bidding Games

Oh Hell!

Romanian Whist

Ninety-Nine

Chapter 10: Euchre

Acquainting Yourself with Euchre

Picking Partners

Striking a Fair Deal

Determining the Trump Suit

Jacking Up the Card Rankings

Bidding for Tricks

Tallying Your Score

Playing for Bigger Stakes Alone

Tricking for Points, Not Treats

Chapter 11: Spades

Grasping the Basics of Spades

Digging Spades for Less Than Four

Chapter 12: Contract Bridge and Mini-Bridge

Mini-Bridge

Crossing to Bridge

Part IV : Scoring or Avoiding Points

Chapter 13: Hearts

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Hearts with Three or Five-Plus Players

Honeymoon Hearts

Black Maria

Cancellation Hearts

Chapter 14: Pinochle

Pinochle for Two

Pinochle for Three: Auction Pinochle

Partnership Auction Pinochle

Chapter 15: Setback

Getting Setback Savvy

Grab a Friend: Partnership Setback

Setback for Three or Six

Part V : Adding and Climbing

Chapter 16: Cribbage

Starting Off on the Right Foot

Playing Cribbage for Stakes: Lurches and Skunks

Five-Card Cribbage

Cribbage for Three Players

Chapter 17: President

Lobbying for the Basics of President

Palace

Chapter 18: Blackjack

Social Blackjack

Planning Your Basic Blackjack Strategy

Casino Blackjack

Part VI : Playing Poker

Chapter 19: Shuffling Through Poker Basics

Covering the Poker Bases

Getting Started: Basic Play

Bluffing Dos and Don’ts

Reading Your Opponents

Chapter 20: Draw Poker

Five-Card Draw

Chapter 21: Stud Poker

Seven-Card Stud: Betting Down the River

Surveying the Stud Landscape: Table Strategy

Five-Card Stud

Chapter 22: Texas Hold ’Em

Holding ’Em Up — Texas Style

Strategically Speaking: Calling, Folding, and Raising

Seizing Opportunities to Play Hold ’Em

Chapter 23: Omaha

Getting to Know Omaha High/Low

Winning High/Low Strategy

Omaha High

Part VII : The Part of Tens

Chapter 24: Ten Ways to Improve Your Game and Have More Fun

Treating Your Partner with Respect

Give Yourself a Reality Check

Keep Your Celebrations to Yourself

Know When the Time Is Ripe

Cut Yourself Off

Paint a Picture of Your Opponents’ Cards

March to the Beat of Your Own Drum

Talk Through the Cards

Count Down to Victory

Have Fun!

Chapter 25: Ten Places to Find More Information on Your Game

The Internet

Software and Live Sites on Computers

Discussion Groups

Gaming Bodies

Books

Newspapers and Magazines

Playing with the Big Dogs

Tournaments

Going Straight to a Gaming Source

Clubs

Introduction

Card games offer the most fascinating challenges that you may ever encounter. In most games, you can manipulate the 52 pieces of pasteboard into infinite permutations and combinations. Working out those com- binations is the fun part of cards — in almost every game, you don’t know what the other players have in their hands. During the course of play, you use strategy, memory, cunning, and a whole host of other qualities to put together the best hand possible (or to bluff with the worst hand out there).

All in all, figuring out the fundamentals of a new card game can bring untold satisfaction. At the same time, you don’t have to play cards all that well in order to enjoy yourself. Card games allow you to make friends with the people you play with and against.

About This Book

If you’ve never played a card game before, you may wonder why you need to buy a book about the subject. All your friends say the games are easy to pick up, so can’t you just sit down and start playing, picking up a few rules here and there? Obviously, I wouldn’t advise that!

Many card games have been in circulation for hundreds of years, generating scores of variations. A reference book not only explains the core rules of a game but also lists the main variations, to let you choose the rules you and your friends want to play by.

Card Games For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is different from every other card-game book on the shelf. So many books on cards simply don’t talk about the games people play today. The writers are experts in one or two of the games about which they write, but they remain novices at others. They rely on authors of other books to help them out, who were themselves dependent on previous authors. As a result, the games they describe may not be popular any more, or perhaps the games now have different rules. Many books, in other words, have lost touch with reality. Card Games For Dummies, 2nd Edition, has one or two introductory games in it, such as Whist, but for the most part actually focuses on the games that people play today all around the world — especially newer crazes, such as Hold ’Em and Omaha.

Of course, I’m not an expert in every game, so this book has benefited enormously from a great deal of input from a host of game players who have answered my questions about the rules of the games in this book and about regional variations. The net result is that I’ve captured most of the popular variations to the standard games.

This book also differs from other gaming books because I wrote it in plain English. I eliminate as much card jargon as possible and concentrate on telling you how to get up and going. Of course, for games that do involve technical terms that may be new to you, I tell you exactly what each term means so that you can easily understand it.

Regardless of how much experience you’ve had with card games, you’ll find something here for you. Absolute beginners will appreciate that I discuss each game in this book starting at the very beginning, before a card hits the table. If you’ve played a few card games before, maybe you’ll try out a new game or pick up a variation on one of your favorites. (I can tell you that I’ve become hooked on several new games since I began researching this book. I’m sure you’ll have the same experience.)

However, I don’t limit my coverage of the games in this book to a description and a summary. Instead, each chapter offers hints on strategy, so even experienced players can pick up something new.

And in line with the wave of technology sweeping up the card game world, I tell you where to find information about a game on the Internet and point out places where you can play games online. (If you don’t have a computer, or you can’t tell the Internet from a hairnet, you won’t miss out on anything; I tell you everything you need to know about how to play a game right here in this book.) I’ve placed all the computer-related stuff in sidebars, where you can find the information easily if you want to read it or skip over it quickly if you have better things to do.

Just to show that one can improve on perfection, the second edition of CardGames For Dummies has an expanded section on Poker, Children’s Games, Solitaire, and a host of added variants on the traditional games.

Conventions Used in This Book

Throughout this book, I talk quite a bit about specific cards. Instead of constantly saying “the king of hearts” or “the 7 of spades” every time I refer to those cards, I abbreviate the cards and suits by using the following symbols:

The suits: I represent each of the four suits in a standard deck of cards with spade , heart , club , and diamond symbols.

The card values: I use the following abbreviations to refer to specific card values: ace (A), king (K), queen (Q), jack (J), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2.

When I refer to a specific card in the text, you see K and 7 rather than “the king of hearts” or “the 7 of spades.”

I show you entire hands of cards in figures to help you see what a set of cards looks like when you’re actually holding it in your hand.

During the printing of this book, some Web addresses may have broken across two lines of text. If you come across such a situation, rest assured that we haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these Web addresses, type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist.

What You’re Not to Read

For the most part, I’ve tried to avoid using more technical jargon than is absolutely necessary. However, the book does include some sidebars that give you historical perspective on how certain games were created or about where you can go online for additional information about specific games. These are asides and not critical to the text. You can spot them easily enough — the text is on a shaded background.

Foolish Assumptions

I’m not going to assume that the average reader will have all that much technical knowledge. Frequently, the most challenging bit of mathematics you have to perform is to count up to 1! The book is aimed at serving as an introduction to many card games. If you get hooked after reading it, you can access many other Dummies publications that can provide advanced knowledge of the games. For example, if you want to focus on Bridge, I recommend Bridge For Dummies by Eddie Kantar (Wiley). I also urge you Poker fiends out there to check out Poker For Dummies by Richard D. Harroch and Lou Krieger (Wiley) and Winning at Internet Poker For Dummies by Mark Harlan and Chris Derossi (Wiley).

How This Book Is Organized

I’ve grouped the card games into seven parts, based on the basic aim of each game. I also include the Part of Tens, which provides some valuable tips and hints about card playing.

Part I: Discovering Card Games

If you’ve never played a card game in your life, Part I is the place to start for all the basics, as well as games that are easy to pick up or don’t require anything more than yourself and a deck of cards. I show you how to play several versions of Solitaire, including Accordion, Clock, La Belle Lucie, and Scorpion. I also present the best and the brightest children’s games from around the world, including Beggar My Neighbor, War, Go Fish, and Old Maid.

Part II: Getting Rid of Cards

In Part II, you discover games in which you try to improve your hand by taking a card from the deck and letting go of a card from your hand. These games include Rummy and Canasta, as well as Eights and Fan Tan, which are games that prod you to get rid of all your cards as quickly as possible by matching them with other cards or putting them onto a discard pile.

Part III: Taking Tricks

For the games in Part III, everyone starts with the same number of cards, and during the play, each player takes a turn to lay a card from his hand. Whoever plays the highest card in the suit led wins them all, or in card-playing jargon, wins the trick. Several of the games have a primary phase of an auction before the play. Games in this section include Whist, Oh Hell!, Euchre, Spades, and Bridge together with Mini-Bridge.

Part IV: Scoring or Avoiding Points

The games in Part IV are all about points. In some games, such as Hearts, you try to avoid saddling yourself with points. For other games, such as Pinochle and Setback, the objective is to score as many points as possible.

Part V: Adding and Climbing

You get the lowdown on Cribbage, President, and Blackjack in Part V. In Cribbage, an adding game, you attempt to construct as high-scoring a hand as you can, and players score points by playing out the cards and bringing the cumulative totals to strategically significant numbers. President, a climbing game, presents another set of challenges; the objective is to get rid of cards by playing a higher-scoring card (or set of cards) than the previous player. In banking games, such as Blackjack, you compete against a central authority figure (the Banker) rather than against other players, trying to make your cards add up to a specific number — or to get closer to that number than the Banker.

Part VI: Playing Poker

Because of the current Poker craze, Part VI gives you all the basics you need to play some of the most popular varieties of the game: Draw, Stud, Texas Hold ’Em, and Omaha. In addition to game knowledge, you discover the differences between live, tournament, and Internet Poker.

Part VII: The Part of Tens

You can’t have a For Dummies book without The Part of Tens. This is where you find tips on how to improve your card-playing skills with your actions at the table and away from it and how to help your partner improve her skills, too. I also provide you with a short list of places to look for more information on a game after you finish with this book.

You can also find some handy scorecards near the back of the book. Feel free to photocopy as much as you like.

Icons Used in This Book

In each chapter, I place icons in the margin to emphasize the following types of information:

With this icon, I point out the wrong way to play a game. Pay special attention to these icons so that you avoid finding things out the hard way.

This reinforces a point of the game that may be less obvious (or intuitively right) than meets the eye. You should keep these points in mind as you play the game.

I’ve been playing cards for quite some time, and I use these icons to emphasize some insights born of experience that will help make you a sharper player.

Next to this icon, you’ll find a list of all the stuff you need to play a game — I tell you how many players you need, what type of cards you play with, and if you need any other special equipment, such as something to keep score with.

Most of the games in this book have so many variations, I’d have to write a whole library to include them all. Instead, I cover the most popular variations of a game and tag them with this icon.

Where to Go from Here

Each game in this book is a self-contained chapter. If you want information on a particular game, consult the appropriate chapter and discover everything you need to know in order to get started.

Along with the Table of Contents at the front of the book, the index at the back of the book can help you locate the game you want to play without too many diversions. Having said that, one of the more interesting ways to experience this book may be to open it at random and discover a game that you’ve never heard of before.

Part I

Discovering Card Games

In this part . . .

A fter I explain some of the basics of cards (along with some tidbits about the history of cards and the etiquette of card games), I introduce a diverse range of games for you to deal out. If you don’t have anyone to play cards with, don’t worry. I provide an entire chapter of Solitaire card games. And if you’re a beginning card player, teaching children to play cards, or just a kid at heart, check out the chapter on popular children’s games, including War and Go Fish. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Card Game Basics

In This Chapter

Speaking card game lingo

Following the rules and etiquette of card games

Hand-picking the best card game

I’m sure that if you’ve ever played cards at all, you don’t need me to explain what fun 52 pieces of pasteboard can be. But just in case, here goes . . .

Because you don’t know what the other players have in their hands in almost every card game, playing cards combines the opportunity for strategy, bluffing, memory, and cunning. At the same time, you don’t have to play cards all that well in order to enjoy yourself. Cards allow you to make friends with the people you play with and against. A deck of cards opens up a pastime where the ability to communicate is often of paramount importance, and you get to meet new faces and talk to them without having to make the effort to do so.

If you want to take the plunge and start playing cards, you encounter a bewildering range of options to choose from. Cards have been played in Europe for the last 800 years (see the sidebar “Card games through the ages” for more details), and as a result, you have plenty of new games to test out and new rules to add to existing games.

One of the features of Card Games For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is the diversity of card games covered in it. I can’t hope to list all the rules of every card game within the chapters, so this chapter discusses the general rules that apply to most card games. Get these basics under your belt so you can jump in to any of the games I describe in detail later in the book.

Talking the Talk

Card gamers have a language all their own. This section covers the most common and useful lingo you encounter as you get to know various card games.

When card games come together, the players arrange themselves in a circle around the card-playing surface, which is normally a table. I describe it as such for the rest of this section.