Jemima Puddle Duck

Contributed by Jilly McZee (JillyMcZee@hotmail.com)

Jemima puddle duck is a reasonably simple game which can be played by two or more players. The objective of the game is to be the first with less than four cards.

To begin with, the dealer deals out four cards to each player which may be looked at. (The remaining cards are put in the middle and are called the pile.) Then, each player picks one more card and displays it to everyone else. The player showing the lowest card goes first.

The way to get rid of cards is to make a set of four which you can then put to the side, leaving you with four less cards than you had. (A set of four being four eights, four queens, four aces, etc.)

Each player takes it in turns to put down one card and pick up one from the pile in hope of creating a set of four. This creates a new pile of upturned cards. If a player sees a card that he or she wants from the new pile, they may pick it up as their turn but has to pick up the rest of the cards in the new pile too.

If players have two or more of the same type of card (e.g. two eights), they may put the cards down at the same time, consequently picking up the amount of cards put down.

If the main pile runs out, then players must take it in turns to put down cards without picking up. This is when having two or three of the same card comes in really handy. you can put down two or three of the same card down at once therefore you have less cards.

Eventually either a player has made enough sets of four to have less than four cards or a player has put down enough cards to have less than four cards. The first to do either of these the winner.