Suits (version 1)

Contributed by Aaron Barnhart

For 1 player

(A variant for 4 players is given below).

A regular deck of 52 cards is used.

Layout - To begin with, deal all the cards into 4 piles based on suit. Shuffle the cards in each pile, but keep the piles separate. You start with the hearts pile, (you are from now on referred to as south). Put the diamonds pile at your left (about 9:00 on a clock, AKA west), clubs to your north (12:00), and spades to your right (3:00, AKA east). Play starts with the hearts player, which in this case is you.

Play - Flip up two cards from your pile (because you have hearts, the highest valued suit, you draw the fewest cards, if you have diamonds you draw 3, clubs 4, and spades 5). You may play any card from the 2 you have, aces being the highest and card ranks drop from Ace to King, Queen, all the way down to 2 being the lowest. After you select a card, flip one up from the diamonds pile, one from the clubs, and one from the spades. Highest card wins the trick, in case of a tie the hearts card has the highest value, the diamonds second, the clubs third, and spades fourth.

It is recommended that you set the losing cards of each suit in a separate face down pile behind the original of that suit, and set the winning ones beside each pile face up, so that you don't have to keep separating cards into suits after each deal. After each trick, place the cards from your hand you didn't play at the bottom of your pile in any order, face down, as you will use them again.

Continue to play in this mannerr until you have used all the cards in the piles (Eventually you won't be able to draw a full hand, just draw the remaining cards in your pile).

Scoring - Score one point for each trick you took with a card ranked 9 through Ace. Score two points for each trick you take with a card ranked 5-8, and score 5 points for each trick took with a card ranked 2-4. Use this scoring method for you and the dummy players west, north, and east players.

After each hand, pass the card piles in clockwise direction, meaning you now go from having the best ranked cards to having the worst (spades). Hearts always leads, so you will go last this round.

Winning - Play continues until either:

• You obtain a score of 25 or more. [You win.]
• North, west, or east obtains a score of 20 or more. [You lose.]
• You have played every suit. The game ends and the player with the most points wins.

Playing the 4 player Game:

Play it the same you would as if you were playing by yourself, except that rather than flipping cards for people, your opponents draw whatever the number of cards is allowed for the suit they have. Also, each player plays every suit once and then the game ends, with highest score winning, regardless of if someone has obtained a score of 25 or not.