Card Games For Dummies. Barry Rigal

Card Games For Dummies

to each player for the reserve, and the other deck (with four jokers) provides everything else. This variation may be slightly unsatisfactory for you if you don’t want to deal with constant reshuffling.

Each player can throw one card from the personal hand onto one of four personal waste piles. Each player sets up the waste piles, to which only the individual has access. The maximum number of cards you can discard is one per go, and you can only put a card on the waste pile that’s equal to or one lower than the previous card. The discard is always the last element of any go. At the end of your turn, you replenish your hand back up to five cards from the stock.

You can’t play from your reserve onto your waste pile.

If you manage to get rid of all your five cards mid-turn, you get to fill up your hand to five cards again from the stock and continue your go.

You can set the number of center stacks at three rather than four, or you can use unlimited stacks, if you prefer. If you don’t set a limit, some people also dictate that you must play an ace from your hand as soon as you pick it up to start a new foundation pile.

Figure 2-15 shows how a typical game may progress. At this point, it’s Player A’s turn, and they picked up a jack at the end of their previous turn.

An illustration of Spite and Malice. Player A’s excellent adventure.

FIGURE 2-15: Spite and Malice. Player A’s excellent adventure.

Player A’s main objectives are to get rid of their queen from the reserve and to try to prevent their opponent from playing the 2 from their reserve. They put out the jack from their hand onto the foundation 10 and the queen from their reserve. They clear this foundation pile away, because they completed it with the queen. They turn over a 7 on their reserve and play the 6 from their hand onto the 5 on the foundation pile. That move lets them put the 7 from their reserve onto the foundation, and they turn over a 2 (which is rather irritating for Player B, who had hoped they could use their own 2 from the reserve on an ace in a new foundation pile at their next turn).

Because they cleared a foundation pile earlier in the turn, Player A puts out one of the aces from their hand to start a new pile; now they can play the 2 from the reserve onto that ace (turning over another queen). They take the 9 and 10 back off waste pile D and onto the 8 in the foundation, and they use the king as a wild card to represent a jack. These moves allow them to take the queen from their reserve and put it on the jack to complete another set on the foundation. Now they can take that pile away. They turn over another 2 on the reserve, which is perfect: It allows them to play the second ace from their hand, and the 2 from the reserve goes on that. They turn over a new card on the reserve pile. And because they used up all five cards in their hand, Player A draws five new cards and can continue if they want to.

If they have no moves they want to make, they can end their turn by making one discard to any of their waste piles and picking up a replacement card from the stock.

But Player A should process one other thought — and this is where the malice in Spite and Malice comes in. The target of the game is to take the foundation piles just past the upcard on your opponent’s reserve pile. However, you also want to stop your opponent from being able to easily get rid of the cards from their waste pile. In our featured game, because Player A has a 4 on top of a waste pile, they should play it onto the 3 to prevent their opponent from clearing away one of their waste piles. However, they should not put up the 5 from the waste pile — that would let their opponent clear away the 6 and 7 from another one of their waste piles. Make their work to clear their piles!

One of the crucial moments in the game comes when your opponent chooses not to play; you always have the option of not making a move (announced as passing with five), but if you don’t, your opponent can voluntarily pass also, which compels you to make a legal move if you can. The game has no forced moves, except when you pass and your opponent passes, too. In that case, you must play if you can.

Manipulating your stoppage time

Say your opponent in this game, Player B, indicates that they can’t play, and you can see that the top cards on their waste piles are 10, 9, 6, and 2. You now know that whatever they have in their hand isn’t one of the following cards: K, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, or 2. If they had any of these numbers, they would have to discard onto their waste pile (remember, the only cards you can put onto a waste pile are cards of the same value, or one lower, than the top card there).

Similarly, you can look at the foundation piles, see that one pile has a 3 on it, and infer that your opponent doesn’t have any 4s. So what you must do is ensure that you never leave the foundation piles in a position to allow them to put a Q, J, 7, 3, or ace up — the only cards they can have in their hand. If you can do that, you stop them playing for the duration, which has to be a good idea.

A less demanding version of the game allows you to discard anything you like to your waste piles. Of course, if you play this variation, you never get stuck for a move, but it does cut down on the opportunities for spite and malice!

If both players can’t move, you collect all the waste piles and hands, shuffle them up, and redeal new hands. You leave the reserve piles as they are.

Spite and Malice is an excellent competitive game; you have to watch your own cards, plan how best to get rid of them, figure out how to use up your reserve pile, and strategize how to discard onto your waste pile. But equally important is spoiling your opponent’s strategy, blocking their reserve pile, preventing them playing from their waste piles by taking the foundation piles past convenient numbers, and generally making yourself a nuisance.

Try to keep your waste piles as empty as possible; within a single pile, you may want to duplicate cards to preserve flexibility. Occasionally, however, you can see that by (for example) duplicating jacks in a single pile, you may prevent yourself from having access to the queen below the jack. If your opponent has a queen on the reserve pile, that duplication is a very bad idea.

The game ends when one player gets rid of their reserve pile, and the other player records how many cards they have left. The game is ideal for an ongoing struggle (say 20 years or so), as is the case for two of my friends who’ve been playing it for that long.

SOLITAIRE ON THE WEB

The Web offers a wide variety of sites for the Solitaire enthusiast. You can find tons of Solitaire games to play online for free; for example, you can go www.247solitaire.com.

Chapter 3

Children’s Games

IN THIS CHAPTER

Playing games that improve memory and concentration

Working on speed and coordination

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