Walter B. Gibson - Hoyles Modern Encyclopedia of Card Games: Rules of All the Basic Games and Popular Variations

This book was originally published in 1974 by Doubleday and titled Hoyles Modern Encyclopedia of Card Games. It is here reprinted by arrangement with Doubleday.

Hoyles Encyclopedia of Card Games. Copyright 1974 by Walter B. Gibson. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address: Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

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First Broadway Books trade paperback edition published 2001.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the previous edition as:
eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-486090-7
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-385-07680-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-163085

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This concise encyclopedia of modern card games and their variations is arranged alphabetically according to the name of each specific game. To assist the reader further, all games and their variations are cross-referenced so that complete explanations may be found easily and quickly. Illustrations of certain games and hands are also provided in their appropriate places.

All variations of any particular game may be found in this general alphabetical listing excepting those included under the broad headings of pinochle, poker, and solitaire. Since these three categories encompass such a wide variety of variations, all are listed alphabetically under the general divisions of pinochle, poker, and solitaire in an effort to ensure utmost organization in the book.

For even further assistance in locating a game or other information, a complete Glossary-Index featuring definitions and page references is found in the back of the book.

The term Hoyle has been used to signify a rule book of card games ever since the first such volume written by Edmond Hoyle appeared in 1746. There were only five games described in that modest work, but although the total has increased a hundredfold and more during the intervening years, many of them follow the old original patterns, and distinct traces of earlier games are found in most of the rest. Hence a preliminary description of playing cards and features applicable to games in general will prove valuable when discussing them under individual heads.

Todays standard pack remains unchanged since the time of the original Hoyle. It consists of fifty-two cards, composed of four suits, spades (), hearts (), diamonds (), clubs (), each with thirteen values, ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three (or trey), two (or deuce). They are usually ranked in descending order: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2; but in a few games, the order runs: K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A, with ace low instead of high. There are also a few games in which the ace is either high or low.

In other games, most notably solitaires or one-person games, an ascending sequence is common: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K. In some of the time-honored games, certain cards are given special valuation, and such rules may apply to suits, or even to colors; namely, red ( and ) or black ( and ). All these variations are covered in descriptions of the games in which they occur.

Modern packs, or decks, as they are frequently called, contain two extra cards known as jokers. For many years, a single joker has been used in certain games, commonly ranking higher than the other cards; and there are now games, most notably canasta, in which both jokers are used. This makes a quota of fifty-four cards for a single pack, 108 for a double pack, and 162 for a triple pack. Here, again, individual rules apply in evaluation of the cards.

Worthy of mention is a special sixty-three-card pack, including a single joker, which is used in the game of five hundred when six players are involved. This pack includes four elevens, four twelves, and two thirteens (in red suits only), which rank higher than the tens of their respective suits.

In various games, the size of the pack is reduced by removing some of the cards beforehand. Such instances are cited in descriptions of the games themselves, along with the reasons for using a depleted pack. There are, however, certain famous games in which less than fifty-two cards represent the standard pack, hence they deserve preliminary descriptions as follows:

The Piquet Pack: Used in the French game of the same name, this pack consists of thirty-two cards ranking A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 in each of the four suits. The same pack is used in the now outmoded game of cart, but with the curious ranking of K, Q, J, A, 10, 9, 8, 7. Games of the skat family also use the thirty-two-card pack; and it is standard in most forms of euchre, so other peculiarities in ranking will be found under those heads. French packs of only thirty-two cards are available, but in America it is customary to use a standard fifty-two-card pack and simply remove the cards of lower values. In two-handed euchre, the pack is further reduced to twenty-four cards by removing the eights and sevens.

In the game of bezique, played extensively in Europe, two piquet packs are combined to form a total of sixty-four cards, with those of each suit ranking A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q, J, J, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, 7. In America, such a pack is made up from two standard fifty-two-card packs, from which all below the sevens have been discarded. However, bezique is seldom played in the United States, as it has been heavily overshadowed by the kindred game of pinochle, which uses a pack reduced to forty-eight cards: