Tabletop Tuesday - More Standard Playing Card Deck Games

Welcome to another edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, cards, luck and more of the Tabletop world.

With summer on the near horizon, we're continuing our look at the versatile and affordable gaming device: The standard 52 playing card deck.  This week's games: Secret Agent, War, and Oh Hell.

Players: 2+
Time: 10+ minutes
Genre: Casual Card Games

Secret Agent

For this first card game, I'm uncertain if this is the actual name of the game or if it even is a real known game, so I will do my best to explain it clearly as it really is an enjoyable game for two people with a few minutes to kill.  Each player is dealt six piles of four cards face down, with the last four cards of the deck placed face up in the middle between the two players.  Players will then play simultaneously swapping cards from their six piles with the available four cards in the middle, their goal being to make each of their piles contain four matching ranks.  The catch is players are only allowed to hold and look at one pile at a time.  To interact with another pile, players must put down the other pile first.  So in order to achieve the goal of creating six piles of four matching ranks each, players will be constantly making trades in and out of the middle in attempts to move the cards to their intended destination.  It's a fun and hectic game that requires good memory of what each pile contains while also a careful eye for what your opponent may be also striving for.

This game may or may not be a known game, but feel free to share this secret with anyone and everyone.

War

One of the most widely known and easiest games to play, War is a card game of luck and endurance.  While there is absolutely zero strategy or decision making to be found in the game, it remains a good time killer, and there is an undeniable certain thrill when a war breaks out and seeing what rewards will be reaped.  The deck is divided equally (or as equally as possible) to each player, to which players then all flip over the top card of their pile and compare ranks.  The owner of the higher rank takes the cards and adds it to the bottom of their pile.  If there is a tie for highest rank, war breaks out, in which the tied players flip over three face-down cards, followed by a 4th card face-up.  If this 4th card should still be tied, this process is repeated until one player has the better ranking card and claims all the cards played cards for their own.  Last player standing is the winner.

An accurate depiction of the brief excitement the War card game can sometimes ignite.

Oh Hell

Oh Hell is a trick-taking card game designed for 3-7 players (4-7 being optimal though).  Unlike other trick-taking card games, this game is unique in that players are required to make exact bids to succeed, and each round there will be at least one player guaranteed to bust.  In the first round of the game, each player is dealt one card and one card is flipped over to the side, which represents the trump suit for that round (a trump suit means any card of that particular suit will beat cards of other suits, even if the rank is lower; for example if the trump suit is Diamonds, a 3 of Diamonds will beat a King of Clubs).  In subsequent rounds, the number of cards dealt to each player is increased by one each round until such can no longer be divided equally, in which case it goes in reverse and is decreased by one each round.  After the cards are dealt, players then take turns making bids for how many "tricks" they'll win, starting with the player left of the dealer.  There are no restrictions for bids other than for the dealer, who cannot bid an amount where the total bids would equal the number of cards dealt for that round (For example, if 5 cards were dealt to each player that round, and the other bids were 2, 0, and 1, the dealer would be unable to bid 2).  Because of this rule, it ensures at least one player will not win their bid and general commotion is sure to ensue.

In this example, Diamonds are the trump suit and this trick was lead with Hearts.  As Tom has no Hearts, he could play any one of his five Diamonds to win the trick.  However, he did bid that he'd win 5 tricks this round.  As he also has some pretty high value other suits, he may considering using his Queen or Ace of Diamonds now so as not to win more tricks than he bid.  Some of the many considerations to be found in the card game of Oh Hell.

Once the bids are placed, the player who made the first bid begins play by playing any card from their hand.  Other players must play a card of the same suit (or if they don't have any cards of the suit played, they can play any card).  The highest ranking card of the suit led wins the trick (unless a card with the trump suit was played).  Whoever wins the trick would then lead off the next play, until all cards dealt for that round have been played.  Now there are many means / variations in how scoring is kept after a round is completed.  For basic scoring, each trick won that round is worth 1 point and any bid met earns that player an extra 10 points.  Some rule variations include penalties for players not meeting their bids, such as losing X points for however over / under the player was from their bid.  Penalties also add a nice incentive for more careful and considered bidding, adding extra pressure when playing to land that bid.  However you decide to play, keep in mind the more severe the penalty, the longer the game will last (which may or may not be your intended goal).  So have fun in determining your penalties and point total to win, and enjoy a spirited gaming session with this classic.

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If you have any questions about any of these card games, let me know in the comments.  Otherwise, look forward to future installments of Tabletop Tuesday.  And happy gaming!