Reoccurring Strange

Novelly twisted trick taking for Two or Three players. Complex to strategise.

Object

To take more tricks than your opponent.

Starting

Two packs of cards are needed. These should be shuffled together to form a single deck of 104 cards. 32 cards are dealt to each player, and the next 2 are turned face up and placed at the side of the playing area. The rest of the cards are also placed at the side of the playing area, but these take no further part in the game.

Trump suits and Super-trumps

Like many other trick-taking games, Strange uses a trump suit system. The trump suits are determined by the 2 cards turned-up at the end of the deal. This means it is entirely possible (and indeed quite likely) that there will be two trump suits.Also, since there is two of every card in the deck (by virtue of having two packs of cards), the cards turned-up will have duplicates in the deck. These cards are called the Super-trumps.

e.g. If, after the deal, the two cards turned-up are the JClubs and QHearts, then the trump suits are Clubs and Hearts and the Super-trumps are the JClub and QHeart.Super-trumps are better than any other card of that trump suit, and the higher of the Super-trumps is better than its lower counterpart.So in our e.g. the QHearts is the best Heart trump card the JClubs is the best Club, with the Q being better than the J (which stands to reason).

Play

The player left of the dealer leads for the first trick, and all subsequent tricks are lead by the player who won the previous trick. Each trick consists of two cards played by each player, the first player leading any two cards he wants and the rest of the players following suit (playing a trump or throwing away if this is not possible).

e.g. Suppose player one leads 3Clubs and 8Spades then player two must play a Club and a Spade if he has them. If he has a Spade but no Clubs he must play the Spade but can either trump or throw away against the 3Clubs. if he has no Clubs orSpades he may trump or throw away against both cards.

Once all players have played cards for a trick, it is necessary to determine the trick winner (see below). The player who lost (or lost by the most in a three player game) selects a card from the trick to hold over for the next round. This card is set aside, face down, in front of that player. Each player selects a card from the trick, until all players have one card from this trick held over for the next round. The remaining cards are collected by the winner and used to indicate his trick. He then leads cards for the next trick.

Determining the trick winner

In order to determine who has won a particular trick, and by how much, a pip system is used. For minor (non-trump) suits each card has a pip value equal to its face value. With J's worth 11 pips, Q's 12, K's 13 and A's 14. For trump suits, each card has a pip value of 13 + its face value. This means that K's of the trump suits are worth 26 pips. The Lower Super-trump is worth 28 pips and the higher Super-trump 29 pips. However if a minor suit card is played against a card of any other suit (i.e. it is thrown away) it is worth 0 pips, whereas trump suit cards always have their same pip value no matter what suit they are played against.

Example 1

In a two player game where 6Spades an KDiamonds are the Super-trumps we have the following trick

Here player one has 24 + 3 = 27 (for the J of trumps and the 3 minor) and player two has 22 + 4 = 26 (for the 9 of trumps and the 4 minor). Therefore player one has won the trick. Player two gets first pick of a card to hold over, and will probably choose the JDiamonds. Player one will then probably pick the 9Diamonds to hold over. Player one collects his trick and leads for the next trick.

Example 2

In a three player game where JClubs and 4Spades are the Super-trumps, consider the following sequence of play

So no-one wins the trick! In this case the cards are left on the table and player one leads again for another trick. This continues until one player wins the most recent trick. when this happens the losing player chooses a card from each of the tricks to hold over. The next player does the same and the winner picks his cards last. The winner gathers all his individual tricks and then leads for the next trick. Suppose then we have the following next trick

Player two won by playing his Super-trump! As player three lost he will probably choose to hold over the JClubs from trick two and the KSpades from trick one. Player one will then choose to hold over the QSpades from trick two and the JSpades from trick one. Lastly player two will choose to hold over the other QSpades and the 7Spades. Player two collects his tricks and then leads.

Playing out

When all the cards in hand have been played, each player should have a pile of 16 cards held over. At this point all players pick-up their pile and begin playing the second round. All tricks won in the previous round are kept, to be counted up at the end of the game. Play continues as before.

[It is possible for players not to have 16 cards at the start of round two. This happens if there are trick-cards on the table that still haven't been won. In this case, begin playing the next round, with fewer cards each. When a trick is won, the players pick a card from each unwon trick carried over from the previous round, and put it directly into their hand. They pick cards from the tricks from this round as normal. If at any point (because of too many drawn tricks) someone has insufficient cards to play, then take the earliest trick fromthe previous round and randomly give one card from it to each player (thecards left over that would normally be won tricks are removed from the game entirely). Break up more such tricks until everyone has enough cards to play the current trick.]

At the end of round two each player should have 8 cards held over. At the end of round three they should each have 4 cards and at the end of round four each player should have only 2 cards left. Round five is the last round.

Round Five

As this is the last round there should be no cards to hold over. Therefore each card of each players pair is treated separately.

Example 3

Suppose then we have the following last trick

Player two wins one trick (the QSpade; JClub; 2Heart trick) and player one wins the other (the QSpade; 10Club; 6Spade trick).

Winning the Game

At the end of round five, the player with the most tricks is the winner.

Simple Strange

This variation is a simpler version of strange, which has only one round. You can read the rules for Simple Strange on its own page.

Credits

Devised by Andy B and Francis.

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