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RULES OF THE GAME The players are divided into two teams of 3 players each. Generally, the players are seated alternating teams. Each player is dealt 8 cards, which they keep to themselves. Conceptually, the 48 cards are divided into 8 sets. Each of the 4 suits has two 6-card sets, a 'low' set containing cards numbered 3 through 8, and a 'high' set containing cards 9 through Ace . Players are not to communicate anything about the card(s) or the number of cards they hold to team members, verbal or otherwise. Generally, players do not fan out their cards so that they don't reveal the number of cards they have. The object is to get more points than the other team. One point is given every time a team successfully declares (wins) a set. A player declares a set by identifying the set, and then identifying which of his/her team members (including the player) hold which cards in that set. A player can only declare a set on his/her turn, and must attribute every card in the set to a team member. For example, a player (with teammates named Mary and Joseph) might declare a set by announcing: Low spades, I have the 4 and 8, Mary has the 3, and Joseph has the 5, 6, and 7. If the attributions are correct, then his/her team receives 1 point and one of the team members can take the next turn. If the attributions are false, and all the cards in the set were held by team members, then nothing happens. However, if the attributions are false, and one or more of the cards in the set were held by a player from the opposing team, then the team of the declaring player loses 1 point. In any case, if the attributions are false, the opponent team gets the next turn. The game begins with one player asking for a card from an opposing team member, specifically naming rank and number/symbol. Players must have at least one card in the same set of the card they are asking for. Players are disallowed from asking for cards they already possess. If the opposing player has the card, they must give it to the asking player, who is then allowed to ask again for a specific card from any opposing team member. If the opposing player does not have the card, it is then that player's turn to ask. Players can declare sets at any time during their turn. However, if a player gets all the cards in a set, he ''should'' declare the set immediately. The game proceeds in this manner until all the sets have been declared. If at any point in time, a player has no cards left with him, he must declare that he has no cards left and leave the game. VARIATIONS Several variations on this game exist. One is to eliminate the 7s instead of the 2s, and use A-6 as low and 8-K as high. Some variants played in India have an unequal split with 2-7 as low and 8-A as high. This makes the low set easier to win, therefore the high set scores twice as many points as the low set. Some people play with bluffing where they can ask cards that they already possess in order to confuse the opponents. This bluffing is not very famous among most of the players because it can make the game very complicated and confusing. STRATEGY Since players can only ask for cards they do not possess, using the questions asked to others in the game, a player can deduce the card or set of cards a player has. From an Information Theory perspective, the optimal strategy for a player is to emit as much information as possible to his team-mates while simultaneously emitting as little information as possible to his opponents. Thus optimal strategy consists not only of asking for some cards that one needs, but not prematurely divulging the existence of all sets they have. Though there is a lot of strategy involved in the game, a very good memory is also needed on the part of the players. A perfect history of the game so far is more valuable than perfect logic based on incomplete information. Another common strategy adopted is the ''stalemate-breaker''. If the members of team come to the conclusion that all the cards in a set are within themselves and they can correctly attribute them, they don't drop the set immediately. This set is kept as a stalemate-breaker. If at a later point in the game a player in the team is at the verge of finishing a set (i.e., he knows which opponent has which card) but is unable to do so because he does not get a turn, the stalemate-breaker is used. One of his team-members can declare the stalemate-breaker set when he gets the turn and pass the turn to him. REFERENCES |
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