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--Games
unique
to this site!-
Skarney-- John Scarne’s scoring rummy
Skarney Gin-- Scarne’s gin rummy
Sequence Gin-- gin rummy variant
The Big Game-- 42 with 11 tricks
42 variations-- we’ve got them all
Yukon-- unique trick-taking game from the 1898 gold rush.
Quinto-- unusual fun game from 1900
Marjolet-- one-deck Bezique from France
Jo-Jotte-- complex Bridge-like game for two
Domino Euchre-- Euchre with dominoes
Call-Ace Domino Euchre-- variant
Iceberg-- unique scoring rummy
Arlington Hts-- our own invention
Fortune Rummy-- lost since the 1940s
Teeko-- “lost” board game
Ringo - unusual board game
--42 family
Dominoes--
42 -- the parent game
The Big Game -- 42 with 11 tricks instead of 7
42 Variations -- including 80, 88, 84, 79, Nello, Plunge, and Sevens
Moon -- 3 player relative to 42
Partnership Moon -- 4 player Moon
---Cuban
Games---
Cubilete -- Great Cuban dice game
Domino Cubano --
Dominoes, Cuban-
style
---Dice
Games--
Farkle-- Among the best dice games, it dates back hundreds of years
Cubilete -- Great Cuban dice game
More dice games
--Games by
John Scarne-
Skarney Gin-- Takes Gin Rummy to a whole new level
Skarney-- The most sophisticated scoring rummy.
Scarney Dice games
Teeko-- board game
Scarne’s Bio
---Download
FREE game
books!---
A to Z of Dice Games -- rules for many great dice games (55 pages)
American Hoyle by Trumps 1894 (540 pages)
Foster’s Hoyle 1897 (625 pages)
Pirate Bridge -- great 3-person Bridge variant from 1917 (190 pages)
Conquian -- ancestor to modern rummy 1913 (90 pages)
---Scoring
Rummies---
500 Rummy
500 Partnership
Persian Rummy
Fortune Rummy
Arlington
Arlington Hghts
Skarney
---Gins---
Oklahoma Gin
Sequence Gin
Skarney Gin
--Bezique
Family--
Marjolet -- 2 players with 32 cards
Bezique -- 64 cards
Polish Bezique -- 64 card variant
Rubicon Bezique -- 128 cards
Chinese Bezique --
192 cards for Bezique-mania!
Zetema -- a long lost related game
BBC rules for all
forms of Bezique
--Rare Card
Games--
Bridgette -- Best two-handed Bridge variant. Compare it to Jo-Jotte
Bid Whist -- Unique whist variant popular among African Americans.
Eleusis Express -- famous unique inductive logic game.
--Historic
Card
Games--
Historic British Card Games-- rules for 12 once-popular games no longer played.
Medieval and Renaissance card and dice games.
--Fascinating
Profiles---
Ely Culbertson--
He made Contract Bridge famous.
Al Sobel on the invention of Jo-Jotte
John Scarne--
Houdini’s friend, card magician, author, games inventor.
The rather odd and interesting story of the United States Playing Card company.
Joseph Wergin--
Skat should have been it, not Contract Bridge!
R.F. Foster--
Biggest game book author from the 1880s to the 1930s
Stewart Culin--
Invented the modern science of ethnography - based on games!
-- Original
card,
dice &
domino
games--
Parlett’s games
Pips web site
Pagat web site
--Hundreds
more
games!--
The Card Games Web Site
Domino Game Rules
A - Z of Dice Games
BoardGameGeek - all board games
---Computer
Games--
Products to which we have no commercial ties but recommend:
Ringo (free)
Teeko (free)
Curtis Cameron offers fine 42 and Moon programs.
Cardmaster offers 25 games including Zetema, Bezique, Klabberjass, and Bid Whist.
Here’s Bid Whist online or on your PC.
--Domino
Games--
Domino Euchre--the card game played with dominoes!
Call-Ace Euchre-- domino Euchre variant
42 -- the parent game
The Big Game -- 42 with 11 tricks instead of 7
42 Variations -- including 80, 88, 84, 79, Nello, Plunge, and Sevens
Moon -- 3 player relative to 42
Partnership Moon -- 4 player Moon
---Favorite
Sites---
The Card Games site has the most card games rules anywhere
Playing Cards site has playing card history and pictorial examples.
House of Cards has a nice mix of rules, PC games, handheld games, and books.
Kadon Enterprises sells beautiful quality board games
Find hundreds of chess variants here
The Life of Games is an online games magazine
DominoLinks site links to many domino sites
David Parlett invents great card & board games!
BoardGameGeek covers all board games
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Euchre was the most popular social card game in the United States from the middle of the 1800’s to the end of the century. It’s the game for which the Joker was invented, probably by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Euchre means Joker.
Euchre is an easy but fun partnership game for four players. Hands are quick, at only five tricks each, so if you’re dealt a poor one you have but a minute or two to wait until you get another.
The game is simple, yet it has its subtleties. Players’ strategies often change as one team approaches the game point across hands. These shifts give the game a certain fascination.
Given Euchre’s popularity, it was a cinch that players adapted the game for dominoes. You’ll find dominoes add the slight twist that takes game play up a notch.
We’ve reconstructed these rules from an old copy of Hoyle’s Standard Games from about 1900 published by Laird and Lee.
Goal--
To win the game by being first to accumulate 5 points across as many hands as necessary.
The Deck and Players--
You can play domino Euchre as two or three individuals, but the game is by far best as a four-player partnership game.
Use a standard 6-6 set of dominoes. If you aren’t familiar with the tiles, see our quick introduction.
Dominoes are arranged in suits in the same manner as most other domino games that use the tiles as “cards” to play to tricks--
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---Suit---
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<--high Members low-->
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6’s
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6-6 6-5 6-4 6-3 6-2 6-1 6-0
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5’s
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5-5 5-6 5-4 5-3 5-2 5-1 5-0
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4’s
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4-4 4-6 4-5 4-3 4-2 4-1 4-0
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3’s
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3-3 3-6 3-5 3-4 3-2 3-1 3-0
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2’s
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2-2 2-6 2-5 2-4 2-3 2-1 2-0
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1’s
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1-1 1-6 1-5 1-4 1-3 1-2 1-0
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Blanks
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0-0 0-6 0-5 0-4 0-3 0-2 0-1
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Each suit consists of 7 tiles. The key point is that the double or doublet is the highest tile in each suit.
Appoint one player “dealer” and shuffle all dominoes face-down. The dealer rotates clockwise in subsequent hands.
Each player takes 5 tiles into his hand.
Bidding--
The dealer now turns one of the remaining unused dominoes face-up. The higher number on this tile is the proposed trump. If the turn-up is a doublet, the single number on its face is the proposed trump.
The player to the left of the dealer may either--
* Pass
* Accept the proposed trump as the trump suit
* Accept the proposed trump as the trump suit and say “I play alone”
If the player passes, the same opportunity passes to the next player (clockwise).
This process continues until either a player has accepted the proposed trump suit, or all four players have passed.
If all four players pass without anyone accepting the trump suit, the opportunity to make trump passes around a second time. This time each player may either--
* Pass
* State any suit (other than the initial proposed trump suit), that he
will play with as the trump suit
* State any suit (other than the initial proposed trump suit), that he
will play with alone as the trump suit
If no one accepts a trump suit after two times around the table, the hand is thrown in, and the next person in clockwise rotation becomes the “dealer.”
The Trump Suit--
The trump suit is one tile longer than any other suit. Its highest tile is the doublet of that suit, and its second highest tile is the next lower doublet. For example, if 5 is the trump suit, the 4-4 is the second-highest trump. From highest to lowest, the 5-suit trump tiles rank like this--
5-5 4-4 5-6 5-4 5-3 5-2 5-1 5-0
The highest trump is called the right bower. The second-highest trump is called the left bower. If 5 suit is trump, these tiles are the 5-5 and 4-4, respectively.
In the case where the Blank suit is trump, the 6-6 becomes the left bower. So when blanks are trump, the trump tiles rank like this--
0-0 6-6 0-6 0-5 0-4 0-3 0-2 0-1
All tiles in the trump suit are considered only members of the trump suit for the duration of the hand (even though singlets have another suit number on their face).
Play--
If the bidder won a bid to play alone, his partner lays his tiles face-down. Neither that player nor his dominoes have any further role in the hand. Whether played alone or not, the bid winner leads a tile to the first trick.
All players must follow suit to the first tile led to a trick. For any non-trump tile lead, the higher number on the first tile to a trick determines the suit for that trick. Leading the 6-4, for example, means leading a 6-suit tile. Any trump lead means that the suit to follow is the trump suit.
If you can not follow the suit led, you may play any tile you like.
If any trump tile(s) are played to a trick, the highest trump played wins the trick. Otherwise the highest tile of the suit led wins the trick.
The winner of each trick takes the tiles and places them face-down at his side prior to the next trick. He then leads any tile to the next trick.
Scoring--
If the side who won the bid wins 3 or 4 tricks, they made their bid. They win 1 point. If they win all 5 tricks, they win 2 points. If they don’t win at least 3 tricks, their opponents win 2 points.
Point scores are the same when a player plays alone, except that if he wins all 5 tricks, he wins 4 points.
Strategy--
Skill in bidding is important in Euchre. Remember the special role of the left bower when reviewing your hand.
The third and fourth players in bidding will want to be quite confident in their hands before making trump, as their partners have already suggested weakness by passing.
Playing alone is only advantageous if you can win all five tricks (see Scoring above). Only play alone with a “slam” hand.
Alternate Rules--
These rules are standard from original 19th century sources. But there are many rules variations for the card game Euchre you might try with the domino game. Some play a game to 7 points instead of 5. Most play that the lead to the first trick is by the player to the dealer’s left. If played alone, the lead to the first trick would be the player to the bid winner’s left. Thus, the bid winner may or may not be the person leading to the first trick. A few change the scoring for playing alone such that the bid winner scores 2 points for winning 3 or 4 tricks (instead of 1). Many play that the dealer may exercise the privilege of taking the turn-up into his hand if the proposed trump as accepted by the bid winner (in exchange for any other tile in his hand). A few play that the bid winner has this option.
More Information--
From the entry for “Domino Euchre” in Hoyle’s Standard Games, by Laird and Lee, 1908. Reprinted verbatim in the Everything Games Book, by Fitzsimmons and Liflander, 1996.
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See above for the rules of Domino Euchre. In this Domino Euchre variant, there are no fixed partnerships. Instead, prior to leading to the first trick, the bid winner declares another suit that will determine who his partner is for the hand.
The suit he declares cannot be the trump suit or the suit from which the left bower comes. For example, if the trump suit is 5, the bid winner must pick some suit other than the 5’s or 4’s suits.
No one responds to the bid winner’s declaration of who his partner is. Instead, players must figure it out for themselves during the play of the hand.
The result is that the holder of the partner tile knows that he is the bid winner’s partner, but no one else does -- including the bid winner -- until this tile surfaces during play.
Another possibility is that the bid winner is playing alone because he himself holds the partner tile. No one will no this but the bid winner.
A third possibility is that the partner tile is one of the several tiles not in play for the hand. In this case the bid winner will be playing alone but will not know it!
Scores are kept individually in Call Ace. The points won by each partnership in each hand are awarded to both members of the partnership. The first player to win 5 points across hands is the Game winner.
Call Ace increases the “luck factor” in Euchre, but it also increases the fun factor. Try it for a change after you’ve tired of standard Euchre. The game works as well for five players as four.
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Cubilete is the “national dice game” of Cuba. It and Domino Cubano (Cuban Dominoes) are probably the two most popular games in the country. Cubilete is easy and fun. It can be played by adults at parties or in bars, or by families or children at home.
Cubilete is for any number of players. It works best for 3 to 6.
The game requires five poker dice. Poker die faces represent these ranks, from highest to lowest-- Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, and 9. Roll one die to see who goes first.
A player rolls the five dice up to three times in a quest to get 5-of-a-kind. After each roll, he just continues with those dice he cares too, leaving ones he wants to preserve over to the side. The player can stop rolling before his three roles is up, if desired.
The only scoring hand is a 5-of-a-kind. Aces are wild and can be used to represent any value.
The goal is to win a total of 10 points across rounds.
The top three 5-of-a-kind scores are called carabinas. Here they are, along with the points they score--
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---Carabina---
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---Points---
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5 Aces
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10
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5 Kings (without Aces)
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5
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5 Kings (including Aces)
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2
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If you score the (very rare) 5-of-a-kind in Aces, you score 10 points. The game immediately ends. You won!
If you score 5-of-a-kind in Kings without any wild Aces in the mix, you score 5 points and immediately win the round. You start the next round by rolling a new turn.
If you score 5-of-a-kind in Kings with some wild Aces in the mix, you score 2 points and immediately win the round. You start the next round by rolling a new turn.
If no one scores a Carabina during the round, the person who rolled the highest 5-of-a-kind from the list below scores 1 point for the round:
5-of-a-kind Queens
5-of-a-kind Jacks
5-of-a-kind 10’s
5-of-a-kind 9’s
Unless someone scores a Carabina, the player who rolls last in the round rolls first in the next round.
Strategy--
While luck is key, Cubilete involves decision-making in knowing what to roll for and when. Unless you roll first in the round, your objective will be affected by what previous players have achieved. Obviously you will want to set your goal higher than their results in order to win the round. .
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Domino Cubano is another great Cuban game. It’s played wherever Cuban-Americans gather -- at “domino plaza” in Miami, the Cuban Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, the Atlanta Cuba Club, and at the Cuban Festival in Houston every May. Along with the dice game Cubilete, Domino Cubano is considered the national game of Cuba.
The Game --
Cuban Dominoes is played by 4 persons in two partnerships, using a 9-9 set of dominoes. Unlike domino trick-taking games like 42 and Domino Euchre, this is a traditional domino game in which tiles are played to a layout of connecting tiles. After tiles are placed face-down and shuffled, each player takes 10 tiles. The remaining 15 tiles are set aside and are never used in the game.
The player holding the highest doublet starts the round. If no player holds a doublet (unlikely), tiles are thrown in and re-dealt. Play then continues counter-clockwise around the table, with each player in turn either playing one of his tiles by matching it to one of the two open ends on the layout, or passing.
A player must play a tile if he has one to play, otherwise he must pass. When passing, he does not draw any dominoes from the 15 out-of-play tiles.
Game End --
The game ends either when all tiles have been played, or when everyone is “blocked” and has no valid tile to play. Each side counts the total number of pips on the tiles left in their combined hands. The lowest point total wins.
More Information--
You can find more rules descriptions here and here. This web page also has Domino Cubano rules, with game terminology and history. Being a cultural expression, the game is rich in expressions and slang.
If you read Spanish, there are several good books on the game. Try Reglamento Del Domino Cubano or Como Garnar Al Domino Cubano, both available here.
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Here's a new rummy game invented by Alaskan Gordon Bower in 1997. Like all rummies, it's simple to learn and quick to play. Its unique feature is that it increases scores for melds as players add cards to lengthen them. Hence the name Iceberg-- an initial meld may be just the tip of the iceberg. The game also includes several “special melds” to add interest.
We've played every rummy there is and along with 500 Rummy, this virtually unknown game is our favorite. A gem.
Goal--
To win a hand by scoring the most points. For the two-person game, to win a game by being first to accumulate at least 5000 points across hands.
Deck and Deal--
For two or three players, use a single 52 card deck. For four or five players, shuffle two 52-card decks together.
Deal 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining cards face-down to be used as the draw pile.
Play--
Each player follows these steps in his turn--
1. Pick up the card lying face-down at his left
(When starting the hand, this card may not yet exist for the player--
see Rule (5). In this case the player just skips this step.)
2. Draw one card from the top of the draw pile
3. Immediately place any Ace(s) in his hand face up in front of him
4. Make any legal melds desired. Players can also lay off cards
on other player's melds. Melding is voluntary and at the
player’s discretion.
5. Discard one card face-down next to his right-hand opponent
(unless he has no cards remaining)
Scoring for Melds--
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---Meld---
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---Points---
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Pair
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10
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3rd card added to a Pair
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20
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3 of a kind or 3 in same-suit sequence
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30
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4th card in a set or run
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40
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5th card in a set or run
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50
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6th card in a set or run
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60
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7th card in a set or run
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70
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8th card in a set or run
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80
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9th card in a set or run
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90
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10th card in a set or run
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100
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11th card in a set or run
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110
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12th card in a set or run
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120
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---Special Meld---
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---Points---
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K-J-9-7-5-3 in one suit
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700
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Q-10-8-6-4-2 in one suit
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500
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K-J-9-7-5-3 of the same color but mixed suits
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300
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Q-10-8-6-4-2 of the same color but mixed suits
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200
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All cards in any Special Meld must be laid down at one time.
Ending a Hand--
A hand ends when one player goes out ("rummies"), or when all Aces have been played, whichever happens first. You can rummy with or without a final discard.
Scoring at the End of a Hand--
Negative points are assessed for all players still holding cards in their hands at the end of the hand.
Any playable cards in your hand score the negative point value they would have scored for you as positive points, had you had one more turn in which to meld them.
Non-playable cards still in your hand score -10 points each.
Each Ace acts as a "score multiplier" at the end of the hand. Compute a player’s final score, then double that score if he has one Ace, triple it if he has two Aces, quadruple it if he has three Aces, and so on.
Alternate Rule-- Aces make luck predominant, as score multipliers drastically alter scores based strictly on how many Aces you draw. If you prefer to limit the luck factor, instead play that each Ace is a “bonus card” that adds 20 points to a player’s score.
Example Hand--
Here is a sample hand for the 3-player game (designed by Iceberg's inventor)--
Player A is dealt 987-S, J3-H, QA-D and draws the 3-C. He lays the A-D face up on the table in front of him. He melds the 9-8-7 (S), scoring 30. He discards the J-H.
Player B was dealt KJ3-S, Q-H, J8-D, J-C and draws the 6-C. He plays the J-D and J-C, scoring 10, holding onto the J-S, which will be worth 40 if someone plays the J-H. He discards the 8-D.
Player C was dealt: 6-S, 10 9 4 2-D, KQ-C. He draws the A-C from the stock and picks up the J-H discarded by player A. He plays the A-C; his jack of hearts, which is worth 20 when added to B's pair; and the 6, worth 40 on A's run. He discards the 2-D.
Player A holds 3-H, Q-D, 3-C, picks up the 8-D, and draws the Q-S. He plays his two pairs for 10 each (the 3-H and 3-C, and the Q-D and Q-S). He then goes out by discarding the 8-D .
Scoring--
Player A earned 30+10+10=50, which is doubled to 100 because he had one ace.
Player B is stuck holding KJ3-S, Q-H, 6-C. He earned 10, but loses 50 for holding 5 cards; 40 for the playable jack of spades; and 20 for the playable queen of hearts, for a total of -100.
Player C is stuck holding 10 9 4-D, KQ-C. The queen of clubs counts -20 (only two queens actually got played) and the 5 cards count -50. His net score is (20+40-20-50)x2=-20.
Alternate Rules--
The original rules employ each Ace at the end of the hand as a "score multiplier." One Ace doubles your final score, two triple it, three quadruple it, and so on. We recommend a more moderate rule that scores 20 points per Ace as bonuses because otherwise the scoring is distorted by how many Aces a player draws and luck becomes predominant.
More Information--
The original Iceberg rules are posted on The Card Games site here.
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