Thursday 29 November 2012

Chicks rule- A tarot game


The four "chicks" or queens.
 This rather curiously named game is the only instance, as far as I can tell, of a tarot game invented within living memory. The inventor of this game is a blogger called Narj, and the post describing this game dates to April 13 2009.( http://narjsberk.blogspot.sg/2008_11_01_archive.html). A rough summary of the game follows

 Basicaly, the game is bridge played with a tarot deck. It is most suitable for 4 or 6 players. The cards are dealt out evenly amongst the players, and what remains is left as a "kitty". ( This means that in a 4- player game , each person has 19 cards, with 2 in the kitty.) Then, the bidding for the trump suit proceeds. The bidding is done as in bridge,  with the highest bidder being allowed acess to the cards in the kitty.
 As in this game, the highest ranking suit varies, and hence the suit normally called "trump" in tarot ( AKA major arcana ) may not be the actual trump suit in play. Hence, the  aforesaid suit are known as "bettys", with the fool, or "nymph"( as it is known here) as the highest.
 In play, the queen outranks the king ( hence the name), but the cavaliers & jacks remainding as usual. The  game play is much as in bridge. Should the winning team make a contract, it scores that number of points. Should it not, the opposing team  scores that number of points, much as in bridge.

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One of the major gripes that people had with this game ( judging by the comments ) is that the amount of cards in a hand was rather larde and unweildy. Hence, as A suggestion, I propose that the game may be played with a tarock deck, viz; one that has all number cards ( that is, ones in the non trump suit) lower than 7 removed from the deck, leaving a deck of 54 cards.

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