On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 2:37 PM, Austin Shapiro wrote:

Hi, Micah,

David Linz and I have been testing a card game which I invented on the
way home from campus last week. It seems pretty robust. I thought you
might want in on the fun.

The central idea behind the game is that as you collect tricks, you're
also building the deck you'll have to play from in the following round.
The objective of the game shifts over time. It takes delicate planning
to do well in the present round while also setting yourself up to win
future rounds. Sometimes you have to realize that you can't do both, and
decide which goal offers a higher chance of success, then specialize in
achieving it.

Here are the rules as they stand now. You need a pack of 26 cards,
comprising 2-4-6-8-10-Q-K in every suit (with K high) except spades, in
which the Q and K are omitted (and 10 is high). This unusual deck is
designed to prevent ties. I admit that there's also a certain
arbitrariness about it, in deliberate imitation of the arbitrariness
found somewhere in the rules of almost every classic card game. But this
deck seems to work pretty well, and the shortness in spades makes the
last round of the game extra-challenging and intense.

The game has five rounds, assuming it doesn't end prematurely in a
blowout. The rounds are designated Notrump, Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts,
Spades, in that order. In the first round, 1 point is at stake; it goes
to the player who collects a majority of tricks (at least 7 out of 13).
In each subsequent round, 2 points are at stake: 1 for a majority of
tricks, and 1 for collecting a majority of the trump cards (4 out of 7
clubs, diamonds, or hearts; 3 out of 5 spades). A whole game offers 9
points, of which you need 5 to win.

A round is a series of thirteen tricks. A trick consists of the leader
playing a card, and the other player (the follower) answering with any
other card. There is no obligation to follow suit. If the follower has
answered with a higher-ranked card in the led suit, or with a higher- or
equal-ranked card in the trump suit (if any), then he takes the trick
and collects both cards. Otherwise, the leader takes the trick. Each
player draws a card to replenish his hand, unless there are no more
cards to draw. The winner of the trick leads to the next trick.

In the first round, both players draw from a common deck. Six cards are
dealt to each player to begin; thus both players always have six cards
in their hands until the deck runs out. The leader of the first trick is
determined by coin flip or mutual agreement. The round is played just as
described above.

The later rounds are the same, except that:

* Trumps come into effect, as described above. Notice that low trumps
aren't terribly strong -- e.g., the 2 of trump can only beat other 2's.

* The first trick is led by the player who took the previous round's
last trick.

and the key difference:

* Each player has his own draw pile, consisting of the cards he
collected in tricks during the previous round, shuffled between the
rounds. This means that one player's draw pile will be bigger than the
other's. Once the smaller pile runs out, both players share what's left
of the single remaining pile. (It shouldn't matter who draws first from
it after each trick, but as a matter of convention -- since classic card
games are as steeped in convention of performance as in convention of
arbitrary rules -- let's say that the player who conceded the trick
draws first, while the other is collecting his trick.)

Those are the complete rules. Playing time for a full game is about 20
minutes.

I could tell you what I've figured out about strategy, but I'd rather
see what you come up with in isolation. Besides, after only six games
(under three different rule sets), I'm hardly an expert. Anyway, I'm
satisfied with the apparent depth of the game. If you have time when
Mandy and I come to New York, I'd love to give it a whirl with you.

Austin