Șeptică

Goal

Capture the cards that are worth points. Every 10 and every Ace is worth one point, eight points in all. Take five or more and you win the hand. Four each is a draw.

Setup

Strip a standard deck down to 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in each suit. Deal four cards to each player. The rest is the stock. With four players, play in two teams sitting across from each other.

Play

1. The leader plays any card face up. Suits never matter in this game, only ranks.
2. Each other player in turn either cuts by playing a card of the same rank as the lead, or a 7, which cuts anything, or throws in any other card without cutting.
3. When play returns to the leader, if nobody has cut, the leader takes the pile. If someone did cut, the leader may cut back with another card of the lead rank or a 7, and the round goes around again.
4. When the leader cannot or does not want to cut back, the last player who cut takes the whole pile and leads next.
5. Everyone draws back up to four cards, the pile winner first. When the stock runs out, play the last cards in hand.

The sevens

A 7 cuts any card, including another 7. Leading a 7 is legal but wasteful. The usual fight is over a pile with a 10 or an Ace in it: hold your sevens for those and throw junk on the rest.

Scoring

At the end of the hand, count the 10s and Aces in each player’s pile. Most points wins the hand. Playing a longer match, the winner of each hand scores one game point, or two if the loser took no points at all. First to an agreed total, usually 5 or 7, wins.

Common house rules

• Last trick bonus: taking the final pile is worth one extra point. Agree before dealing.
• Three players: remove one 8 so the deck divides evenly, or play with all 32 and accept an uneven last round.
• Open cutting: some families let you cut with the lead rank only, and keep the 7 for the leader’s counter-cut. Rarer, but it exists.

Questions