Svoyi Koziri

= Svoyi Koziri =

Svoyi Koziri, "Svoi Kozyri" or "Vsyak svoi kozyri", is a Russian going-out card game for two players which some consider an elaboration of the czech game Sedma. This game is one of perfect information and hence entirely of foresight and calculation. It differs from almost all other card games, in that the element of luck is eliminated, as, at any one time in the game, a player will know exactly which cards his opponent has.

It was first published in 1960, in the Pan Book of Card Games (ISBN 0-330-20175-1) under the name "Challenge" [Oxford Dictionary of Card Games - David Parlett] by Hubert Phillips and said to have been brought to England by Prof. Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch while teaching at the University of Cambridge in 1927.----__TOC__

Rules

The game may be played with a number of cards multiply of four, ranking A K Q J T 9... in each suit and goes clockwise. Phillips regarded 32 as standard, but it can be played without the 7s or 8s (this is recommended for beginners), or, for more advanced players, with the 6s and 5s included (the following examples will use a deck of 24 cards with the 7s and 8s omitted).

To begin with, the dealer chooses any 2 suits, and chooses one of them as his trumps. The other player chooses 1 of the other remaining suits as his trump card. (in the following examples, the dealer has chosen ♠ and ♣, ♠ as his trump. The other player has chosen ♥ and ♦, ♦ as his trump).

The Deal

The dealer now deals out half of the available cards to himself (in this instance, 12 cards), face up, and places the ♦s and ♥s back in the pack. He may have dealt:

The Play

The rules of the game are much like whist.
The dealer places down a card on the table (eg: 10 ♣), then the other player must then:
#Play a "better" card than his (eg: Q ♣)

or

#Play 1 of his trump cards, ignoring the value of the cards (eg: ♦9).

*A "better card" is a higher one of the same suit as the one led, or any other card of one's personal trump (if different from the suit led). Any card may be led at each turn, that is, no need to be related in any way to the previous card.

The winner of that round then plays the next card, followed by his opponent's card. The winner of this round then goes on to play the next card, and so forth. Should a player not be able to follow either of these rules, they must take all of the cards on the table into his hand. The game ends when one player has managed to get rid of all his cards.

Links

[http://www.pagat.com/ The Card Game Web Site]

References