“My name is Colin McElhatton I am 39 years old and a Cardoholic!” Said that way it does sound bad doesn’t it? Well Collecting decks of cards and learning new card games while also revisiting some of the lesser known games has become one of my main hobbies. Through this blog I intend to share this passion for playing cards with kindred spirits who find pleasure and sincere enjoyment in sharing a few rounds of their choice card game with family and friends. Yet before I venture any further how about a little history, what made me so fond of cards in the first place?
Early years
Well my introduction to playing cards came when I was rather young, I think at around 8 or 9 years of age. It was fairly common for us to go over to my maternal grandmother’s place for Sunday lunch. It was a rather boisterous occasion full of laughs and a sincere feeling of well-being at just being together. The meals would be sumptuous if not a bit on the heavy side and afterwards, almost as an extension to the ritual of having a meal together, the cards would be brought out and the games would begin.
The first deck of cards I ever handled and which is still rather common in my country ( you can almost buy it from any stationer or games shop) was the bridge-sized deck produced by Piatnik and Sons. Piatnik have a good rugged card stock with a linen finish that can take on moderately rough handling without getting too deformed or warped. They somehow always feel good in your hands even when the deck has pilled on several years worth of rummy and other assorted games.
Rummy
Back on my grandma’s dining table, the game of choice was 7 or 10 card rummy. Very straight forward game, you were dealt 7 or 10 cards depending on the variation. Gameplay was clockwise. The dealer would shuffle the deck pass out the cards and then place the remaining stock of cards face down while turning over the first card to start a discard pile. Then in turn players would either take the exposed card or pick a card from the top of the deck. The aim was to make runs ( e.g.1-2-3 of clubs or 10-J-Q-K of hearts are examples of runs) or sets (e.g. 5-5-5 or 10-10-10-10) of 3 or 4 cards. For instance in the 7-card version you would make a set or run of 3 and one of 4. In the 10-card variation you would be expected to make three sets or runs, two of three and one of four. Obviously the first player to meld all his cards into sets and runs would go out and claim “Fatta!” (in Maltese) or “Done!”.
There were obviously other games, I remember my grandfather as well as another aunt and uncle would play Gin Rummy which they would call “Rummy tal-punti” or “Rummy bl-istilel” in Maltese. Funnily enough it looked too complicated for my liking at the time even though nowadays I do love to play the game and find it to be infinitely more rewarding than most other rummy games.
Flash!
There was another game we were rather fond of which was closely reminiscent of Crazy Eights and which my uncle used to call Flash, play was clockwise. Basically in this game, a dealer would shuffle a standard deck (or two decks in some instances) of cards (without jokers) then pass out 7 cards to each player one at a time. The remaining stock would be placed face down on the table with the first card being turned over to form a discard pile. The main objective was to get rid of all your cards before the other players. You did this by either matching the suit of the topmost discarded card or its rank. In addition there were a number of trumps that held special significance in this game as follows;
- The Ace of any suit was wild, you could request for instance that the suit for the next player to play to be something other than that of the topmost discard. Say for instance the topmost discard was hearts, and you had plenty spades and an ace in your hands, you would throw the ace on the discard pile (ace of any suit) and state “Spades!”. The next player to play would have to play spades.
- The Jack which had to be played according to suite ( so if hearts was the topmost discard you would only be allowed to play a Jack of hearts), meant the next player in line would skip his turn and play would then proceed from the next player to his left.
- The Two which had to be played according to suit (or rank as shall be seen) meant that the next player would have to perform one of the following actions:
- If he did not have another 2 of any suite in his hand he would have to take two cards from the deck and skip his turn
- If he did have another 2 of any suite in his hand he would lay it down sparing himself the penalty and the subsequent player would have to take 4 cards.
- There was no limit to this piling up of twos so if one deck was used it could happen that a player ended up taking 8 cards (2X4) and worse if two decks were used then it could be that a player ended up taking anything up to a whooping 16 cards!
If when it was a player’s turn he could not play because he could not match either the suit or the rank of the topmost discard in addition to not having any aces (cannot change suit), then he was expected to pick a card from the deck. This could be played either of two ways, in one variation of the game he kept taking cards from the deck till he found something he could use or alternatively in another variation he would just take one card and skip his turn until on a lucky draw or discard (by another player) he could then discard a card he held in his hand.
Also when a player would manage to whittle his cards down to just 1 card, he was obliged to say “Last Card!”. If he failed to do so and someone noticed, he would incur a penalty and be obliged to draw one card from the deck. Obviously if you managed to successfully discard all your cards, well you won!
There were several other card games we used to play, yet funnily enough poker and poker variants were not among them. In a country where tombola (or bingo) is still popular and where many spend good money on lottery tickets and other varieties of gambling games such as Sports betting and Keno, well you’d expect people to approach the subject of poker with a more open mind. it was okay to spend what today would be €10 to €50 to gamble weekly on something you had absolutely not control over such as a lottery but when you mentioned poker people looked funny at you. I have to admit that the various unregulated poker cash games that evolved among the less savoury members of the gambling population did not help give the game good repute. Poker was seen as a money wrecking pass-time populated by card sharks and tricksters out to prey on the foolish and weak. Nowadays with the advent of tournament and televised poker things have changed, this family of card games has exploded as a world favourite as well as being recognised as a bona fide mind game. Still this website wont be about poker though I will mention a few varieties in the passing.
What to expect on this blog
As a cardoholic I will be discussing the decks I acquire, the impression they give me, their durability depending on what use I put them to. I will also discuss some card games as well as discuss gaming sessions that might have offered some form of revelation or entertainment value. I will also occasionally extend these blogs to games that play similar to card games but which use tiles or domino like sets. likewise I will discuss their value as games as well as bring you my impressions and considerations.
I really hope you will find this blog informative and quite frankly entertaining. Cards are something I really enjoy playing principally for the competition value they offer as well as for the socialisation that can be derived from just sitting around a card table with friends and family for some idyllic hours of carefree gaming.
Until Next time!
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