3. Authors Family

In all of these games tile object is to match cards in pairs or sets of four of a kind. A good memory will help you in some of the games, but you can have a hilarious time even if you can hardly remember your own name!

GO FISH

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: TWO to 5.

THE DEAL: If only 2 play, deal 7 cards to each; if 4 or 5 play, deal 5 cards to each. The rest of the pack is put face down on the table, forming the stock.

OBJECT: TO form more "books" than any other player. A book is 4 of a kind, such as 4 Kings, 4 Queens, etc.

THE PLAY: The player at the dealer's left begins by saying to some other player, "(Jane), give me your 9's." He must mention the name of the player he is speaking to, and he must mention the exact rank that he wants (Aces, Kings, Queens, etc.), and he must have at least 1 card of the rank that he is asking for.

The player who is addressed must hand over all the cards he has in the named rank, but if he has none, he says, "Go fish!"
When told to "go fish," a player must draw the top card of the stock.

The turn to ask then passes to the player at his left.

If a player succeeds in getting some cards when he asks for them, he keeps his turn and may ask again. He may ask the same player or some different player, and he may ask for any rank in his new question. If a player who has been told to "go fish" picks a card of the rank he has asked for, he shows this card immediately without putting it into his hand, and his turn continues. (In some very strict games, a player's turn continues in such a situation only if the card he fishes for completes a book for him.)

Upon getting the fourth card of a book, the player shows all 4, places them on the table in front of him, and continues his turn.

If a player is left without cards, he may draw from the stock at his turn and ask for cards of the same rank as the card that he has drawn. After the stock has been used up, a player who has no cards is out of the game.

The game ends when all 13 books have been assembled. The player with most books wins.

FISH FOR MINNOWS

This is a simpler way of playing Go Fish, and it is especially good for very young players. Deal out all the cards, not bothering if they don't happen to come out even. At his turn, a player asks for a rank, and the player who has been asked must hand 1 such card over if he has one. The object is to form pairs instead of books of 4, and as soon as a player gets a pair, he puts them face down in front of him. The player who accumulates most pairs, wins the game.

AUTHORS

This game is very much like Go Fish, but can be played very seriously and with great skill.

All 52 cards are dealt out, even though they may not come out even. At his turn, a player asks for a single card by naming both its rank and its suit. For example, a player may say, "Bill, give me the Jack of Spades." A player's turn continues if he gets the card asked for, but the turn passes to the left as soon as he asks for a card that the player doesn't hold.

SKILLFUL PLAYING: When a player asks for cards and gets them but does not put down a completed book, you can tell that he has either 2 or 3 of that rank. For example, suppose John asks for Queens and gets 1 Queen from the player that he has addressed. John does not put down a book of Queens, but asks some new question and is told to "go fish." You now know that John held at least 1 Queen to give him the right to ask for Queens. He has received a Queen, which gives him a total of either 2 or 3 Queens.

In the same way, you know something about a player's hand, even when he asks for a card and gets nothing at all. For example, suppose Bill asks somebody for 9's and is told to "go fish" at once. You know that Bill must have at least one 9 in his hand.

Little by little, you can build up information about the cards the other players must hold. If you know that another player has Queens, but you have no Queens yourself, the information does you no good. If you have a Queen yourself, however, you are then allowed to ask for Queens, and if you ask the right person because of the information you have, you may get an entire book and put it down in front of you.

OLD MAID

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: TWO or more, each playing for himself.

THE DEAL: One card at a time to each player, as far as the cards will go. It doesn't matter if the cards don't come out even.

THE CARDS: Fifty-one cards, including only 3 of the 4 Queens. (Remove 1 Queen from the normal deck before beginning the game.)

OBJECT: TO avoid being "stuck" with the last unpaired card.
THE PLAY: Each player assorts his cards and puts aside, face down, all cards that he can pair—two by two. For example, he would put aside 2 Kings, 2 Queens, 2 Jacks, and so on. If he had 3 Queens, 3 Jacks, he would be allowed to put two of them aside, but the third Jack would stay in his hand.

After each player has discarded his paired cards, the dealer presents his cards, fanned out but face down, to the player at his left. The player at the left selects 1 card (blindly, since the hand is presented face down) and quickly examines it to see if it pairs some card still in his hand. If so, he discards the pair. In any case, this player now fans his hand out and presents it face down to the next player at the left.

This process continues, each player presenting his hand, fanned out and face down, to the player at his left, in turn. Eventually, every card will be paired except one of the 3 Queens. The player who is left with the odd Queen at the end of the hand is the "Old Maid."
Whenever a player's last card is taken, he drops out. He can no longer be the "Old Maid."

SKILLFUL PLAYING: There is nothing to the playing of Old Maid, since it can be learned in about one minute and since there is nothing you can do to improve your chance of winning. The player who is stuck with an odd Queen during the middle of the play usually looks worried and will squeal with delight if the player at his left selects the Queen. If you keep alert, you can usually tell which player at the table has an odd Queen as the play is still going on.

If you have an odd Queen in your hand, put it somewhere in the middle of your hand when you present it to the player at your left for a choice. Most players tend to pick a card from the middle rather than select an end card.

Make use of this same principle to defend yourself if you think that the player at your right has the odd Queen when he presents his hand for you to make your choice. He will usually put the Queen in the middle somewhere, and you can usually avoid choosing it by taking one of the two end cards instead of a middle card.

It isn't bad to get an odd Queen towards the beginning of the play, for you will have many chances to get rid of it, and it will then probably stay in some other player's hand or move only part of the way around the table.