Clubs

Clubs (also published as Crazy Clubs and Plata) is a card game where the players have dual objectives – winning the club cards, and shedding their hand as quickly as possible.

The cards are in the four standard suits – hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs – but numbered from 2-15, and each club card has a points value printed on it (lower clubs are more valuable). Everyone is dealt a hand of ten cards and play begins with the player left of the dealer. That might be a single card, duplicates of the same number, or a run of two or more consecutive numbers, where the suits don’t matter. Whatever is played, the other players can either follow by playing the same thing (single/duplicates/run) in a higher value, or passing. If you pass strategically, you can actually jump back in again later in the same hand, but if everyone but the player who played the last cards passes, then that player wins the ‘trick’ and takes the cards.

Let’s say someone plays a run of 4-5-6 as their opener. For this trick, everyone may only play runs of three, but the 3-4-5 you have in your hand won’t do, as it’s a lower value than 4-5-6. You’re forced to sit this round out as someone plays 9-10-11, including the 11 of clubs. They win the trick, including their own club card, and lead the next trick. They play two 4’s, including the 4 of clubs, and now you can play, smacking down your two 14’s and hoping nobody has two 15’s, which would be unbeatable as they’re the highest value cards.

The game continues like this and as players drop out, they pick up bonus points for shedding their cards: 8points,