Points
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Best
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The classic fishing card game. Take by rank or by sum, build piles you can collect later, and count aces, spades and the ten of diamonds.
Four cards go face up on the table and you and your rival get four each. Every turn you play exactly one card from your hand and do one of three things.
Take. You may pick up any table card of the same rank as the card you play, and any group of number cards that adds up to its value. An ace counts as one, number cards count as themselves, and jacks, queens and kings have no value at all — they can only take a card of the same rank. If several separate groups each add up on their own, you may take them all at once with a single card.
Build. Instead of taking, drop your card onto table cards to declare a pile worth their combined total, up to ten. You must already hold another card of exactly that value, because that is the only thing that can collect the pile later — and while your build is still sitting there you are not allowed to trail.
Trail. Simply leave your card on the table as a new loose card.
When both hands run out, four more are dealt to each player until the deck is gone; the table is never refilled. Whoever made the last capture sweeps whatever is left over. Then the deal is scored: three points for taking the most cards, one for the most spades, two for the ten of diamonds, one for the two of spades and one for each ace — eleven points in all. Three deals make a round and your score is your own total.
Count the aces and remember the two big cards. Four aces, the ten of diamonds and the two of spades are seven of the eleven points on the table, and unlike the card majority they cannot be split. An ace is worth taking with anything, and the ten of diamonds is worth more than a whole handful of ordinary cards, so never trail either of them and never leave one sitting where a single number card can sweep it up.
The card majority is the other half of the game and it is won by volume, not by value. Twenty-seven of the fifty-two cards is three points, which is more than anything except the aces put together, so a capture of four junk cards often beats a capture of one good one. That is what makes sums so strong: a nine that takes a four, a three and a two has quietly won you four cards instead of one.
Trail low and trail ugly. Every card you leave on the table is a card your rival may capture, so when you have nothing, drop the lowest-value hearts or clubs you hold rather than a spade. Trailing a spade is giving away a point in the spade race and hoping nobody notices; trailing a ten or a face card is handing over a card that is easy for the other side to match.
Builds are commitments, not tricks. The moment you build, everyone knows exactly which card you are holding, you cannot trail until the pile is gone, and a card of that value in your rival's hand takes the whole thing. Build when you hold two of the value, or when the build is worth several cards and your rival has already used up the matching rank — not simply because the arithmetic happens to work.
The last capture matters more than any single card, because the sweep can be four or five cards at once. Watch the deck: when only one deal of eight cards remains, start playing so that the final capture is yours, even if that means passing up a small take earlier. Players lose the card majority by three cards more often than by thirty.