Looperville

Jamjarjude has introduced me to a new card game. This is a big deal in our household — I come from a family who eats, sleeps and dreams cards…and games. You think I’m a nice person? Ha Ha Ha. Not when I’ve got cards in my hand. Then my alter ego Bad Age comes out to play. I go for the jugular. I take no prisoners. What can I say? It’s that old competitive streak coming out. I blame Nanny. She’s the one who taught me bridge when I was eight. Talk about competitive. Sheesh.

So, here we go. Looperville. A game coming from the wheat fields of Saskatchewan, so Jamjarjude tells me. You need two full decks of cards including all the Jokers (I just love playing games with Jokers).

Shuffle them all together (it helps if two people shuffle and cut a few times and reshuffle. Just ’cause 108 cards is a handful). Then you cut the deck to see who gets the lowest card. Lowest card deals. But… before you deal out 11 cards each, the dealer tries to take the exact number of cards required for the deal from the top of the deck (without counting of course). This almost never happens, but you get a bonus “virtual penny” if you do manage it.

Now, before dealing — geesh, I feel like I’m writing a recipe here — you take a piece of paper and you divide in vertically into 5 columns. Down the left column you write 3, 3/3, 4, 4/4, 5, 5/5, 6, 6/6. Put your name on the top of column 2, your dastardly opponent’s name (e.g., Jamjarjude) on the top of column 3 (making more columns for additional dastardly opponents), and in column 4 put your name and underneath it 10, and finally in column 5 put your dastardly opponent’s name and under that a 10. Got it?

Now deal. 11 cards each. Turn over the top card on the tall deck of cards on the table and put it to the right of the pile.

Okay, each of us have 10 virtual pennies (remember the 10 we wrote down under our names?). We have to spend a penny (no, not that kind of spending a penny for you Brits out there!) any time we want to pick up the card that’s turned over on the table. When we take this card we also have to take 3 more cards from the top of the pile. If you don’t want that card, then you just take one card from the top of the pile and you save your pennies. By the way, if you manage to take the correct number of cards off the top of the deck before dealing you get an extra penny.

Now you sort out the cards in your hand. For the first round we need to put down 3-of-a-kind first before we can put down any other combinations of 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, etc. (I mean 4-of-a-kind, 5-of-a-kind, etc.). Twos and Jokers are wild. We love those. If someone turned over a two (like in the picture above, I’d definitely spend a penny and pick it up along with the 3 other cards). Jokers are worth 50 points! YAY! Twos are worth 20. Aces are worth 20. Face cards are worth 10 and all the others are worth 5 points.

When you pick up a card you also have to discard on top of the exposed cards. You can only buy the top card of the exposed cards. The cards underneath go out of play.

So, first round. I’ve got 3-of-a-kind so when it’s my turn I pick up from the normal pile and put down my 3 queens. I can’t put anything else down until my next turn when I can put as much as I want down. And I’d probably put down the two 7s and the 2 as another 3-of-a-kind (2s are wild, remember?), and the two 6s and the Joker (Joker’s wild and 50 points! YAY!).

So, great. We play out our hands until someone lays down all their cards and then tally up the points. Any points you have left in your hand at the end of the hand is deducted from your score. Any pennies you’ve used up are crossed off your list.

The next round you need to put down two 3-of-a-kinds (3/3) at the same time before you can then lay your other cards down in subsequent turns. Also, if your dastardly opponent lays down, say, 3 Kings, you can put down a King on your side (as long as you’ve already laid down your two 3-of-a-kinds.

Fabuloso! Now, it starts getting trickier. In the next hand you need to lay down 4-of-a-kind before you can lay down any more combinations of 3-of-a-kind or higher in subsequent turns. And, you need to have a majority of the main card in order to lay down (e.g., you need three 10s and possibly a 2, not just two 10s and a 2 and a Joker). For the subsequent hand you need to lay down two 4-of-a-kinds, and on and on until you get to the final round where you need to lay down two 6-of-a-kinds before you can move forward. At this time I hope you haven’t spent all your pennies because you’re sure going to need them! The fun thing, too, is that it’s anyone’s game. You can be leading right till the final hand and lose it all by holding a mountain of cards in your hand when your dastardly opponent gets lucky and lays down all their cards before you’ve even got out of the starting blocks. Boo Hiss. That means you Jamjarjude! I demand a re-match!

Yes. We gamble. I lost a loony. Boo. 😦