Designed by | David L. Van Slyke |
Players | 1 |
Length | Short |
Extra Material | None |
a Decktet solitaire game that does not require a playing surface
Setup
Shuffle a basic (not extended) Decktet and hold it in one hand face-down as a draw pile.
Note: You will soon be holding four piles, one upon another, in one hand. On top is a face-up hand of six cards. Behind it is the draw pile. Behind that, face-up and rotated ninety degrees, is the archive of melds. Behind that is the discard pile.
Game play
Definition
A meld is a set of cards fulfilling one of the following conditions:
* contains exactly one instance of each of the six suits (a suit-meld)
* a set of three or more cards of the same rank (a kind-meld)
* a set of three or more cards of consecutive ranks that all share a single suit (a run-meld)
Note that Aces and Crowns are not considered consecutive: the counting does not "wrap around".
Part One
Turn over six cards and hold them face-up on top as your hand. If this group of six cards contains a meld, place the meld face-up and rotated ninety degrees directly behind the draw pile; then draw more cards to refill your hand to six cards. If the six cards contain no melds then re-order them as you desire and discard them face-up at the back of all the cards you are holding; then draw six more cards as your new hand.
Interlude
After exhausting the initial draw pile, the discard pile becomes the new draw pile. It stays face-up. Move it from behind the archive of melds to in front of the archive of melds. If you have a partial hand of cards then your hand is refilled to six cards from the top of this new draw pile. If you had no cards in your hand at this time you have the option of immediately discarding the top card of the new draw pile before drawing a hand of six cards.
Part Two
Go through the second draw pile as before but do not worry about sorting the cards you discard.
The game is over after you go through the second discard pile. Count the number of cards not in melds (in your third discard pile). This is your score: the lower the better. Keep track of your lowest score for the week.
The Extended Deck
If the extended Decktet is used: The Excuse counts as any single suit or rank. Pawns and Courts have three suits but no rank.
Variants
Credits
A "head solitaire" is a kind of solitaire that requires no playing surface. Many were popular during the era of British sailing merchant ships.
Just gave it a try and I liked it. Managed to make 20 points (not too good, I know) on my first try. I guess the ordering of the cards for the second run is key, so there's a memory element there too (unless you're alowed to look at the discard pile, but I guessed you can't).
I like how the game is played only by holding the cards. Sometimes it's not easy, although it's never really a problem…
I've found a rule change that makes the game play nicer :)
It adds two new meld types:
A mixed-run-meld. This is a run with a "thread" of suits. E.g. 2 and 3 could share suns, 3 and 4 could share knots. Thus you create a mixed-run of 2-3-4.
A mixed-suit-meld. This is a set of three or more cards of any rank, as long as they share the same suit.
Here's the scoring system:
A straight-run-meld (that's a run-meld following a single suit) scores the value of the highest card in the run.
A mixed-run-meld scores the value of the lowest card in the run.
A rank-meld (three or more cards of the same rank) scores the value of the rank played.
A full suit-meld (contains exactly one of each of the six suits) scores the value of the highest card in the meld.
A mixed-suit-meld (that's three or more cards of any rank, sharing the same suit) scores zero.
Aces are worth 1 point, Crowns are worth 10 points.
Go through the pack twice, as per original rules, creating as many melds as possible. At the end of the game, count the number of cards you have remaining. Subtract this number from your total meld score.
So, if there is a meld in my hand, do I HAVE to put it in the meld archive? If yes, do I have to put all possible cards in it?
Real life situation: say it's phase two, and I got four Crowns in my hand, and one of them is the Crown of Waves. But I know the 9 and 8 of Waves are coming next draw. Can I keep the Crown of Waves out of the meld? I can also imagine a situation where one would prefer not to make a meld in phase 1, in order to perhaps put the cards in a more effective order and discard them.
Also, the rules for the extended deck don't mention Courts, but they're there, right? Just like Pawns? I saw a 41 card deck somewhere… were the Courts previously not in the extended deck?
As for whether you are forced to meld: My hunch is that the original design makes them optional. This is obviously a variable you can adjust to vary the difficulty.
Regarding the Courts: There was a time in the distant past before there were Court cards. Head Solitaire is from from those dark, early days.
With a few plays under my belt, I'd say making it optional is better, just because you'll rely less on luck and more on planning.