Does anyone recognize this card game?

[fenchurch]

Oh mighty friendslist, omniscient group-mind that you are! I have a bit of a puzzle that I'm hoping you can help me solve...

Recently, my husband's aunt started teaching the rest of the family this fun new card game... and she called it Euchre. A few days later, rackham and I went to our Hoyle's Book of Card Games to make sure we were remembering the rules right, only to discover that the Euchre described in the book bore absolutely no similarity to the game we've been playing. The aunt says she learned the game from a retired couple at her church, who had in turn learned it from an elderly couple from Finland they had met while on a cruise. How is that for convoluted?

Here are the rules as I remember them...

Combine two decks (this may be a rule applied to the number of people playing, since we've always played with five or more people), shuffle and deal out six cards to each player. The cards remain face down to start and are placed in two rows of three like this:

X X X
X X X

The players then choose any two of the cards in front of them to turn face up before play starts.

Points are face value except for Jacks (which are -1), Queens (which are 10) and Kings (which are 0). Having two cards of the same value will cancel each other out, except for Jacks (so two 9's would equal zero, but two Jacks would equal -2). The goal is to have the least amount of points at the end of the round... with the game ending after the first person reaches 100 and the winner being the person with the fewest points at that time.

Play goes clockwise... and players can take either the top card on the discard pile or the top card on the main pile then replace any card in front of them (whether it's face down or up -- if it was face down, the new card is still placed face up) or simply discard the card they have drawn. When someone finally turns all their cards face up, play proceeds one last time around the table, giving everyone a chance try to get rid of any high point cards.

The other twist to gameplay is that if you get four of the same card in a square, like this:

X 9 9
X 9 9

Then everyone else automatically gets 40 points, in addition to whatever points they might earn for the round.

So, great and wise friendslist, does this sound familiar to anyone? I would love to know what the game is actually called... not that it really matters, since we'll keep playing it anyway, but it seems a bit wrong to keep calling it Euchre when that appears to be a completely different game.

Comments

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Wow, I have never heard of that game or anything like it-- and I've learned a lot. Interesting and convoluted might apply to the game, too. :)

Sorry I can't help, but it's absolutely not the Euchre I know, and Euchre is a big-time Hoosier game-- the kind you learn at your parents' knees in Indiana. ;) The Euchre I know is the one played only with 9s through aces, trump jacks are the highest card. You'll have to let us know if you find out.

[ruuger]

I remember playing that as a kid, but I have no idea what it's called...

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Ah well... I'd actually been thinking you might have a line on it, with the Finland connection! It looks like someone may have figured it out though... apparently, it's a variation of the game Golf!

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

Whatever that is, it ain't Euchre. Looks fun, though.

[valkyrie-kitten.livejournal.com]

go to a used book store, and buy a big collection of card games, and find the one that looks the likeliest?... It looks nothing like the Euchre I was taught. (which looks nothing like Euchre in the books!) But I vaguelly remember something like it from somewhere.... (ok, I'm no help!)

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

Sounds a little bit like the game of Golf, but where people have made up their own rules and variations along the way.

http://www.pagat.com/draw/golf.html

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Yes!! Thank you!!!

And what's funny is that I've actually played Golf on the computer, but never made the connection! It's a bit of a different variation, but is definitely Golf!

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a variation on Bid Euchre, http://www.pagat.com/euchre/bideuch.html , some variations of which are played with a double deck. The scoring doesn't look like anything on there, but as you can see on that website there are a LOT of variations on the theme.

[jedihealer.livejournal.com]

I'm with Kristen. That is not the Euchre of my childhood. I learned to play in junior high school, and it became quite a passion of mine in high school. My friends and I perfected a way to play in physics class my senior year.

[rahirah]

Doesn't pinochle use two decks? Unfortunately I have no idea how to play pinochle...

[jeffreycornish.livejournal.com]

Nope, Pinochle uses a double set of 9 through King and the Ace.

Scoring is for getting complete runs of 10-A, sets of 9, J, Q, K or A, Marrages (K Q) or the Pinochle (J diamonds, Q spades)

dehd would be be a very good resource for all things Pinochle

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

OMG I love your icon. ;)

[jedihealer.livejournal.com]

I love pinochle! Ben and I play with our best friends as often as we can.

[eee1313.livejournal.com]

I know Canasta is played with two decks, and I believe it's a whole "getting to 100 points" thing, but I don't remember having to lay out six cards like that... Beats me.