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- King's Court
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- 1983 King's Court Card Game JanJohn Games | Don's Game Closet
- How To Play Kings In The Corner The Classic Card Game
This variation of Rummy was contributed by Leah Mathis
Players
Two or more players
Cards
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for VINTAGE Card Game - King's Court. The family game with a Royal Twist! Kings Court 1983 at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Jan 07, 2013 The game continues until all cards are drawn. Below is a list of common card associations during Kings: Ace: Waterfall - Every player begins drinking, and no one can stop until the player before them does; 2: You - Whoever drew the card assigns a drink; 3: Me - Whoever drew the card drinks.
Normal playing cards. One 52 card deck for two players, two decks for three or four people. It doesn't really matter after that as long as you have enough cards to play with.
The objective of the game is to be the first person to have all their cards in sequential order, starting with the Ace card. It begins by shuffling the deck and then dealing ten cards to each player. The dealer should start with one card to the player on their immediate right and then continue clockwise around the group. Aug 19, 2019 Kings in the Corner, or sometimes called Kings Corner, requires a standard deck of cards and 2 to 4 players. Each player tries to use their hand before their opponent has the chance. This game is a great introduction to the basic play of Solitaire as it follows a similar set of rules.
The Deal
This game has eleven rounds. The first dealer is chosen at random and the turn to deal passes to the left after each round. In the first round three cards are dealt to each player, in the second round four cards are dealt and so on until the eleventh and last round in which thirteen cards each are dealt. The remainder of the cards are placed face down on the table to form a stock pile. The top card of the stock is being flipped face up and put beside the stock pile to start the discard pile.
Object of the Game
The object of the game is to form all the cards in your hand into combinations. There are two types of valid combination:
- a set or group of three or more cards of the same rank, such as 5-5-5. When playing with more than one deck it is possible for a set to contain identical cards, for example 9-9-9.
- a run or sequence of three or more cards in the same suit, such as 4-5-6
Combinations can contain more than three cards - for example four sevens or 8-9-10-J-Q of a suit. However, you cannot count the same card as part of more than one combination. For example 5-6-7-6-6 is either a set of sixes with a 5 and 7 of spades left over, or a run of spades with two sixes left over.
Aces rank low in this game, so A-2-3 is a valid sequence but Q-K-A is not.
Wild Cards
In each round there is a wild card. It is the card equal to the number of cards dealt. Wild cards can be used in place of any other card in making a group or sequence. You can even make a set that consists of only wild cards if you wish. Below is a list of wild cards by round:
- Round 1 Threes are wild.
- Round 2 Fours are wild.
- Round 3 Fives are wild.
- Round 4 Sixes are wild.
- Round 5 Sevens are wild.
- Round 6 Eights are wild.
- Round 7 Nines are wild.
- Round 8 Tens are wild.
- Round 9 Jacks are wild.
- Round 10 Queens are wild.
- Round 11 Kings are wild.
The Play
The player to dealer's left begins, and players take turns clockwise around the table. A turn consists of drawing one card - either the top card of the face down stock or the top card of the discard pile - and then discarding one card face up on top of the discard pile. Note that only the top card of the discard pile can be taken.
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Going Out
You can go out at your turn to play if, after drawing the top card of the stock or the top discard, you are able to arrange all the cards in your hand except one into separate sets, and then discard a card. In this case, when discarding you announce that you are out. Each of the other players is allowed one more turn. When the turn to play comes back to you the round is over and the scores are calculated.
Scoring
At the end of the round, each player arranges as much as possible of their hand into sets and runs. Any cards that are not included in a set or run are counted as penalty points against the holder as follows:
Ace | 1 point |
Two | 2 points |
Three | 3 points |
Four | 4 points |
Five | 5 points |
Six | 6 points |
Seven | 7 points |
Eight | 8 points |
Nine | 9 points |
Ten | 10 points |
Jack | 10 points |
Queen | 10 points |
King | 10 points |
The scores are accumulated from round to round, and whoever has the lowest score at the end of the eleventh round is the winner.
Note that in this form of rummy, players are not allowed to dispose of cards by adding them to other players' sets or runs. Combinations are made only from your own hand, and any cards not included are penalty cards.
Variations
Some play that Aces can be used as high or low - so A-K-Q is a valid sequence. In this case an Ace remaining in your hand at the end costs 15 points, rather than one.
Some groups score 11 points for Jacks, 12 for Queens and 13 for Kings.
King's Court
Some groups include Jokers as additional wild cards. In that case, a joker left in your hand at the end of a round scores 20 penalty points.
For large groups of players, Stan Stone has invented 3-13 Speed, in which the play is speeded up by means of simultaneous drawing and discarding, controlled by a caller.
A proprietary version of 3-13 using a special five-suited pack, has been published under the name Five Crowns.
Jared Mellentine has contributed a variation Deuces Aren't Wild with an additional 14-card round and a bonus round in the event of a tie.
This page is mainly based on a contribution from Sam Oppenheim.
Introduction
This game, also known as Kings in the Corners, is quite popular in North America, though it rarely features in American card game books. Players try to get rid of their cards by playing them to a solitaire-like layout of eight piles, built of alternate red and black cards in descending sequence. There are four piles at the start and four more in the corners can be begun with a king - hence the name of the game.
Players and Cards
There can be two or more players. The game is said to be good for four players. A standard 52 card pack is used. The cards rank K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-A (ace low).
Deal
The first dealer is chosen at random and the turn to deal passes clockwise after each hand. Deal seven cards to each player. Put the rest of the cards face down in the centre of table to form the stock. Flip four cards face-up from the stock, and place them North, East, South, and West from the stock pile, to start four foundation piles.
Play
Players take turns clockwise, starting with the player to dealer's left. At your turn, you may make any number of moves of the following types in any order:
- Play a card from your hand on one of the foundation piles. The card you play must be the next lower in rank and opposite in colour - for example you can play a red ten on a black jack. The cards on the foundation piles are overlapped slightly so that all can be seen. Since aces are the lowest cards, nothing can be played on a foundation pile that has an ace on top.
- Place a king from your hand to start a new foundation pile in an empty space in one of the four diagonal corners of the tableau (NE, SE, NW, SW). It will then be possible to build on this king in the same way as on the original foundations, adding a queen of the opposite colour, then a jack of the same colour as the king, and so on.
- Move an entire foundation pile onto another foundation pile if the bottom card of the moving pile is one rank lower and opposite in colour to the top card of the pile you are moving it onto. Example: a pile consisting of red 4 - black 3 may be moved on top of a pile consisting of black 7 - red 6 - black 5.
- Play any card from your hand to any of the original (N, E, S, W) foundation piles that has become empty (because the card(s) that were originally in it have been moved to another pile).
Kings Court Drinking Card Game Rules
If you manage to play all the cards in your hand, you have won, and play ceases. Otherwise, after you have played any cards you can or wish to, you must draw one card from the stock. This ends your turn. If you are unable to or do not wish to play any cards, you simply draw one card.
If in the original layout, a king is dealt any of the original foundation piles (N, E, S, W), it can be moved to a corner position. The player to the left of dealer will have the benefit of making this move and playing a card from hand to replace the moved king.
It may also happen that one of the dealt foundation cards will immediately fit on another, being one rank lower and of opposite colour. In this case the player to the left of dealer will be able to move this card and replace it with a card from hand.
If the centre stock runs out, play continues without drawing.
The play ends when someone manages to get rid of all the cards from their hand, or when an impasse is reached where the stock has run out and everyone is unable or unwilling to play any further cards.
Scoring
1983 King's Court Card Game JanJohn Games | Don's Game Closet
Each player receives penalty points for the cards left in their hand at the end of play. A king costs 10 points and the other cards cost 1 point each.
These points are accumulated from deal to deal until some player reaches or exceeds a target score agreed in advance (say 25 or 50). The winner is the player who has the lowest number of penalty points at this time.
Variations
There are several alternative methods of scoring:
- With chips and a pot
- Everyone begins by putting a chip into the pot. Anyone who does not play any cards on their turn, but just draws one from the stock, pays another chip to the pot. The first player who runs out of cards wins the pot, plus a chip from each other player for each card they have left in their hand (10 chips for a king).
- Cards score pip value
- Some people play that aces in your hand count 25 points against you at the end, pictures count 10, and pip cards count face value. In that case the target score needs to be higher - say 100 or 250. Alternatively you can play a fixed number of hands after which the player with the lowest score will be the winner.
- Cards score 50, 10, 5
- Ed Stofka of Fort Myers, Florida describes a similar version in which aces score 50, picture cards and tens score 10 and pip cards from 2 to 9 score 5 each.
- Cards score 10, 5, 1
- In Henry Kleplek's version face cards score 10 points each, cards 6-10 score 5 points each and cards A-5 score 1 point each. A player who goes out on the very first turn of the game scores 5. The target score to end the game is 50.
Some people play that it is compulsory to play kings at your first opportunity. There is a penalty of three points (or three chips paid to the pot) for holding a king and not playing it when you could. A problem with this rule is that it seems to be unenforceable. If you have a king in your hand you might claim that you had just picked it up, and no one could contradict you unless they had been peeking at your cards, which is also illegal. It seems better to have a 10 point penalty for kings left in hand at the end of the play, as in the main description; this should be enough to encourage players to get rid of kings as soon as they can.
Some play with a pool, which is collected by the winner. Anyone who plays no cards on their turn pays one unit to the pool, and at the end players pay one unit to the pool for each card remaining in their hand.
Some players award a score for completing a corner pile by playing the ace.
Some people play that a card must be drawn from the stock at the start of each turn rather than at the end. This can create a practical problem that it is difficult to know when a player has finished his or her turn: this may be indicated by each player knocking or saying 'pass' at the end of their turn to allow the next player to draw and begin play. Some play that two cards must be drawn from the stock on each turn, rather than just one.
Mike Ellison, Chris Robinson, Jim Crestanello and Geri Monsen describe versions in which the king piles in the corners are built downwards in suit rather than in alternating colours.
- In Chris Robinson's version the original four piles (N, E, S, W) are built upwards rather than downwards in alternating colours. In the scoring, cards A-10 are face value, Jack 11, Queen 12 and King 13.
- In Jim Crestanello's version all the piles are built downwards in suit. It may happen that two or more of the original piles are the same suit. In this case there will be no place for the missing suit(s) until the same suit piles can be combined or a king of a missing suit is played in a corner.
Beverly Becker describes a version in which only four cards are dealt to each player. The game cannot end until the stock has run out. If a player plays their last card while there are still cards in the stock they must draw a card from the stock. If this card can be played in an empty space on the layout they must play it there and draw another card. If there is no space the player keeps the card they drew and the next person plays.
How To Play Kings In The Corner The Classic Card Game
Kevin Freeman describes a variant in which two jokers are included in the deck. A joker can be played on the layout as a substitute for any desired card. If a joker is played on one of the corner piles, then the real card it represents can of course no longer be played on or moved to a corner pile. By playing a joker to start a corner pile you can make it difficult for the holder to play the real king of that suit. This play can misfire if you subsequently have to draw a card and pick up the king that you blocked.
Other Kings Corners web pages and software
Here is an archive copy of Bill Whitnack's Kings in the Corner page.
Willow Schlanger has produced a computer version of Kings Corners for Windows.