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Card Games

High Chicago

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High Chicago is a seven-card stud game in which the player with the highest spade in the hole splits the pot with the player who has the best hand. If the Ace of spades is exposed, then a King would be the highest possible spade in the hole, and so on. Like high/low, High Chicago is a declare game, except players declare that they have either the best hand or the highest spade-or both.

As in high/low, each player declares "hand" or "spade" using chips or declares in sequence. If you use chips, one chip indicates you are going for the best hand, no chip for high spade, two chips for pig - both high hand and high spade. If you declare that you have the high spade, you must actually have a spade in the hole; if everyone before you has declared "hand", you can't declare "spade" to win half the pot. You must show a spade if you declare "spade", and that includes anyone who goes pig. No spade, no split. Got the message?

If you're feeling rakish, you can also play Low Chicago: Low spade - the deuce, since the Ace is only low in an all-low game - splits the pot with the best hand. Or you can play all-low - the low hand splits with the low spade. In this case, the Ace once again takes its rightful place as the low card.

Baccarat

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Baccarat is played on a large table (see figure) that can accommodate twelve to fourteen players. Each seat is numbered; however, there is no seat number thirteen on the layout. The cards are dealt out of a shoe, which contains eight decks of cards. In baccarat, the shoe is called the bank. The bank is passed around the table and each player will take a turn dealing the cards. Regardless of the number of players at the table, only two hands are dealt, one for the player and one for the banker. A player can bet on either hand except when they are dealing the cards, at which time they can only bet the banker.

 

Three dealers are present at the baccarat table. One dealer, known as the "caller", runs the game. The caller stands by the table and announces the point totals of the cards as they are dealt by the banker. The two additional dealers are seated at the table on each side of the caller. It is their responsibility to pay off winning bets and collect losing bets. The dealers also keep track of the commission that is paid on a banker's bet.

The object of the game is to bet on the hand with a sum that comes closest to nine. Occasionally the two hands will tie, but betting on a tie gives up too much of a house edge to be profitable.

Bid Whist

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Bid Whist is a partnership trick-taking game, played with a deck of 52 cards plus two jokers, which should be clearly distinguishable from one another. The object of the game is to score 7 or more points, or to drive your opponents negative by more than 7 points.
You deal out the cards clockwise, one at a time, 12 to each player. You also deal out the remaining six cards during the deal, face-down to a kitty in the center of the table. (The timing of dealing to the kitty is up to the dealer.)

The bidding. Bid Whist has five possible trump suits; the regular four suits and no-trumps. Each suit can also be defined as uptown or downtown. At uptown trumps, the order of the cards goes from ace to 2 with the big joker and little joker the boss two trumps. At downtown trumps, the Jokers retain their pole position, but the other cards rank from ace to king - so the king is the least important card. At no-trump both uptown and downtown, the order is identical to the order trumps, but both jokers are irrelevant.

Piquet

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Piquet is generally regarded as the best of card games for two players.
It is played with a pack of thirty-two cards, which is called a "piquet pack", all below the seven being excluded. The cards rank in Whist order - ace, king, queen, knave, ten, nine, eight, seven.
The score is made partly by combinations of cards held in the hand, and partly by points marked in the course of play.

The Deal.
The two players cut for deal, and in this cutting the ace ranks the highest. The player who cuts the higher card has the choice of first deal. After this the players deal alternately.
It is customary to use two packs of cards, and the first dealer has the choice which pack he will use. Each player has a right to shuffle both his own and the adversary's pack, the dealer shuffling last. After this the pack is "cut to the dealer" by the adversary, as at Whist.
It is customary to call the non-dealer the "elder hand".
The dealer must deal the cards by two at a time or by three at a time, giving the top cards to his adversary, the next to himself, and so on, until each has twelve cards.
The eight cards that remain (called the "stock") are placed face downwards between the players.
There are no trumps in this game.