Читать книгу Card Games For Dummies - Barry Rigal - Страница 47

Say your opponent in this game, Player B, indicates that they can’t play, and you can see that the top cards on their waste piles are 10, 9, 6, and 2. You now know that whatever they have in their hand isn’t one of the following cards: K, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, or 2. If they had any of these numbers, they would have to discard onto their waste pile (remember, the only cards you can put onto a waste pile are cards of the same value, or one lower, than the top card there).

Similarly, you can look at the foundation piles, see that one pile has a 3 on it, and infer that your opponent doesn’t have any 4s. So what you must do is ensure that you never leave the foundation piles in a position to allow them to put a Q, J, 7, 3, or ace up — the only cards they can have in their hand. If you can do that, you stop them playing for the duration, which has to be a good idea.

A less demanding version of the game allows you to discard anything you like to your waste piles. Of course, if you play this variation, you never get stuck for a move, but it does cut down on the opportunities for spite and malice!

If both players can’t move, you collect all the waste piles and hands, shuffle them up, and redeal new hands. You leave the reserve piles as they are.

Spite and Malice is an excellent competitive game; you have to watch your own cards, plan how best to get rid of them, figure out how to use up your reserve pile, and strategize how to discard onto your waste pile. But equally important is spoiling your opponent’s strategy, blocking their reserve pile, preventing them playing from their waste piles by taking the foundation piles past convenient numbers, and generally making yourself a nuisance.

Try to keep your waste piles as empty as possible; within a single pile, you may want to duplicate cards to preserve flexibility. Occasionally, however, you can see that by (for example) duplicating jacks in a single pile, you may prevent yourself from having access to the queen below the jack. If your opponent has a queen on the reserve pile, that duplication is a very bad idea.

The game ends when one player gets rid of their reserve pile, and the other player records how many cards they have left. The game is ideal for an ongoing struggle (say 20 years or so), as is the case for two of my friends who’ve been playing it for that long.