1. Space-Rage,
Hi:
My Friend Hasan38 Who's originaly from Yeman has told Me a cool Game which it's a bit similar to Scopa, also He's calling it Arabic Scopa
Players and cards
A Standard 52 Card pack is used. The Egyption version is for two or four players. If there are four players, it'll be team: 2 against 2
Deal and Play
The Cards are shuffled and The Person to The left of The dealer cuts. The dealer may look at The bottom Card of The pack after it has been cut.
The dealer then gives the Four Cards to each player, beginning with His/Her right hand Opponent, going around The Table anticlockwise, and ending with Himself/Herself. The next 4 Cards are turned face up in The middle of The Table. If The Cards on The Table include any jacks or The Seven of Diamonds, The dealer buries these Cards in The undealt pack and replaces them by dealing New Cards to The Table from The top of The undealt Cards.
The player to dealer's right plays first and The turn to play passes anticlockwise. Each turn consists of playing One Card face up to The Table and possibly colecting Some of The Cards that are there. colected Cards are placed face down in front of The player Who colected them. When there are Four players, partners keep The Cards They have colected together in a single Pile. When All players have played Their Four Cards, The dealer gives them each another batch of Four from The undealt Cards (but No more Cards are dealt to The Table) and play continues. When The whole pack has been dealt and The players have played Their last Four Cards The play ends. The hand is scored and The turn to deal passes to The right.
colecting cards and The Basra
If You play a Card whose rank matches One of The Cards on The Table, You colect that Card, and place both The Card You played and The colected Card face down in front of You. For example You can colect 7 with a 7, Queen with a Queen, and so on.
If You play a Numeral Card whose value is equal to The sum of The values of some Cards on The Table, then You colect these group of Cards. For example if The Table contains 3, 4, 5 and 8 and You play a 9, you'll colect The 5 with 4 and place The 5, 4 and 9 in Your colection Pile. Aces have a colect value of 1, so if The Table contains A, 2, 6 You can colect The Ace and Two by playing a 3, or Ace and 6 with a 7 or all Three Cards with a 9.
It's possible to make more than One colection with The same play. For example, if The Table shows a 4, 6, 10 and 3 and You play a 10, You'll colect 10, 4 and 6 from The Table along with The 10 that You played.
If You play a Card that doesn't match anything, it stays face up on The Table, and is available for colection in future turns.
Note that there is No obligation to play a Card that makes The colection just because You can - if You have a Card that doesn't match, You can add it to The Table if You wish to. However, if You play a Card which does make a collection, You must make The collection.
Queens and kings have No numerical value. if You played A Queen, You can colect or it'll be collected by a Queen and a King can colect or it'll be colected by a King. The only other way to colect a Queen or King is to play a special Card (Jack or Seven of Diamonds - see below).
A Basra occurs when a player colects all the Cards from the Table, leaving it empty. The player scores a 10 point bonus for this, and The colected Card is placed faced up in The player's colection Pile, as a way of remembering The bonus when The Time comes to score the hand.
Jacks have a special property. If You play a jack when There are Cards on The Table, it colects All The Cards from The Table, leaving it empty, but this doesn't count as a Basra and scores no bonus. If You play a Jack when The table is empty it doesn't colect anything, but just remains on The Table.
The Seven of Diamonds behaves in a similar way to a Jack - it colects everything on The Table. If The Cards on the Table are all numerals, and their values add up to 10 or less, this counts as a Basra, and scores the 10 point bonus. If The Table adds up to more than ten, or includes strong Cards, The 7 of Diamonds still takes All of The Cards but it doesn't count as a Basra. If You play The 7 of Diamonds to an empty Table it stays there (and can be colected later just like a normal Seven).
After The last Card has been played, any Cards that remain on The Table are taken by The player who last made a colection, but this doesn't count as a Basra.
Scoring
When All of The 52 cards have been played, The Cards in each team's stack are counted. The team that has the majority of The Cards (27 or more) scores 30 points. If it's a tie, each team having 26 cards, these 30 points are held in ambyance, and added to The score for The majority of Cards on The next Hand. So on The next hand, The Team which takes more Cards will win 60 points (30+30).
In addition One point is scored for each jack and each ace in Your Pile, two points for the 7 of Clubs and 3 points for the 10 of diamonds, plus 10 points for each Basra, as already mentioned. Thus The total Points to be scored in each Hand are 43 plus 10 for each Basra.
Whichever team reaches a score of 101 points first wins the Game. It's possible that both teams reach 101 in The same Hand. In that case The Team with The higher score wins, and in case of a tie, more Hands are played until The tie is broken.
It's usual to play The best of five Games - The player who wins three Games wins The match. If after four games, the players have won two each, then by common Agreement decisive fifth Game is played to 150 points rather than 101.
Customs and Tactics
It's important to remember the Cards that have been played. Towards The end You know what cards Your Opponent is likely to have and what has already been played and You can use this knowledge to colect valuable cards. An important tactic is to clear The Table with a jack when You know that your Opponent's next play to the empty Table is likely to give You a Basra. In The last deal of The Hand, if both players have been concentrating They will each know exactly what four Cards The other has and can play accordingly.
variation in Yemen
The play is begun by The player Who received The first Cards in The deal (that is the non-dealer if there are two players and the player to dealer's right if there are four). Then the turn to play rotates. The procedure for playing and capturing cards is already described below: a numeral card can colect an equal Card or a set of Cards that add up to its rank, or both; a jack colects everything on The Table; a Queen can only colect queens and a King can only colect kings. In this Version The 7 of diamonds has No special power.
Skor: +0