The Rules Of Spooneye! THE DEAL    Lowest cut deals first and the turn to deal alternates. Dealer (known as Matey) deals four cards each, one at a time, face down, to non-dealer (Captain) first. Matey then deals four cards face up in a row in front of Captain and then four face up in front of himself. These are the players' columns, known as masts. The deck is then placed to one side as a draw pile. CARD VALUES    Aces have a value of 1. Pip cards are worth their face value. Queens and Kings have a value of 10. Jacks are worth 10 if there is no card underneath; otherwise, they match the value of the card it is directly on top of. THE PLAY    Captain goes first. Each turn, a player must do either one (and only one) of the following: a) Draw a card, and then play a card on either side of the board, either playing on an existing mast or starting a new one. b) Move an uncovered card in one of his or her masts to an adjacent mast. SPECIAL CARDS    Three cards, when played, have additional effects: a) When a 3 is played, the player immediately draws another card from the draw pile. His turn then ends. b) When a 4 is played, the player must immediately play another card from his hand. Their turn then ends (unless another 4 was played.) A player cannot choose to move a card already on the table instead. Note that another card is not drawn when a 4 is played, and that a player's hand can vary in size. c) When a 9 (Spooneye) is played, that player takes any exposed card from one of his opponent's masts and places it on one of his own. A new mast may be started in this fashion. Special cards taken in this manner never have additional effects, and if there are no cards on the opponent's side, the 9 has no effect. Note that a card takes effect for whoever just played it, regardless of on whose mast it is played. Completing masts, capturing masts, and closing masts always takes precedence over such effects, but the effects do always eventually take place, even if the card is no longer on the board. MOVING CARDS    As described above, a player may choose to move any exposed card in one of his masts to an adjacent mast, under the following restrictions: a) A new mast may not be created in this manner. b) Once the deck is exhausted, no cards may be moved. c) If a special card is moved, it does not take effect as it would if played from the hand. The exception is that, on each player's first turn, moving a special card already face up does take effect as if it were played from the hand. MASTS    If a player has less than four masts, a new mast can be started to either side of the exisiting ones. No player may have more then four masts, nor can any mast total more than 21. There are no spaces between masts. If for any reason a mast is removed, the remaining masts immediately close together. COMPLETING AND CAPTURING    If a player's mast totals 21, the player takes that mast and any one of his or her opponent's masts (if any), and then places them face down in his or her booty pile. In some cases one or more of the captured cards will be placed face up: a) If the capturing player's mast is made up of more than three cards, this is known as walking the plank, and any card past the third is placed face up. b) If the capturing player's pile is made up of only one suit (i.e. K-4-7), this is known as hoisting the colors, and the entire mast is placed face up. Cards captured from opponent's mast go face down, even if all of one suit. c) If, by capturing, the player leaves no remaining cards on the table, this is known as swabbing the deck, and both masts taken are placed face up in the booty pile. Swabbing and hoisting the colors simultaneously confers no additional bonus. DOUBLE MUTINY    If a player completes a mast by using only 7s and/or Jacks, then a double mutiny occurs, and, after the capture is finished, the players exchange their current hands. Masts are not affected. This can result in each player having a different number of cards in their hand than they did previously. ENDGAME    Once the draw pile is exhausted, players play out their remaining cards without drawing. If one player runs out of cards first, the other player plays out his or her remaining cards uninterrupted. Once both players are out of cards, each player takes the cards their opponent's masts and places them face-down in their own booty pile. The game then ends. Also, in the rare event that playing on any of the eight masts would bring the total above 21 and that no cards already in masts may be moved, the game immediately ends. In this case, all cards still remaining in the deck and the player's hands are discarded and added to neither player's score. SCORING    When play is over, players first total up the number of cards in their booty pile. Face-up cards count as two cards each. Then, each player turns all cards face-up and re-counts their cards as follows: Diamonds are each worth 2, Spades are each worth 1, Hearts are worth nothing, and Clubs are each worth negative 1. The number of cards is written below a line, and is the player's score. The suit-based count is written above the line, and is the player's larder. Games are played until one or both of the player's scores reach or exceed 100. If both players have reached or exceeded 100, then both add their total larder to their score, and whoever has the greater total score wins. If only one player reaches or exceeds 100, they add their total larder to their score, while the other player's larder is lost.