OBJECT OF 2-PLAYER MANILLEN: The objective of 2-Player Manillen is to be the first team to score 101 points to win.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 players
MATERIALS: A modified deck of 52 cards, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.
TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game
AUDIENCE: Adult
OVERVIEW OF 2-PLAYER MANILLEN
2-Player Manillen is a trick-taking card game for 2 players. The goal of the game is to achieve 101 points to win before your opponents.
There are two ways to play this game. One involves using dummy players to form teams, and the other involves each player having additional revealed cards.
SETUP
To modify the deck, remove all cards 6 and lower in rank. This leaves you with a 32-card deck.
The first dealer is chosen randomly and passes to the left for each new deal. The deck is shuffled and the other player may cut the deck.
The dealer then deals each player a hand of cards based on the game type being played.
For the first version, each player will play separately and have a dummy hand as their teammate. The dealer will each dummy player four separate stacks of cards consisting of a lower facedown card and the top card face up. Each player receives a hand of 8 facedown cards.
For the second version, each player is dealt an 8-card hand face down, and then dealt an additional layout of four stacks that remain in front of them. Each stack consists of one facedown card on the bottom and the top card is dealt face up.
After the hands are dealt the dealer may look at their cards and call the trump suit. They may call one of the four suits or no-trumps, which doubles the score. In some games, players allow the dealer to call no trumps before looking at their hand to quadruple the score.
If the opponent wishes to they can say, “I go along” to double the score, and if the dealer believes they will still win they can call, “I go against” to double the score again.
Card Ranking and Values
The ranking for this game is 10(Also called Manille) (high), Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, and 7 (low).
The cards have values associated with them for scoring. 10s are worth 5 points, aces are worth 4 points, Kings are worth 3 points, Queens are worth 2 points and Jacks are worth 1 point. All other points do not have a point value.
GAMEPLAY
The game starts with the player to the non-dealer player. They may lead any card they wish to the trick. The following players must follow suit if possible, and if their opponent is winning, they must, if possible, beat them. If you are unable to follow suit, you may (or must if an opponent is winning) play a trump. If you do not have/are not required to trump you may play any card of any suit. You may not undertrump though. A player may not play a lower-ranked trump to a trick if they have any other card to play.
The trick is won by the highest trump played, if applicable. If the trick has no trumps, it is won by the highest-ranking card of the suit of the originally led card. The trick is collected into a score pile and the winner leads to the next trick.
In addition to the rules above each version has a slightly different play procedure. For version one, each player will play a card for their turn and when it is their partner’s turn, they play one of the faceup cards from their layout to the trick. once a faceup card has been played, at the end of the trick, if there is a face-down card below it, it is revealed.
For version two, each trick consists of only 2 cards. On a player’s turn, they may play cards from their hand or any face-up cards from their layout. If they play a face-up card, at the end of the trick, if there is a facedown card below it, it is revealed.
SCORING
Once all tricks have been played and won the points are scored. Players will tally the total value of all their won cards. The player that scores more than 30 points will score the difference between their score and 30.
If both players score 30 there are no points earned this round, but points are doubled for the next round.
If a player takes all the tricks their score is doubled as well.
END OF GAME
The game ends when a player reaches or exceeds 101 points. They are the winners.
This game can be played tournament style meaning each game of 101 won is called a boam (aka tree). Tournaments are best of 3 usually.
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