VARIANT KONTSINA



OBJECT OF VARIANT KONTSINA: The object of Variant Kontsina is to have the most points at the end of the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 or 4 players

MATERIALS: A standard deck of 52-cards, a way to keeps score, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Fishing Card Game

AUDIENCE: Teens, Adults


OVERVIEW OF VARIANT KONTSINA

Variant Kontsina is a fishing card game for 3 or 4 players. The goal of the game is to score more points than your opponents by the end of the game.

The players should determine before the game starts how many rounds the game will last, or if playing with the score variant how many points will need to be reached to win.

If playing with 4 players, the game can either be played as a partner’s game or each player for themselves. If playing with partners, partners sit opposite of each other and share a score pile.

SETUP

The first dealer is chosen at random and passes anticlockwise. It is disadvantageous to be the dealer, so it should be chosen randomly who will start as the dealer.

The deck will be shuffled, and the dealer will give each player a 4-card hand. 4 additional cards are placed face up between the players and the remaining cards form a stockpile to the side.

Card Ranking

There is not a card ranking used for the game.

GAMEPLAY

The game starts with the player right of the dealer and passes anticlockwise around the table. On a player’s turn, they may play one card from hand. This can result in any of the following occurrences. A player may capture a single card from the layout, a player may capture multiple cards from the layout, or a player may add a card to the layout in the center.

If capturing a single card, it will need to match the rank of the card you play from hand exactly. This is the only way Kings, Queens, and Jacks can be captured. Once captured the captured card and the played card will both be added to the player’s score pile. If multiple cards match and could be captured only one may be captured.

If capturing a set of cards, the cards will need to be added together to equal the value of the card played from hand. For this game, Aces have a value of one. If there are multiple sets of cards that can be captured only one set can be.

If you cannot or decide not to capture cards from the layout you may add a card to it by playing faceup from your hand to the layout.

Whenever a card(s) is captured it and the card played will be added to your score pile, which is kept facedown.

The game continues until the player’s hands are empty, then the dealer deals each player another hand of four cards. This continues for 4 deals with 3 players and 3 deals with 4 players. After all cards from all deals are played the round ends.

The last player to capture a card from the layout scores any remaining cards in the layout at the end of the round.

SCORING

After the round is over players will score their score piles. A player receives 2 points for capturing the most cards. A player receives 1 point for having the most clubs. The player who captures the 2 of clubs receives 1 point, and the player who captures the 10 of diamonds receives 1 point.

If there is a tie for most cards captured the 2 points are not scored by any player or team.

END OF GAME

The game ends after the decided number of rounds (or points) is reached. The player with the most points wins the game. 

Amber Crook
Latest posts by Amber Crook (see all)
×