Pishpirik

Pishpirik

Pishpirik is a fun engaging card game that is played widely in coffee and houses throughout the balkans and middle east. It is a game that offers something different to following suit and winning tricks. Pishpirik is best described as a fishing game. Simple in its mechanics and easy going in its style, Pishpirik provides a rich opportunity for strategy and skill. Having been played widely in Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon and all over the Mediterranean from as far back as the days of the Ottoman Empire, Pishpirik appears in a number of variations. The version that will be explained here makes for an excellent card game for two or four players. Each player plays for themselves.

The Cards

Standard deck of 52 cards.

The Deal

Each player is dealt 8 cards one at a time, and then four are dealt face up to the center. This is called the "floor". If any of them is a Jack, it is buried in the deck, and a new card turned in its place. The remainder of the deck is set aside for now.

Objective

The player’s objective in taking his turn is to win or collect cards from the floor by playing the right card. Of particular interest is the 10 of Diamonds, any Aces, Jacks, Tens, Queens, Kings and the 2 of Clubs. And if he is good, he can play a card that takes up all the cards from the "floor" - a Pishpirik! Cards can be taken by:

    Pairing – simply matching the denomination of any card on the floor. A six takes a six, a King takes a King.

    Play a Jack – If you play a Jack, you take in all the cards and clear the floor.

    Pishpirik – a Pishpirik occurs when there is a single card on the floor and you have the card with the same rank.

The Play

Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, each player takes their turn by playing a card face up to the "floor". If it matches any of the face up cards according to the rules outlined above, the player announces his capture, and removes his own card and the card(s) he has captured and sets them aside neatly in front of himself. If the player fails to capture any cards, his card simply remains face up on the "floor" available for capture in future plays. The turn then passes to the next player and each plays a card until their hand is exhausted.

Once the players have exhausted all the cards from their hands, the dealer once again deals each player 8 cards one at a time, exhausting the deck. No cards are added to the “floor”. Once again the first to play is left of the dealer and the hand is played out until no players are left with cards in their hand.

If there are any cards left on the "floor" after the last play, the last player to have taken cards, takes these for him/herself.

Scoring

At the end of play, each player tallies their score by awarding points for the following:

    The 10 of Diamonds scores 2 points

    The 2 of Clubs scores 1 points

    Each Ace scores 1 point

    Each tens scores 1 point

   Each Jacks scores 1 point

    Each Queens scores 1 point

    Each Kings scores 1 point

    3 points for the Cards - that is, whoever holds the majority of cards at the end of play takes 3 points for that. If two player tie for having the most cards, the neither player scores for it and those 3 points are simply lost to the game.

    10 points for each Pishpirik

Game

Pishpirik is played over several hands to a grand total of 101 points.