Russian Bank: A Game of Strategy and Patience

Ah, Russian Bank – a game with many names and countless hours of entertainment. Some call it Crapette, Zank-Patience, Streitpatience, or Tonj, but no matter what you call it, the essence of this game remains the same. It’s like Skip Bo, but with its own unique twist.

Picture this: it’s just you and a friend, sitting across from each other, ready to embark on a thrilling solitaire-style adventure. Your mission? Build up your tableau and foundations using cards from your piles. Think of it as a solitaire game, but instead of completing foundations, your goal is simply to clear your draw, waste, and reserve piles. It’s a simple objective, but one that requires strategy and careful planning.

The Deck of Cards and the Art of the Deal

To play Russian Bank, you’ll need two standard 52-card French decks. Sit facing your opponent, ready to test your skills.

So here’s how we get started. First, we both shuffle our decks. Once that’s done, we each deal twelve cards face down and put one card face up on top of the pile. We call this pile the reserve, and it goes on our right side. By the way, we each have our own reserve pile.

Now, let’s deal four cards face up above our reserve pile. These four cards are called houses. Remember to leave a space two cards wide between each column. This empty space is for the foundation piles. The cool thing is, both players can use all eight houses and all of the foundation spaces during the game.

Okay, so after dealing the houses, we should each have thirty-five cards left in our decks. We place the deck facedown on the other side of the reserve pile. That’s called the draw pile. And the space between the draw pile and the reserve pile is where we put the waste pile.

THE GAME

When it’s my turn to play, I start if the card on top of my reserve pile has the lowest value. If two cards have the same value, we compare the first house cards.

During my turn, I have to follow a specific order for my moves. First, I need to play the cards that are on top of my reserve pile and in my houses. Once I play the top card from my reserve pile, I flip over the next card. If I can, I have to play that card too.

If I run out of moves, I can flip over the top card of the draw pile. Once I play that card, I have to go back and see if I have any available moves with my reserve cards and house cards.

When playing cards, remember that you can also play them on your opponent’s reserve and waste piles. The cards you play must be of the same suit, and you can play them in either ascending or descending order. Let me give you an example: if the top card is a J♦, you can play a 10♦ or a Q♦ on top of it.

This continues until you draw a card from the draw pile that cannot be played. In that case, you discard that card to the waste pile and your turn ends. It’s important to note that cards in the waste pile cannot be played until you run out of cards in the draw pile.

Building foundations is another important aspect of the game. You start with an Ace and build up in ascending order to the same suited King. These cards must be played to the foundations before any others.

Houses are built in descending order, and the colors must alternate. The houses are staggered to ensure that you can see the entire house. If you manage to empty a house during your turn, you must immediately fill it with a card from your reserve pile (if you have any cards left in your reserve).

When you discard a card to your waste pile, it’s my signal that my turn has come to an end. That’s when it’s your turn again!

This back-and-forth rhythm continues until one of us manages to empty all our piles. Although, sometimes we might find ourselves in a stalemate.

SCORING

If you’re the lucky one who empties all your piles, you earn a cool 30 points for winning the round. But here’s the fun part, you also earn 1 point for each card left in my draw and waste piles. And that’s not all, you get a whopping 2 points for each card left in my reserve pile!

Now, in the unlikely event of a stalemate, we both get 1 point for each card left in our draw and waste piles. And guess what? We earn 2 points for each card remaining in our reserve piles. Here’s the twist though, the person with the lower score gets points equal to the difference between our two totals.

WINNING

The real goal here is to be the first one to reach 300 points or more. That’s when you become the ultimate champion and win the whole game!