Cucumber

Cucumber, known as Agurk in Danish, is a popular game played worldwide, with variations in different regions. Let’s dive into the Danish version, Agurk. It’s also referred to as 21 because, if you accumulate 21 points, you’re out of the game.

Getting Ready

First, we need to set up the game. One player will act as the dealer. They will shuffle the deck and deal seven cards face down to each player. The remaining cards are placed in a pile face down, within reach of all players. In this game, cards are ranked from highest to lowest: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The card’s suit doesn’t matter for this game.

Let’s Play!

Hey there! Wanna learn how to play Agurk? Well, you’re in luck! Let me break it down for you in a way that’s super easy to understand.

First things first, Agurk is played in rounds, and in each round, you’ll play 7 tricks. The first trick is always played by the player sitting to the left of the dealer. Simple enough, right? And after that, the winner of each trick will start the next one.

Now, let’s talk about how tricks work in Agurk. The player who starts the trick can play any card they want. Cool, right? But here’s the deal, the other players have to follow the lead. They can either play a card of equal or higher rank or, if they can’t, they have to play their lowest-ranking card. Makes sense? Good. And the player with the highest-ranked card or the last card played wins the trick.

Oh, and by the way, the cards that everyone plays during the game stay in front of them. So, you can always take a sneaky peek at what cards others have when it’s your turn to play. Just between you and me, it might give you an advantage!

Now, let me fill you in on how the scoring works. It’s pretty straightforward. If you win a trick, you get 1 point. And if you manage to win all 7 tricks in a round, you get an awesome bonus of 10 points! It’s like hitting the jackpot!

That’s pretty much all you need to know to get started with Agurk. Sounds fun, right? Grab some cards and play a few rounds with your friends. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, you’ll be hooked!

When the last trick is won, the person who won it gets penalized. You get a score that matches the rank of the card you won with. The highest score you can get is 14 for an Ace, 13 for a King, 12 for a Queen, 11 for a Jack, and the rest of the cards are worth their face value.

If you get a score of 21 or more, you lose a life. To show this, we draw a cucumber under your score. Your new score will be the same as the highest score at the table. If you reach a score of 21 or more for the second time, you’re out of the game.

If you play a card that has the same rank as the card from the last trick’s winner, you get a bonus. This means that the score of the card is subtracted from your score. Your score can’t go below zero, and if you already have a cucumber, it can’t go below the number you started your second life with. Penalties are always applied before bonuses.

When it’s time to begin a new round, the player to my left, or the person who hasn’t been eliminated, becomes the new dealer until we find a winner.

There are different versions of this game. Some variations include three jokers, which means the deck has 55 cards. In these versions, Jacks are more valuable than Aces and can give you a penalty or a bonus worth 15 points.

When playing certain games, there is a special opportunity that comes after the cards are dealt. The player sitting to the left of the dealer can choose to get rid of some or all of their cards and replace them from the pile of cards that are face-down. Everyone else playing the game has the same option. They can choose to discard the same number of cards and replace them, or they can choose not to discard any cards at all. However, if there aren’t enough cards left in the pile, the player can only discard the remaining cards and cannot replace them. And if there are no cards left at all, then no one can discard any cards to replace them. It’s all dependent on what the player to the left of the dealer does. If they choose not to discard and replace their cards, then no one else can do it either.

In some games, keeping score is done by using the winning card from the last trick. This card is kept in front of the player who lost the trick and they get penalized for it. There are no extra bonuses or second chances in this variation of the game.

Did you know that there’s a different version of the game where any cards of the same rank that tie for the highest in the last trick all lose the points? It adds an interesting twist to the game!

There are also games where the first player to reach 21 points actually loses the game and it ends right there. Talk about a challenging twist!

Here’s another variant: players who manage to reach exactly 21 points can start over with zero points and not lose a life. It’s like getting a second chance!

But wait, there’s more! In this final variant, instead of getting 7 cards after the first round, players receive a hand the same size as the card used to win the last trick of the previous round. This means there will be an equal number of tricks played in that round. Talk about keeping things fair!

That’s a Wrap!

The game comes to an end when there’s only one player left standing, the one who hasn’t been eliminated. It’s a battle of skill and strategy to see who will emerge victorious!