CATCHING FARMERS

Hey there! Today, I want to tell you about a super cool card game called Catching Farmers. Have you ever heard of it? It’s also known as Bauernfangen, and it’s played in Austria. Let me explain how it works.

In this game, you play with a special deck of only 20 cards. It’s different from a regular deck because it doesn’t have any trump suits. Instead, it goes from 10’s (which are low cards) all the way up to the Ace, which is the highest card in each suit.

Now, let’s talk about the game itself. Catching Farmers is played in eight rounds. The first four rounds are all about avoiding the Jacks. But in the last four rounds, it’s time to switch gears and try to capture as many Jacks as you can. Isn’t that interesting?

Oh, and here’s something cool: traditionally, this game is played for money. Each Jack has a special value attached to it. So, if you’re lucky enough to catch a Jack, you’ll also get some cash!

THE CARDS & THE DEAL

In order to determine who will be the first dealer, we each take a card from the pack. The person with the card that has the lowest rank will be the first dealer. After that, we shuffle the entire deck and deal all the cards out evenly among us. If we’re playing with four people, each person will have five cards. If we’re playing with five people, each person will have four cards.

Now, let’s get into the game!

The player who is sitting to the left of the dealer will start the game by playing a card from their hand. The other players have to follow suit if they have a card of the same suit. If they don’t have a card of the same suit, they can play any card they want. The player who has the highest-ranking card of the same suit as the first card played wins the trick, and they get to lead the next round.

We will continue playing like this for eight rounds, passing the deal to the left each time. At the end of each round, we will add up our scores.

Let’s talk about scoring.

During the first four rounds, we will lose points for capturing Jacks. Each Jack of Hearts we capture will cost us 4 points.

When it comes to playing cards, some cards are more important than others. There are four Jack cards in a deck – the Jack of Diamonds, the Jack of Spades, the Jack of Clubs, and the Jack of Hearts – and they each have different point values.

If you capture the Jack of Diamonds, you get -3 points. The Jack of Spades is worth -2 points, and the Jack of Clubs is worth -1 point. On the other hand, the Jack of Hearts is worth 4 points, the Jack of Diamonds is worth 3 points, the Jack of Spades is worth 2 points, and the Jack of Clubs is worth 1 point.

But that’s not all – during the last four rounds, you can win points for capturing Jacks. The player with the most points at the end of the eighth round wins the game.