Basra

Goal of Basra: Earn points by capturing cards.

Number of Players: You can play with either 2 or 4 players, with fixed partnerships.

Number of Cards: You will need a standard 52-card deck.

Card Rankings: The order of card rankings, from highest to lowest, is: King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace (A).

Type of Game: Basra is a type of fishing game.

Audience: This game is suitable for adults.

Introduction to Basra

Hi there! I want to tell you about Basra, an exciting fishing game that originally comes from the Middle East. It’s a bit like another Western fishing game called Casino. Basra is often played in Middle Eastern coffee shops and has different names like Assaba-al’ Komi and Ashush.

You can play Basra with either 2 players or 4 players in partners. Sounds fun, right?

DEALING & PLAYING THE GAME

Let me break down how the game starts. First, we randomly choose someone to be the dealer. But here’s the thing, the dealer role doesn’t stick to one person; it keeps moving to the right. Pretty cool, huh?

Now, let’s talk about the cards. We shuffle them up nice and good. Then, the player on the right of the dealer cuts the deck. Oh, and by the way, after the deck has been cut, the dealer gets a sneak peek at the card on the bottom. Sneaky, right?

Alright, time to deal the cards. Each player gets four cards. But hold on, we don’t just start with ourselves. Nope, we begin with the player on our right and go around until we end up dealing our own cards. Fair is fair!

Okay, now here’s something interesting. The next four cards that we deal, we put them face-up in the middle of the table. We call this special area “the floor.” It’s like a fancy card playground.

But wait, there’s a catch. If any of those cards on the floor happen to be a jack or the seven of diamonds, guess what? We can’t have them in our game! So we bury them back in the deck and get some fresh new cards to take their place. How’s that for a twist?

When we play the card game, the person sitting to the right of the dealer goes first. Then, we take turns going counterclockwise. Each turn, we place one card face-up on the floor. Sometimes, we can even capture cards that are already on the floor. The cards we capture stay in front of us. After we play all four cards in our hand, the dealer gives us four more cards to continue playing. We keep doing this until there are no more cards left in the deck, and then we score ourselves.

Capturing Cards and the Basra

If we play a card from our hand that has the same rank as a card on the floor, we can capture it and add it to our pile of captured cards.

We can also use number cards to capture a group of cards if their sum is equal to the number on our card. For example, if we have a 3 in our hand, we can capture an ace and a two that are on the floor.

In this game, you can make multiple captures with one play. If the card you play can’t capture anything on the floor, it just goes on the floor. But you don’t have to capture cards just because you can. You can add another card to the floor instead. But if you play a card that can capture one or more cards on the floor, you have to capture them.

The Specific Rules of Play

Queens and kings don’t have numbers. So, number cards can’t capture them. However, kings can capture kings and queens can capture queens.

If you’re able to capture all the cards on the floor, you achieve a special move called a basra. When you do this, you get a 10 point bonus. Make sure to put the captured cards face-up in your capture pile so you remember to add the bonus to your total score.

Did you know that jacks have a special ability in Basra? If I play a jack while there are cards on the floor, I can capture them all. But here’s the catch: I won’t earn the Basra bonus. If I play a jack when the floor is empty, it doesn’t capture anything. It’s simply added to the floor.

Now let me tell you about the 7 of Diamonds. It acts just like jacks because it can capture everything on the floor. However, there’s a twist. If all the cards on the floor add up to 10 or less, it’s called a basra. But if the cards exceed 10, it’s not considered a basra, and you won’t earn the 10 bonus points.

Now, let’s talk about scoring.

After all the cards have been played, I count. If I’m playing with a partner, we add our scores together. The team with the most cards, 27 or more, gets 30 points. If there’s a tie and both players have 26 cards, those points carry over to the next game and the winner takes them.

I also keep track of the points for each card in the capture pile. Every jack and ace is worth 1 point. The 2 of clubs is worth 2 points, and the 10 of diamonds is worth 3 points.

The goal of the game is to be the first player or team to reach 101 points. If both players reach 101 points in the same hand, the one with the higher score wins. If it’s a complete tie, we keep playing more hands until someone breaks the tie.

So, keep an eye on the cards and your score. The first to 101 wins, but be prepared for some intense competition!