Welcome to the world of Newmarket!

Get ready to play a thrilling hand shedding game that is all about luck. Newmarket is perfect for parties and is especially enjoyable when played with larger groups of six to eight people. Don’t worry if you only have three players though, you can still have a great time!

Let’s talk about the cards and the deal

To play Newmarket, you’ll need a standard 52 card French deck. Additionally, you’ll need an Ace, King, Queen, and Jack from a second deck. Make sure that these four cards are all from different suits, like a heart, a spade, a club, and a diamond. These unique cards represent the horses that you’ll be betting on during the game.

Now, let’s decide who will be the first dealer. Each player should take a card from the deck, and the player with the lowest card will be the first dealer. Exciting, isn’t it?

First things first, let’s get started with the game. Each player will need ten chips to begin. To kick things off, every player has to pay an ante of one chip into the center. It’s important that everyone pays the ante; otherwise, they can’t join the round. On top of that, each player must also place one chip on a horse of their choice. It’s alright if multiple players bet on the same horse.

Once the ante has been paid, and the horse bets have been placed, it’s time for the dealer to deal the cards. The dealer will distribute the entire deck one card at a time to each player. Additionally, a “dummy” hand should be dealt. The number of cards each player receives may vary depending on the number of people in the game, but don’t worry, that’s perfectly fine.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. The cards in the dummy hand are important. They act as “stops” in the game, but remember, no one should look at the dummy hand.

LET’S START PLAYING

When playing Newmarket, cards are played in order by the players who have them. So, if the 3 of diamonds is played, the next player with the 4 of diamonds will go next, and so on. The same player can play multiple cards in a row.

The round starts with the player on the left of the dealer. They choose the lowest card from any suit in their hand and play it face up in front of them. They have to say the rank and suit of the card out loud. Then, the player who has the next card in the sequence plays that card and announces its rank and suit. This continues until the sequence can’t go any further. When that happens, it’s called being stopped.

When you’re playing a game of cards, there are a few reasons why a sequence might come to an end. One possibility is that the card you need is either in the dummy hand or has already been played. Another reason is that when an Ace is played, the sequence stops right there. In case the sequence does end, the player who played the last card gets another turn. They have the freedom to choose the lowest card from any suit in their hand.

This pattern of play continues until one of the players manages to get rid of all their cards.

Horses

If, at any point, a player plays a card that matches one of the horses, they win all the chips that were bet on that horse. For instance, if one of the horses is the queen of hearts, and player two plays the Queen of Hearts card, they win the chips placed on that particular horse.

Any chips that were not won during the previous round are carried over to the next round.

Winning

When I play Newmarket, the length of the game is decided by us, the players. It’s kind of like poker in that if you run out of chips, you’re out of the game. The last player standing with chips is the big victor.

Another way to play this game is by setting a specific number of rounds. Whoever has the most chips after all the rounds are played wins the whole thing.

We can also choose to play the game for a certain number of rounds. In this version, the player who ends up with the most chips when all the rounds are over is declared the winner.