Hungarian playing cards, or
magyar kártya
offer a wealth of possibilities to invent new games and to adapt the
card games you play with other decks for these very ornate
cards.
Below you can read the rules of three games that can be
played with this deck. (
Buy a deck of cards from my shop if you don't yet have one to play with.) These games originate in Hungary or are
Hungarian versions of international games.
Makaň - MacauDid you know that you can play Uno
with a deck of Tell cards? And it's as much fun as the commercial
game that the world is in love with.
The game originates in
the former Portuguese colony of Macau, in South-East Asia. The
portuguese colonial officers started playing this game in the 19th
century. The version i know and enjoy playing is slightly different
from the original gambling version of the game. Here are the
rules:
2-4 players, one deck of Tell cards (32
cards)
The object of the game is to get rid of your cards
first.
After shuffling the cards, each player is dealt 5 cards.
The rest of the cards is the deck. The top card of the deck is
flipped, and play proceeds clockwise with the person next to the
dealer. Each person either plays a card that matches the top card's
rank or suit or draws one card from the deck. If a player plays his
card and there is only one last card remaining in his hand, he must
say Macao. If he forgets, he must draw a penalty of two cards. If a
player does't have a suitable card (matching rank or suit), but has
an Ace, he can play that and choose the suit. If the Ace was his
last card, the other players double their penalty points (the value
of the cards that remained in their hands) So the special cards are
the following:
Ace - can be played any time and the player must
ask for a suit
7 - next player draws two (or plays a 7 and the
next person draws 4 etc.)
9 - the direction of the game is turned
Winner is the player who gets rid of his cards first.
You can also invent more rules and designate more special
cards familiar from the Uno game, like "Draw 4", "Skip a player"
etc.
UltiThe most popular card game in Hungary,
also known as the national card game of the country. It was
developed in the 20th century from the traditions and rules of the
18h century's "Marias" and the 19th century's "Talonmarias" (also
known as "simple ulti" games. Three players play with one deck of
the Tell cards.
Rules
[in new window] SnapszliWidely
known in the former Austro-Hungarian empire, and still very popular
in Hungary. It is a close relative of internationally played games
like sixty-six, Schnapsen, mariage and lots of others. To play this
game you have to take the number cards from your deck and only play
with 20 cads, the Unders, Overs, Kings and Aces.
Rules [in new window] Fortune telling with "magyar kártya"
