Lansquenet
You and two or three computers. One bank, two cards, and the first pair decides.
How this table plays
- Everyone starts on 100 play chips. One seat holds the bank and puts up a stake from its chips.
- The others stake against it in turn, up to the size of the bank, or one of them covers the whole bank and every other stake goes back.
- Two cards are turned: the banker’s card, then the players’ card. Same rank, and the bank wins at once. Otherwise cards turn until one pairs either. Pair the banker’s card and the bank takes the stakes. Pair the players’ card and the bank pays every stake again.
- After a loss the bank moves to the next seat. After a win the banker may keep it or pass it on. Everyone holds the bank the same number of times. Most chips at the end wins.
Pure luck. The bank has a small edge: 3 in 51 of what is staked. These are play chips, nothing is bought.
How to play
Everybody starts on 100 play chips: nothing is bought, won or kept, and nothing is stored. Computer players above the table says how many sit down with you, two or three, and the table remembers what you picked. Laps of the bank says how long a match is, one to four, and a lap is one turn at the bank for every seat.
When it is your turn the table offers what you can do and nothing else: post the bank, stake an amount, cover the whole bank or pass, and after a win keep the bank or pass it on. When it is not your turn, or the cards are still turning, it says why nothing is on offer.
The cards turn themselves, one after another, the banker's card first and the players' card second. The card that decides the deal is ringed and marked Pair, and Show all the cards skips the wait. The computers act a beat after the cards have finished, and Pause holds them, never the cards.
If you run out of chips you watch the match to its end and can start a new game whenever you like. When you would rather have people in the other seats, the table at play with friends seats three to six of you on one link each.