| Barbu
A new game featuring the best of the classic card games
Barbu was introduced to this country in the early 1960's by the famous Italian "Blue" Bridge Team. A multi-tiered card game which incorporates some very challenging twists, Barbu now has a very large following. The game of Hearts certainly has its influence, as three levels of Barbu incorporate Hearts-related features.
The King of Hearts is, in effect, a supersized Queen of Spades, with a penalty of minus 20 points. The Queens level creates excitement: each of the four Queens is a penalty card, which results in a minus score of 6 points each. Finally, the plain Hearts level is also a penalty variation, in which each heart pins you for minus two points, and the Ace of hearts is a 6 point penalty card.
Other levels in Barbu are Tricks (which is very similar to the game of Spades), Fan-Tan (which will remind you of Dominoes), Last Two (a very insidious exercise in timing and avoidance), and Nullos (basically a duck and dump exercise). For those wanting to learn many card games, Barbu is a useful teaching tool which stresses strategy, memory, and teamwork.
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Opening lead: King of Spades (South)
The King of Hearts game reminds me of playing a classic game of Hearts in which you sweat out one big card; however, have no concern for each heart! South has a great hand, but he must be careful. The King of spades is led, as West and North drop the ten and the seven respectively, and East wins his Ace. The five of spades is a good return, and the Queen fetches the nine and six spots. South momentarily ignores the Jack of spades and starts the clubs with his eight. The nine of clubs draws the King and Queen.
North is reluctant to continue with spades (he wants to save his "out" cards). Instead, he chooses to open diamonds with the Jack, as East inserts the nine. This is covered by South's King and West's Ace. West is pleased to clear his club suit as he leads his last small club, North plays the four, and South wins East's ten spot with his Jack. The Ace of clubs is cashed, West unloads the Queen of hearts, and two low spots appear from North and East.
Continuing the elimination process, South plays the ten of diamonds. West cagily ducks with the six spot, and North and East follow with the five and eight accordingly. Now the Jack of spades is cleared out of the way, as East drops his heart ten. Having removed all side suits, South decides it’s time to explore the hearts. The Ace is pushed, and down comes the nine, the Jack and the five. South knows that the eight of hearts has not appeared and he leads the seven, accordingly. West wisely drops his last spade (he can’t get rid of all of his diamonds on one trick!) North senses doom. It does not matter if he rises with the eight of hearts or ducks with the six spot, it's all over; his remaining cards in the black suits are going to be killers. North is thus fried, and checks in with a minus 20 points as he catches the King of hearts at the end of the hand.
For more information on Barbu, just plug the phrase “barbu card game” into MSN Search: you’ll find plenty of places to read up on the game.
See you in July!
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