A solitaire card game called suicide?

December 30, 2008 6:16 PM

Some years ago someone showed me how to play a simple solitaire card game that was called (I think, with heavy emphasis on 'think') 'suicide'. I've forgotten how it was played, and I was wondering if the hive mind can help me remember.

What I can remember is that you start out with a shuffled deck and you simply turn over the cards, one at a time, into a pile. You win if you manage to get through the whole pack without encountering a loss situation.

It's the loss situation part that I can't remember. It had (I think) something to do with the relationship between the card you just turned over, and the card you turned over just before.

Something like if they were the same suit, or the same face value, or a higher face value etc, you lost and had to reshuffle and start again.

It was shown to me by a retired army guy, who said he played it a lot because you didn't need much space for it.

Does anyone else know this game, and the rules that go with it?

Many thanks in advance!

posted by planetthoughtful to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 comments total)

Is this it?
posted by kellyblah at 6:43 PM on December 30, 2008

@kellyblah: none of those are the game I remember, but I'm very thankful for the link! After reading it I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps the guy who taught me the game had simplified one of these for his own uses.
posted by planetthoughtful at 6:51 PM on December 30, 2008

There is a game I play that is very much like this - you turn the cards over one by one, going "ace, two, three, four, five" and so on. If the card does not match what you say, you continue. When it matches, you lose.

I don't know what it's called specifically though.
posted by Lucinda at 8:07 PM on December 30, 2008

though looking at the link, it's the same thing Doctor Suarez said.

Ne'er mind.
posted by Lucinda at 8:08 PM on December 30, 2008

I sort of remember this game. I learned it as Suicide, probably in the late 1980s, if that helps at all. I think that the win-lose part was that the number on the new card had to be higher or you'd lose the round and need to reshuffle/start over, and then there was something about the suits switching that up a bit. Maybe either a certain suit trumping everything, or maybe it was something to do with how you'd rank cards of the same numerical value. And there was something special about jokers. The one I'm thinking of isn't the one Lucinda mentioned, nor is it any in the earlier thread.

Man! this is going to drive me crazy. I wish I could remember the details! Hopefully I'll wake up at 4am and know all the rules.
posted by min at 8:50 PM on December 30, 2008