This simulation of Ice Hockey using playing-cards is played mainly in Canada. Ida A Spence tells me that she invented the original version of the game in Eddystone, Manitoba during the hockey season 1961-62. In the mid 1960's many of the players moved to Winnipeg and introduced the game there.
This is a game for just two players, one representing each team. The play mechanism is, perhaps coincidentally, quite similar to that of the Turkish game Pishti and the French Canadian game Mitaines, so on this site Hockey has been placed with those games in the "fishing group" - games where cards from hand are used to capture matching cards from the table. In Hockey, points are scored by matching the card played by your opponent to create a "breakaway" (also known as "clearing the ice") and then also matching the opponent's following play to score. These points are known as "goals" and the object is of course to score more goals than your opponent.
Hockey is a game for two players only, using a standard 52-card deck with no jokers.
The first dealer is chosen by lot - for example by cutting cards. The winner of the cut chooses who will deal for the first period. The dealer shuffles, the opponent cuts, and the dealer deals 5 cards to each player, one at a time. When the dealt cards have all been played, the same dealer deals the next 5 cards to each player, and this is repeated until just 12 cards remain, at which point there is a final deal 6 cards each.
Playing once through the deck - four deals of 5 cards each and one of 6 cards each - is known as a "period". This 6th card in the final deal is considered as "an extra attacker" for the "last minute remaining in the period".
After a period is over, the next period begins and players switch as dealers. Three periods constitute a complete game (unless there is a tie, in which case a fourth "overtime" period is played - see scoring).
The players pick up the cards they are dealt, look at them, and play in turn. The first card is played by the non-dealer.
A turn consists of playing one card from your hand face up to the centre of the table. The cards played by both players are stacked in a single pile so that only the most recently played card is visible.
If a card is played which matches the rank of the top card of the pile (for example an 8 is played on an 8), this creates a breakaway for the person who played the matching card. Also, any time that a Jack is played, this creates a breakaway for the player of the Jack.
If a player who creates a breakaway then matches the next card played by the opponent, the player scores a goal.
Examples:
A goal itself is not a breakaway. After a goal a new breakaway is needed before a new goal can be scored. However, a breakaway can be created by matching the card used to score a goal.
Examples:
Only one player can be on breakaway at any time. When a player makes a breakaway by matching a card, the opponent may match it again, making their own breakaway and cancelling the previous one.
Examples:
Notice that a goal can never be scored by playing a Jack.
Examples:
Note also that a goal cannot be scored on the dealer's first play of a period, by matching the first card played by the non-dealer. This just creates a breakaway. A goal can only be scored immediately after a breakaway.
When there is a new deal during a period, the played cards remain in place, and breakaways carry over from one deal to the next. For example:
However, breakaways do not carry over from one period to the next. At the end of the period the play pile is shuffled, the dealer changes and any unresolved breakaways are cancelled.
Goals scored can be remembered by the players or recorded with pencil and paper. At the end of three periods the player with more goals is the winner.
In the event of a tie after 3 periods of play, the game goes into a fourth period of "sudden death overtime". For overtime play, only 4 cards are dealt for each hand and the first player to score a goal wins. The last deal of the overtime period will again be 6 cards and if no one scores in the whole overtime period a tie is declared.
It is customary for players to comment on the cards played as follows.
The original version of the game from the early 1960's differs from the above as follows.
Now that this game has spread quite widely in Canada, different groups of players have adopted different variants of the rules, as happens with traditional card games.
Some play that when your opponent creates a breakaway by matching your card, if you then play a third matching card it cancels your opponent's breakaway, but does not create a new breakaway for you. Example: A:9, B:9 (breakaway); A:9 (breakaway cancelled), B:2; A:2 (breakaway for A - not a goal).
Some still play that (as in the original game) a goal also counts as a breakaway. So if you score a goal and then also match the next card that your opponent plays, that is another goal. Example: A:Jack (breakaway), B:10; A:10 (goal and breakaway), B:7; A:7 (another goal for A).
Here is a partnership version of Card Hockey, described on a student drinking games site. Players sitting opposite each other are partners. There are three deals in each period: the first of five cards each and the second or third of four cards each. In this version a breakaway is known as a "pass": this enables your partner to score a goal if he can match the card played by the opponent after you.
In another version of the game, described by Ralph Wiggum of Saskatchewan, four cards are dealt to each player and a pile of four cards to the centre of the table to start the play pile. Then each successive deal during the period is four cards each - six deals in all. In this version Twos act like Jacks - they also create a breakaway, also known in this version as "clearing the ice". When you clear the ice you remove the play pile from the table leaving it empty. Then after your opponent's next play you can score a goal either by matching your opponent's card or by playing a Jack or a Two. A goal also clears the ice (the play pile is cleared away) and so you can score several goals in succession if you keep matching your opponent's card (or playing a Jack or Two on it). Your opponent can however stop this by the safety play of playing his own Jack or Two to the empty table. This is immediately cleared away, stopping you from scoring and clearing the ice for your opponent. In the first deal of each period the players may inspect the four cards that start the play pile. They must not contain any Twos, Jacks or pairs - if they do, they are shuffled into the pack and four new centre cards dealt.
Paul Fletcher has developed a version of Card Hockey using special cards. It can be played by two players, or as a four-player partnership game, and he has also devised a tournament format. He intends to release a computer version of this game.
Dwight J Stockham describes the version of Hockey he used to play in the 1960's. The rules insofar as they differ from the above versions, are as follows.
Peter Magyar played a similar variant to this in the 1970's with a few extra rules:
|
Each player picks a hockey team to represent Darrell wins the cut and chooses to deal the first period Darrell deals each player a 5-card hand Jon receives: 8,J,Q,K,A Darrell receives: 3,3,8,10,Q Jon to play first | |||
| Jon's play | Comment | Darrell's play | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | "Ace..." | 3 | "Three..." |
| 8 | "Eight..." | 8 | "Breakaway!..." |
| K | "Shoots..." | Q | "Hits the post!" |
| Q. | "Breakaway!..." | 3 | "Clears it..." |
| J | "Breakaway!..." | 10 | "Ten..." |
Darrell deals each player another 5 cards Jon receives: 2,4,5,10,A Darrell receives: 3,4,7,K,K Breakaway carries over Jon to play first | |||
| 10 | "Scores! 1-0 [Team]!" | K | "King..." |
| (etc.) | |||