The
Bum Game
In the last fifteen years,
a new type of card game has appeared. In each of these games, the object is
to go out first by playing higher groups of cards of the same type as the
group that is led. Probably the best known commercial version of this family
of games is Tichu. This game was originally released in 1991 in Sweden and
Germany, went under most gamer's radars, and then underwent an amazing renaissance
around 2000, sweeping gaming groups around the world. Other games in this
group include Karriere Poker (published three years before Tichu), The Great
Dalmuti, Frank's Zoo, and Gang of Four (just released in 2002). There are
also a large number of games in this family which can be played with a conventional
deck of cards (you can find their rules on the Web),
with names like President, Asshole, and even less savory titles. The extraordinary
thing is that games of this sort were completely unknown in the West as little
as a dozen years ago.
All of these games have
a common ancestor: a traditional Chinese game called Zheng Shàng Yóu.
This was described in English for the first time in 1980 by John McLeod and
was given popular exposure by David Parlett, first in "The Oxford Guide
to Card Games" (1990) and later, with more detailed rules, in "Teach
Yourself Card Games" (1994). Parlett called his version "The Bum
Game" and my group has played it frequently over the last five years.
It's a marvelous game, although it's best played over extended sessions, since
you should really play at least 50 hands to eliminate the early advantage
of the first hand winner.
The following version
of the game is the one played by our gaming group. In addition to a few rules
tweaks, the principal differences between these rules and Parlett's are changes
we've made for the three and five player games. The rules for the four player
game are given first, followed by the differences for the other number of
players.
The
Bum Game for 4
Equipment: A 54
card deck, consisting of an ordinary 52 card deck and two Jokers.
Game Play: The
Bum Game is played in a series of hands. The first hand is played by slightly
different rules. Thereafter, based on the results of the previous hand, one
of the players is identified as the Boss, another as the Foreman, a third
as the Worker, and the fourth as the Bum. The game rules are deliberately
biased with respect to these roles, with the Boss being most favored and the
Bum getting the worst of it. The object of each hand is to play all your cards.
After each hand, the players are awarded a different number of points. Continue
play until one player reaches an agreed point total. That player is the winner.
Rank of the Cards:
The two Jokers are the highest cards. They are followed by the Twos, Aces,
Kings, and so on down to the Threes, the lowest ranking cards. Suits are irrelevant.
Jokers and Twos are wild in certain circumstances, as will be explained later.
The Deal: The
Bum shuffles and deals the cards. He gives each player a card until the deck
is exhausted. This means that the first two players to receive cards (which,
as we will see, are the Boss and the Foreman) will be dealt 14 cards and the
other two players (the Worker and the Bum) will only get 13 cards.
Revolution: If
the hand of either the Worker or the Bum contains both Jokers, that player
reveals them and declares a revolution. This means that the Worker now becomes
the Boss for that hand and the remaining designations follow in clockwise
order, so that the old Bum is the new Foreman, the old Boss is the new Worker,
and the old Foreman is the new Bum. These changes take place immediately,
beginning with the card exchange. The player revealing the two Jokers places
them back in her hand before continuing the game.
Card Exchange:
Whether or not there is a revolution, the Boss now takes the two lowest cards
in his hand and passes them face down to the Bum. The Bum, in turn, must pass
his two highest cards face down to the Boss. However, if the Bum was dealt
a Joker, he gets to keep it and instead passes his next two highest cards
to the Boss. Similarly, the Foreman passes his lowest card to the Worker,
who passes his highest non-Joker to the Foreman. Note that the Boss and the
Foreman have no choice in what cards they pass--it must be their one or two
lowest.
Play of the Hand:
Each hand is played as a series of tricks, although tricks have a different
structure than is usually the case. The Boss leads to the first trick by playing
a combination of cards. A card combination may be a set or a sequence. A set
is a group of cards of the same rank, which may include wild cards. Here are
some examples of sets:
After a combination of
cards is led, the player to the leader's left has the option of playing a
higher ranking combination or passing. In order to be higher ranking, the
new combination must be of the exact same type, have the exact same number
of cards, and have higher ranking cards. For example, if a single 5 is led,
the next player could play any single card of rank 6 or higher (including
a 2 or a Joker). He could not play a pair, regardless of rank. Pairs must
be played in response to pairs, triplets in response to triplets, and so on.
Similarly, if the lead is the 6-7-8-9 sequence, the next player would have
to play a four card sequence (no more, no less) headed by at least
a 10. If a double three card sequence is led, it can only be followed by a
higher ranked double three card sequence, and so on.
In clockwise order, each
player in turn has the option of playing a higher ranking combination than
the last one played or passing. Note that the leader has set the type of card
combination that can be played that trick; no other type can be played until
the next trick. A trick can go around the table several times, and a player
who passed previously is free to play to the trick if his turn comes around
again. The trick continues until three consecutive players pass. The fourth
player, who played the highest combination, is the winner of the trick. The
cards played to the trick are discarded, since they have no bearing on the
rest of the game. The winner of the trick then leads to the next trick. If
she has no cards, the first player to her left which still has cards leads.
The object of a hand
is to get rid of all your cards. The first player to do this (possibly in
the middle of a trick) immediately scores 3 points. That player will be the
Boss for the next hand. Play continues and the next player to play all their
cards scores 2 points and will be the Foreman next hand. Play continues until
one of the two remaining players runs out of cards. That player scores 1 point
and will be the Worker next hand. The remaining player scores no points and
will be the Bum next hand.
The players now change
seats (if necessary) so that they are seated Boss, Foreman, Worker, and Bum,
in clockwise order. This can always be accomplished by having no more than
two players switch seats. The next hand is played with this new ordering.
Continue dealing hands until one player has scored enough points to win.
The First Hand:
Prior to the first hand, cut cards to determine which player will be the first
Boss. The player to his left will be the first hand's Foreman, followed by
the Worker and the Bum. Play the first hand as usual, but do not exchange
cards. The remaining hands follow the usual rules.
Winning the Game:
Because the rules deliberately make it difficult for the Bum to relinquish
his lowly status or for the Boss to be brought down, The Bum Game is best
played over a number of sessions, with the scores and player designations
carrying over from session to session. Otherwise, in a short game, the player
winning the first hand will have a significant advantage. A good winning total
is 100 points, which represents about five to six hours of game time, once
the players get adept at the play. This works very well as a lunch time game
or a regular closer. If you only want to play for about an hour, ignore the
card exchange rules and play to 20 points.
Variant: If revolutions
occur more often than you'd like, you can play that true revolutions only
happen if the Bum is dealt both Jokers. If the Worker receives both Jokers,
the only effect is that no cards are exchanged for that hand.
Single Session Bum
Game: As stated in the introduction, The Bum Game works best over multiple
sessions, since the card exchange procedure makes it very tough for the original
Bum to accomplish much in a short session. If you just want to enjoy the game
over a one or two hour timeframe, you're best bet is to ignore the rules about
exchanging cards at the beginning of a hand. Everyone plays with the cards
that are dealt them. This takes away some of the unique feel of the original
game, but still leaves an excellent tactical card game in which the players'
fates are not so strongly dependent on the results of the first hand.
Strategy: The
most important thing to remember is that your objective isn't to win tricks,
but to rid yourself of your cards. The most significant cards in your hand
aren't your high cards, but your low ones. That's because low cards can usually
only be played when you are on lead, so it is all too easy to get stuck with
one or two low ranking cards with no way to win a trick to lead them. Unless
you have a powerful hand (such as the Boss often has), your best bet is to
be patient, clear out some intermediate cards, wait for the high cards to
be played out, and then make your move. If this means settling for the Foreman's
or even the Worker's spot, so be it; this is far better than winding up as
the Bum.
Judging how to play your
cards is more of an art than a science and definitely improves with experience.
Plan to make plays that will minimize the number of unmatched cards left in
your hand. Above all, be flexible if things don't go as anticipated, and alert
if an unexpected opportunity falls into your lap. One of the hallmarks of
a good Bum player is "thinking outside the box".
One of the reasons we
feel Parlett's version of the game is superior is that sequences can be easily
played (many similar games do not allow them, or require they all be of the
same suit). This gives you many different ways to play a hand and reduces
the dependency on high cards. A hand with a long sequence and only a single
Joker as a high card will usually score very well and can snatch the top spot
if the Boss isn't careful. A good Boss tries to make allowances for such occurrences
and will usually do his best to avoid giving up the lead. He also needs to
know when to cut bait, however, and gracefully accept the Foreman spot rather
than risk falling lower.
It is very easy to get
discouraged when playing in the Bum seat. All the rules are pretty much stacked
against you. Your best bet with most hands is to project a series of circumstances,
no matter how unlikely, that will allow you to go out before all the other
players do. Play your cards as if those events will occur and hope for the
best. Besides, you can always pray for a revolution.
The
Bum Game for 3
Equipment: A 41
card deck, consisting of three full suits and two Jokers.
Differences in Play:
The player designations are Boss, Middleman, and Bum. Revolutions only occur
if the Bum has both Jokers. In this case, the Bum and the Boss switch seats
and designations, with the Middleman staying the same. At the beginning of
each hand, the Boss passes his lowest card to the Bum, who passes his highest
non-Joker to the Boss. The Middleman neither passes nor receives cards. A
trick ends following two consecutive passes. The first player out of cards
scores 2 points and the second scores 1 point. The winner is the first player
to reach 75 points. All the other rules remain the same.
The
Bum Game for 5
Equipment: A 68
card deck, consisting of five full suits and three Jokers. Since the suits
don't matter, any suit can be duplicated.
Differences in Play:
The player designations are Boss, Foreman, Middleman, Worker, and Bum. Revolutions
occur if the Bum is dealt two or more Jokers or if the Worker is dealt all
three Jokers. In either case, the Worker becomes the new Boss, the Bum becomes
the new Foreman, the Boss becomes the new Middleman, the Foreman becomes the
new Worker, and the Middleman becomes the new Bum. At the beginning of each
hand, the Boss passes his two lowest cards to the Bum, who passes his two
highest non-Jokers to the Boss. Similarly, the Foreman passes his lowest card
to the Worker, who passes his highest non-Joker to the Foreman. The Middleman
neither passes nor receives cards. A trick ends following four consecutive
passes. The first player out of cards scores 4 points, the second player 3
points, the third player 2 points, and the fourth player 1 point. The first
player to reach 125 points wins. All the other rules remain the same.
The
Bum Game for more than 5
We haven't tried playing
The Bum Game with more than five players, but it should be possible in theory.
Use a complete suit for each player and a number of Jokers equal to about
half the players. This way, each player will receive 13 or 14 cards, which
we think is really important for gameplay. You'll have to work out what conditions
trigger a revolution. We find the game works best if revolutions occur about
10% of the time, but keep in mind that the more players you have, the harder
it will be to get out of the lower ranked positions, so you might want to
have more revolutions to counteract that. You'll also have to decide how the
card exchange will work. The usual rule of thumb is that each position does
a little worse than the position above it. But allowing the Boss to exchange
three cards might be too huge an advantage, so you might have to alter this
procedure. Maybe you can come up with a creative way of differentiating the
various positions without handicapping the game too much. If you come up with
something really clever, let me know!
© Copyright
2003 Huzonfirst Games - All Rights Reserved
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