Blue Canary

Blue-canary (also known as Green-Canarie or Breck-fish) is a card game spin-off of Go fish. It involves trying to acquire "veins".
The game Differs from games like Authors and Go fish in the games usage of jokers and the prevalence of complicated rules.
Origin
The game originates from the Courmayer district of Italy and was invented by a group of british students.
The name 'Blue Canary' was created in parallel to 'Go Fish'. Canaries were often used in mines to detect poisonous gases so the game often uses mining terminology.
How to play
The games is played using a 54-card deck (includes two jokers), 8 cards are dealt to each player (5 if there are 6 or more players). The remaining cards are split in two and placed in the middle of the table and is referred to as the mine or the pit.
Play starts with the player to the Dealer's left and turns (or colloquially a 'swing') proceed clockwise. The player whose turn it is asks other players for a certain number of cards of a particular rank, the player must have one of those cards in order to ask and cannot bluff about having it.
The player can ask for a number of the same card from an other player, after asking for a number of that card twice, the player must ask after a different card or ask a different player. Asking for 'any' of a card is not allowed. When an other player is asked for a set of a card and they don't have that set, the player's turn is finished and they take a card from the mine.
For example, if player A has 2 aces and player B has 1 ace. If player A asks player B for 2 aces, player B says no and player A's turn is finished.
Making a vein
A vein is placed face-up and can be made in several ways;
*A group of 4 cards with the same rank.
*A group of 3 cards with the same rank within the dealt hand, known as an 'unstable vein'.
*A pair of 2 Jokers.
*Jokers also count as a wildcard and can be used to represent any card in a vein.
If the player makes a vein using a card he's just taken from another player, he can take another random card from the same player.
Winning the game
The player who wins the game is the player who at the end of the game acquires the most veins. The game ends when all player have no more cards or when no more veins can be possibly made.
In the event of a draw the player with highest ranking vein wins. A pair of Jokers is the highest rank possible.
Strategy
Success depends on luck from what cards are dealt and skill from tactical card taking. An important skill is memory, knowing which cards other players have by the clues they give when asking for cards, as the player may be dealt one of those card during gameplay and be able to take the other player's.
Another thing which is important is that when a player asks another player for a number of a rank say 3 kings and the other player does not have 3 kings, then you only know that the other player currently does not have 3 kings but you have no guarantee that he doesn't have 1 or 2 kings; and so in this way it becomes difficult to tell who has what card, however you can be certain that the player who asked for 3 kings has one king.
You must be careful in the game which card you ask for, because when you ask for a card everybody at the table knows you must have at least one of that card. It is possible to mislead other players into thinking you have a set number of cards, if you have 3 kings but you want people to think you have 2 then you might ask an opponent for 2 kings and in that way everyone will be convinced that you have only two kings; and when the other player denies having 2 kings then speculation will start about who has those 2 kings.
The game is often a waiting game: you don't want to start asking for cards you want at the beginning because odds are the person you ask wont have it and he/she who does will then take important cards off you; so to avoid this you start by asking for cards you don't necessarily want so as to protect your more important cards once other people start asking for that card and you know where they all are then it is safer to go after those cards.
Variations
Variations include;
* playing with 2 packs instead of one
* When playing with 2 packs trying to make 8 of a kind instead of 4
* using a card pack similar to that used for the French game tarrot, where instead of the traditional pack one is used which includes a "Cavalier" or "Knight" after the Jack.
* The game is sometimes played with no Jokers at all or just one.

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See Also

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