Fourover

History
The game of fourover has speculated sources; a variety of different theories exist as to how exactly the game was invented. Many think it may have been invented by a bored child, but this theory is often pushed away because the game is rather complicated and children don't often enjoy it or understand the objective enough to play it. Others think it may have started around the times of the Civil War when soldiers were bored and tired for waiting to go into battle and wanted to create a new card game. The most solid theory is that it was created by a dealer in a casion in Las Vegas on his break because he was so bored dealing for the same game he wanted to create a new one. These may all be mere myths, but the game exists nonetheless.
Setting up the game
Fourover is a game designed for four players. Jokers are removed from a standard deck of cards and are not used in game play. The deck is sorted into two piles, face cards(J, Q, K, A) and number cards(2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) and kept in those two decks. The face card desk is dealt evenly amongst the four players and then the number cards are dealt among the four players evenly. Players keep their number card deck and face card deck separate.
Playing the game
Players want to get their number cards to add up to 84 or over and want to have the most face cards or the largest sum of face cards at the end of the game so points are awarded. In order to add to the sum of their face cards, players barter using their face cards. The players decide if the barter is fair and trade the cards. They're allowed to trade face cards for number cards and vice versa but they are not allowed to trade face cards with face cards or number cards with number cards. For example, you can trade a two(2) for a king(K), but you cannot trade a three(3) for a four(4) or a jack(J) for an ace(A).
Winning the Game
Play stops when a player's number cards add up to a number greater than or equal to eighty-four(84). The first player to reach a value of that magnitude is awarded 100 points. The other players add up all of their number cards and are awarded points based on the sum of their cards. If their cards add up to 54, they get 54 points and if their cards add up to 39, they get 39 points.
Next, all of the players count their face cards. The player with the most face cards is awarded 20 points. The other players don't get any points based on the amount of face cards they have.
Then, ALL players add up their face cards. In the game of fourover, the jack(J) is worth 11, the queen(Q) is worth 12, the king(K) is worth thirteen, and the ace(A) is worth fourteen points. Each player adds the sum of their face cards to their accumulating score.
After all players add up all of these things, the player with the most point is the winner of the game.

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See Also

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