Type | Addingup-type |
---|---|
Players | 2+ |
Cards | 52 (additional decks may be used) |
Deck | French |
Rank (high→low) | K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A |
Play | Both directions |
Playing time | 15 min. |
Chance | Low-Moderate |
Related games | |
Switch |
Ninety-nine is a simple card game based on addition and reportedly popular among the Romani people. [1] It uses one or more standard decks of Anglo-American playing cards in which certain ranks have special properties, and can be played by any number of players. During the game, the value of each card played is added to a running total which is not allowed to exceed 99. A player who cannot play without causing this total to surpass 99 loses that hand and must forfeit one token.
Due to the simple strategy and focus on basic addition, the game is ideal for culturing math skills in children. This is also true because the new total must be called out on each play, lending enjoyment to more expressive children and assertiveness practice to others.
At the start of the game, three tokens are distributed to each player. Each hand, three cards are dealt to each player, and the player to the left of the dealer takes the first turn by choosing one of the cards in their hand, places it on the discard pile, calls out its value, and then draws a new card. The player to the left then chooses one of their cards and places it on the discard pile, adds its value to the previous card and calls out the new total. If a player forgets to draw a new card before the next player plays, that player must remain one card short for the remainder of the hand. Play proceeds in this manner until a player cannot play without making the total value exceed ninety-nine. That player loses the deal and must turn in or discard one of their tokens, after which all cards are then collected and a new hand is dealt. Once a player runs out of tokens, that player is out of the game. The last player remaining, i.e. the last player with token(s), wins the game. A variation uses dollar bills or pieces of paper instead of tokens. Each time a player loses the deal, their dollar bill is folded. Five folds are allowed: all corners, then in half, after which that player is out. The last player remaining wins and takes all the dollar bills.
Cards of certain ranks have special values or properties, which are:
All other cards have their face value.
Alternate rules allow use of the Joker cards and rank the cards as follows:
All other cards have their face value.
Chicago variation follows the standard rules but with these differences:
Hawaii variation follows the standard rules but with these differences:
Iceland variation follows the standard rules but with these differences:
Any time a player gets three of kind, that can lay it down, call out and all the other players have to fold a corner of the dollar bill. The hand is ended and the next one is dealt. Also, when one player cannot play because the score is 99, that player drops out and play continues with the remaining players.
Should a player run out of cards completely due to forgetting to draw, that player loses the hand the next time they would have to play a card.
Taiwan variation follows the standard rules, but with these differences:
At the start of the game, 5 cards are dealt to each player.
Baltimore variation follows the standard rules, but with these differences: Cards of certain ranks have special values or properties, which are:
All other cards have their face value.
During each round of the game, the running total will eventually climb to 99, and once it has, it is not likely to decrease very much before someone is unable to play. The game's strategy, therefore, revolves around cultivating a hand that can survive for as long as possible once ninety-nine is reached. This consists of saving 10s, 4s, 9s, and kings while playing cards of large value. Another strategy is to raise the total to 99 early by use of the required card (usually a 9 or King depending on house rules) in the hopes of catching another player unprepared.
Strategy and rationale for keeping cards of various values ("the long game" where 99 is reached slowly)
Strategy for the bold move ("the short game" where you play a 99 value card on the first hand)
Gamewright Games publishes a commercial version of Ninety-Nine called "Zeus On The Loose" with a purpose-built deck which has suitless cards numbered from 1 through 10. Cards depicting Greek deities have special functions, e.g. playing Poseidon subtracts 10 from the current count. This version also introduces a Zeus token which can be "stolen" under certain circumstances. The person holding Zeus at the end of a round wins that round; the action that ends the round can cause the player performing that action to steal Zeus and win the round. The first player to win four rounds wins the game.
ONO 99 is a version of Ninety-Nine published by Mattel, using a deck similar to Uno.
Boom-O, also by Mattel, is a bomb-themed variant of Ninety-Nine. Players must keep the running countdown timer at 60 seconds or fewer in order to guard their bomb tokens from "exploding".
Blackjack is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as "twenty-one". This family of card games also includes the European games vingt-et-un and pontoon, and the Russian game Ochko. Blackjack players do not compete against each other. The game is a comparing card game where each player competes against the dealer.
Pinochle, also called pinocle or penuchle, is a trick-taking ace–ten card game, typically for two to four players and played with a 48-card deck. It is derived from the card game bezique; players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of characters into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category which also includes the game belote. Each hand is played in three phases: bidding, melds, and tricks. The standard game today is called "partnership auction pinochle".
500 or Five Hundred is a trick-taking game developed in the United States from Euchre. Euchre was extended to a 10 card game with bidding and a Misère contract similar to Russian Preference, producing a cutthroat three-player game like Preference and a four-player game played in partnerships like Whist which is the most popular modern form, although with special packs it can be played by up to six players.
Shithead is a card game, the object of which is to lose all of one's playing cards. Although the basic structure of the game generally remains constant, there are regional variations to the game's original rules.
President is a shedding card game for three or more, in which the players race to get rid of all of the cards in their hands in order to become "president" in the following round. It is a Westernized version of Chinese climbing card games such as Zheng Shangyou, Tien Len in Vietnam and the Japanese Daifugō.
Ninety-nine is a card game for 2, 3, or 4 players. It is a trick-taking game that can use ordinary French-suited cards. Ninety-nine was created in 1967 by David Parlett; his goal was to have a good 3-player trick-taking game with simple rules yet great room for strategy.
Thirty-one or Trente et un is a gambling card game played by two to seven people, where players attempt to assemble a hand which totals 31. Such a goal has formed the whole or part of various games like Commerce, Cribbage, Trentuno, and Wit and Reason since the 15th century. 31 is popular in America and Britain.
Big two is a card game of Cantonese origin. It is similar to the games of Zheng Shangyou, daifugō, president, crazy eights, cheat, and other shedding games. The game is very popular in East Asia and in Southeast Asia, especially throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. It is played both casually and as a gambling game. It is usually played with two to four players, the entire deck being dealt out in either case. The objective of the game is to be the first to play off all of one's cards.
Mau-Mau is a card game for two to five players that is popular in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, the United States, Brazil, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Israel and the Netherlands. Mau-Mau is a member of the larger Crazy Eights or shedding family, to which the proprietary card game Uno belongs. However, Mau-Mau is played with standard French or German-suited playing cards.
Golf is a card game invented by Elias Clark of Brighton, England. Where players try to earn the lowest number of points over the course of nine deals.
Rummy is a group of games related by the feature of matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build melds which can be either sets or runs and either be first to go out or to amass more points than the opposition.
Briscola is one of Italy's most popular games, together with Scopa and Tressette. A little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of briscan and bezique, Briscola is a Mediterranean trick-taking ace–ten card game for two to six players, played with a standard Italian 40-card deck. The game can also be played with a modern Anglo-French deck, without the eight, nine and ten cards. With three or six players, twos are removed from the deck to ensure the number of cards in the deck is a multiple of the number of players; a single two for three players and all four twos for six players. The four and six-player versions of the game are played as a partnership game of two teams, with players seated such that every player is adjacent to two opponents.
Macau, also spelled Makaua or Macaua, is a shedding-type card game from Hungary, with similar rules to Crazy Eights or Uno and uses a standard 52 card deck. The object of the game is to be the first player to remove all cards from one's hand. Macau involves bluffing so that the players can save cards for later for a higher point value. Cheating is encouraged to add additional gameplay depth.
Pitch is the American name of the English trick-taking game of Blind All Fours which, in turn, is derived from classic All Fours. Historically, Pitch started as "Blind All Fours", a very simple All Fours variant that is still played in England as a pub game. The modern game involving a bidding phase and setting back a party's score if the bid is not reached came up in the middle of the 19th century and is more precisely known as Auction Pitch or Setback.
Yaniv, also known as Yusuf, Jhyap, Jafar, aa’niv, Minca or Dave, is a card game popular in Israel. It is a draw and discard game in which players discard before drawing a new card and attempt to have the lowest value of cards in hand. The game is considered a backpackers game in Israel, and it's popular among soldiers and young adults returning from long backpacking trips.
Switch is a shedding-type card game for two or more players that is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland and as alternative incarnations in other regions. The sole aim of Switch is to discard all of the cards in one's hand; the first player to play their final card, and ergo have no cards left, wins the game. Switch is very similar to the games UNO, Flaps and Mau Mau, both belonging to the larger Crazy Eights or Shedding family of card games.
ONO 99 is a proprietary card game produced by Mattel and based on the public-domain card game 99, but played with a unique deck of 54 cards. The object of the game is to play as many number cards as possible while keeping the total value of discarded cards below 99. Similar to the game Uno, ONO 99 has special cards such as Reverse, Hold, and Double Play cards that can alter gameplay.
Continental Rummy is a progressive partnership Rummy card game related to Rumino. It is considered the forerunner of the whole family of rummy games using two packs of cards as one. Its name derives from the fact that it is played throughout the continental Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada, and also in South America. According to Albert Morehead, it was "at one time the most popular form of Rummy in women's afternoon games, until in 1950 it lost out to Canasta."
Jack Change It is a simple card game of the Crazy Eights family that is popular among children. It is usually played by two to six players, although theoretically it can be played with up to ten. This game is a shedding-type card game, the purpose being for a player to be the first to discard all of their cards.
Egyptian Ratscrew (ERS) or Slap is a modern American card game of the matching family and popular with children. The game is similar to the 19th-century British card game beggar-my-neighbour, with the added concept of "slapping" cards when certain combinations are played, similar to and perhaps borrowed from Slapjack.