Fish draw

Fish Draw is a catch-and-collect card game for 3–6 players, using a standard 52-card deck. The origins of the game are unknown, although it is mainly played in the United Kingdom.

Rules

The objective of the game, as with other catch-and-collect games, is to win all of the cards.

Dealing

Before play begins, a trump card, or 'Fish', is selected. Some versions of the game use Jokers, although there generally needs to be four Fish for the game to work, and traditional card decks are usually supplied with only two Jokers. For decks with no Jokers, a Fish is chosen before play. This may be done by shuffling the cards at random and having a player draw a card face-down from the deck. For example, if an ace is drawn, all four aces are Fish.

As the game develops, it becomes necessary to keep track of the four Fish. Players may appoint a 'Fishmonger' for this purpose (the Fishmonger can play the game as normal). Alternatively, players can keep track of the Fish together.

A dealer is agreed, and deals the cards evenly between players, face down.

Gameplay

Each round, players draw the top card from their stack face down and place it in the middle of the playing area. On the count of three, the players each turn over their card simultaneously. The highest card in the round wins and the player who drew it collects all the cards played. Suits are not taken into account when assessing the value of the cards. Aces are high, and Fish are trump cards, beating all others automatically.

If a Fish is drawn, the winning player collects all cards played as normal, except for the Fish itself which stays in the middle, to be won in the following round. When the Fish is drawn all players must shout “Fish!”. If a player fails to do this before the winner claims the rest of the cards, then the player forfeits all but two cards into the middle to be won next round.

If two winning cards in the round are the same, all players must leave the cards in the middle and repeat the round, drawing another card. The highest card wins, with the winner collecting all the cards in the middle, including those from the previous draw. If, in the second 'repeat' round, players draw with matching cards again, another repeat round begins. The player who eventually wins this exchange collects all cards from the previous draws.

If a player uses a Fish to win after a series of draws, they put the winning Fish in the middle and collect all other cards.

If two Fish are played in the round, it is a 'Fish Draw'. All cards must be placed in the middle, except for one card for each player, which remains face-down. Players then turn their final cards over, and the highest card wins the entire game.

Fishageddon

If the game gets to the stage where one player is believed (by the Fishmonger or by the other players generally) to have all four Fish in their hand, the player must draw all of their Fish from their hand and present them to the others. If the player has fewer than four Fish, and at least one Fish is still in another player's hand, then the player reshuffles their cards and play continues as normal.

If the player does have all four Fish in their hand, Fish Draw is initiated, with all four Fish being placed in the middle as well as all but one of each player's cards. Players then draw their final card to decide the winner. This is known as 'Fishageddon'.

References

This article "Fish draw" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Fish draw. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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