Destiny (Card Game) - Dedicated to the Public Domain

If there is a card game like this, then only the "Destiny" elements of the game are dedicated to the public domain

Destiny (Card Game)
by William Li

Players At least three. Actually, this game came to me in a dream last night. I was playing this game with E, Pure Danger, and Jedi. It was late, in the dream I think that Dave and Trav had gone to bed but had played earlier. Also in the dream, Jedi was Chairman of the Federal Reserve and was incredibly good at the game. So... that's cool.

Wager aspects of game play
Destiny is a wagering card game. The wagering aspects of the game is like generally like Hold'em Poker, except that money may only be handled with the player's left hand (for reasons that are more apparent once the game play is explained) and other special rules as described below. Person to the left of the dealer pays a small blind, next player pays a big blind, then remaining players wager, then there is revealing of cards, then there is a final round of wagering until all players fold or call.

Special Rule for "All In"
An "All in" just means "Call irrespective of subsequent raises" it has no effect on what the remaining players must wager. This is because "All in" is an often abused stupid and lazy wager that smacks of hubris and destiny punishes hubris with death. "All in" is not eliminated, however, because when the chips are down, wager "all in" is a valid way to live to fight another day.

Card ranking
All 52 cards have a rank. 2->Ace, suits are: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. e.g. 2 clubs is lowest and ace spades is highest. If there are jokers in the game then players must agree on ranking of jokers.

Object
Play the highest card each hand until the field is exhausted.

Field Set-Up
Deal out 25 cards face down in a 5 x 5 grid. The remained of the cards are in a deck, flip over the first card in the deck to start a discard pile.

Game Play Each Round
After the initial round of wagers, irrespective of the last player to call, the first player to the left of the dealer who hasn't folded plays first.
The play is as follows:

With the left hand, the player takes any card in the field that is not held down by another player's right hand, looks at it, and then holds it until all players have played. With the player's right hand, the player either places a finger on a face down card in the field not already held down by another player, thus "holding down" that card, or plays a "Benediction Hand" (not to be mistaken with the "Claw Hand") and says aloud that they will draw from the deck (technically they are holding down the top card in the deck which isn't already held down by another player). If there are no card to look at, the player does not look at any cards. If there are no cards in the field to be "held down" player must play the "Benediction Hand"

IMPORTANT POINT HERE: THE "HELD DOWN" CARD IS THE ONE WHICH WILL BE PLAYED. THE LEFT HAND CARD WILL BE RETURNED TO THE FIELD UNPLAYED.

Then the next player to the left who hasn't folded plays, going all the way around until every player who hasn't folded has played.

Once every player has played, each player must put the card in their left hand back in the field, face down in exactly the same place as it was. For sake of order, players should put the cards back in the same order as the game play (dealer's left) but this is not required.

Then players do a final round of wagers (see? the right hand is busy holding down a card, that's why it has to be the left hand), first wager(or chance to call or fold) going to the player to the dealer's left who hasn't folded and continues until call. IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION HERE: A player should not fold until it is his turn to bet. The proper way for a player to fold is to (1) remove hand from field or lower the "Benediction hand" (2) say aloud that he has folded.

Each player calls in order, this is a required rule. The reason it is a required rules is if more than one player is playing the "Benediction Hand" then the first player playing "Benediction Hand" plays the top card in the deck, the next "Benediction Hand" plays the next topmost card in the deck, etc.

Highest card wins the hand and the pot. Place all played cards (from the deck or field) in the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left is the next dealer. If the deck has fewer cards than the number of players in the game, then shuffle the discard pile into the deck, turn the top card over to start the next discard pile and continue. Cards from the field which are played never return to the field. The game is over when all 25 cards in the field have been played.

Comments

There is a minimum amount of dealing cards to other players in this game, none at all in fact. I've always been bad at that and I flip a card over by accident and then its a misdeal and everyone makes a face at me. Well, that's gone.


There is a combination of luck, skill and memory, so that's good.

The reason that there are blinds is that the blind players would otherwise have unfair advantage over the other players in the sense that they have the first oppurtunity to hold down the card that they held from the field in the previous round. If the later players in the initial round of wager bid like wild elephants, then it possibly indicates that they know where in the field at least three or more really good cards. At least, it indicates the player's appraisal of the value of the information known to players to their right.

With respect to the value of the information held by players. A player plays from in one of six scenarios:

1. Benedicition hand where the deck has no cards that had been in the field.
2. Benedicition hand where the deck has cards that had been in the field. In this scenario the optimum player will know what cards are in the deck from what had been played, but won't know the order. And the player will know what cards are in the field, but won't know the location.
3. Player plays a card in the field that neither he nor any other players have seen. The pronoun "he" is epicene, get over it. This increases everyone's knowledge of what's in the discard pile and not in the field.
4. Player plays a card in the field that he has seen and no other player has seen. This decreases the value of the knowledge held by that player. Optimally, this will result in a winning hand on a wager sufficiently large to compensate the value of the knowledge.
5. Player plays a card in the field that another player has seen but he has not. This decreases the value of the knowledge exclusively held by the other player.
6. Player plays a card in the field that he and another player has seen.


If I knew more stat and game theory, I would have better analysis of these scenarios, but as it is, I can barely do arithmetic.

One final comment: May the force be with you!