OK. Having protested about how I’m not much of a gambler, here’s one game I do like to have (a tiny amount of!) money on.
Newmarket was my gran’s favourite card game and it’s simple to play for players of all ages. Essentially, the 4 kings are the ‘horses’ and each player has to ‘back’ one of these horses by placing 2p on it at the start. They also have to contribute 2p to a pot. The cards are dealt out between the players, with one being held back as a ‘float’.
The first player puts down the lowest card they have in any particular suit. If someone else has the next card, they put it down and so on and so on. If the next card in a run isn’t held by any of the players (i.e., it’s in the float) then that player has to start again with the lowest card from an opposing colour. So if the previous run was Hearts, then the player has to go with either Spades or Clubs.
If the run reaches a Queen, then the player holding that Queen gets to take all the money from the appropriate King. The game continues until one person has got rid of all their cards. The person then gets to take all the money from the pot.
It’s a really simple game which is lots of fun to play as a family during events like Christmas etc.
