Games

Item no. 6

Playing games is a big part of taverna and leisure culture in Athens. You often see people playing backgammon or chess in cafes, local parks and public spaces. Card games are also popular. In the box are some Greek mythology inspired playing cards. These can be used to play any card games that you already know or perhaps you might like to try a Greek game with them such as the ‘fishing’ game Kontsina.

The Rules of Kotsina

You will need a pen and paper to keep a tally of the scores. Good luck and enjoy!

  • Shuffle and deal four cards to each player. 

    Deal four cards face up on the table. The rest of the deck becomes the pile that you draw your cards from (the stock).

    The player to the dealer’s left goes first. On their turn, the player may play a single card from their hand. If the card doesn’t match any of the other cards on the table, the card remains on the table. However, if possible, a player will normally try to match another card on the table, as doing so allows them to capture the card. When captured, those cards are kept face down in front of the player that captured them - not added to their hand.

  • The simplest way to capture a card is to match it by rank. For example, a queen can capture another queen, a 4 can capture another 4, and so on. Note that if there are multiple cards on the table of the same rank, a player can only capture one of them through matching.

    Another way a player may capture a card is by playing a card that two or more cards on the table add up to. For example, a 6 could be used to capture a 2 and a 4, or a 3 and a 3 etc. Ace = 1. 

    Queen King or Jacks do not have a value and can only be captured by matching by rank, ie a Queen captures a Queen.

    When a player captures a card or cards, they (including the card that captured them), are placed face-down in a pile in front of the player. This pile is kept separate from the player’s hand, and no player may look through it until the hand is over.

    After playing one card, whether it captures anything or not, the player’s turn ends. The turn then passes to the left.

  • When each player has played four times, everyone will be out of cards. The dealer then deals four new cards to each player from the stock, and the game continues.

  • The hand ends when all players have no cards left and there are none remaining in the stock. Any remaining cards on the table are taken by the last player to capture any cards. Each player then looks through their captured-cards pile, and scores points:

    2 points for capturing the most cards. If two or more players tie for capturing the most cards, these two points are not scored by anyone.

    1 point for capturing the most clubs.

    1 point for capturing the 2 of clubs. (Note that the 2 of clubs still counts as a club for the purpose of capturing the most clubs.)

    1 point for capturing the 10 of diamonds.

    The deal then passes to the left, and a new hand is played. 

    Game play continues until at least one player reaches a predetermined score, for example, 21 points. Whichever player has the highest score at that point is the winner. If there is a tie, additional tiebreaker hands are played until there is a winner!