Boodle

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order
3. The boodle cards
4. Setup
5. Playing
6. End of a hand
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Boodle – also called Michigan or, in Britain, Newmarket – is a relaxed family game played for chips. Players take turns running a suit upwards card by card until the sequence gets stuck (a "stop"). You try to be the first to get rid of all your cards, and along the way to play one of the four boodle cards, which win the chips placed on them.

• Players: 3–8, each playing for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and chips – counters, beans, buttons or matches; about 20–30 per player.
• For the layout: four spaces on the table for the boodle cards. You can take the four cards from a second deck, or simply write them on slips of paper.

Card order

In each suit, from low to high: 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K – A.

The boodle cards

Four cards are boodle cards (also called pay cards). Lay out a space for each in the middle of the table:

A♥ · K♣ · Q♦ · J♠

Setup

1. Stakes: before each deal, the dealer puts 2 chips on each boodle card, and every other player puts 1 chip on each.
2. Deal: the dealer deals all 52 cards face down, one at a time, clockwise – to each player and to one spare hand, as if it were an extra player. Some players will get one card more than others; that doesn't matter.
3. The spare hand stays face down and is not used – nobody looks at it. Its cards are missing from the game, which is what causes most stops.
4. Look at your own cards (your hand) and sort them by suit.

Playing

Everyone plays their cards face up on the table in front of themselves, so it's easy to see who played what.

1. Start: the player to the dealer's left begins. They may choose any suit, but must play the lowest card they hold in that suit.
2. Continue the run: whoever holds the next higher card of the same suit plays it – no matter where they sit. Then whoever has the next card plays it, and so on. Call out the card you need ("7♠?") so everyone keeps track.
3. Stop: the run ends when the Ace is played or when nobody has the next card – it is in the spare hand, or was played earlier. The last card played is called the stop card.
4. Start again: the player who played the stop card (or the Ace) starts a new run: again any suit, again their lowest card in it.

Boodle cards: whoever plays one of the four boodle cards immediately takes all the chips on it.

Example: Anna starts with her lowest spade, the 5♠. Ben has the 6♠, Carla the 7♠ and 8♠, Ben the 9♠, Anna the 10♠. Nobody has the J♠ – it's in the spare hand, so the 10♠ is a stop, and the chips on the J♠ stay put. Anna starts again with her lowest diamond, the 9♦. Carla plays 10♦ and J♦, Dan plays the Q♦ and collects all the chips on it.

End of a hand

The hand ends the moment someone plays their last card. Every other player pays that player one chip for each card still in their hand.

Chips left on boodle cards that nobody played stay there for the next hand, so the pots can grow big. The deal passes to the left.

Example: Carla goes out. Anna has 3 cards left, Ben 1 and Dan 5, so Carla collects 3 + 1 + 5 = 9 chips.

Winning the game

Agree beforehand how long to play – for example a fixed number of hands, so that everyone deals equally often. Whoever has the most chips at the end wins.

Tips for beginners

• Start with a suit in which you hold a long run of cards – you'll probably get the lead back.
• Remember which cards are stops: they give you the lead, so keep them for when you need it.
• Holding a boodle card? Start runs in its suit from low down, so the sequence may reach it.
• When a stop gives you the lead, start a suit you can run all the way out with.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Free stakes: each player puts a fixed number of chips (say 6) on the boodle cards before the deal, spread however they like.
• Swap or sell the spare hand: after looking at their hand, the dealer may swap it for the unseen spare hand. If they don't, they may auction the spare hand: the highest bidder pays the dealer, discards their own hand face down and takes the spare one.
• Change suit: after a stop, you must start a new run in a different suit if you can. If you can't, either you may play the same suit, or the turn passes left; if nobody has another suit, the hand ends without payments for leftover cards.