Comet

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Making the packs
3. Setup
4. Playing
5. The Comet
6. End of a deal
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Comet is an old French game of the stops family, played since the 18th century. The players take turns laying cards on a common pile in rising order – 5, 6, 7 and so on up to the King – regardless of suit. When a player is stuck, the next player carries the run on. The aim is to be the first to get rid of all your cards. One card in each pack is the Comet, a wild card that can stand for any card and earns chips when it is played. The runs of cards are said to look like the tail of a comet.

These are the rules of the two-pack game as it has been played since the 1750s, following Morehead, Frey and Mott-Smith's New Complete Hoyle (1991) as reported by Wikipedia. Comet is hardly played today; its best-known relative is Boodle (Newmarket, Michigan).

• Players: 2–5, each playing for themselves.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks without jokers, ideally with the same backs, and chips (or counters) – about 50 per player. Play for chips only.

Making the packs

1. Take out all eight Aces; they are not used.
2. Sort the rest into a black pack – the clubs and spades of both decks – and a red pack – the hearts and diamonds of both decks.
3. Swap one 9♣ from the black pack with one 9♦ from the red pack.

Each pack now has 48 cards: every rank from 2 to King four times – except the 9, which has three natural 9s and one 9 of the other colour. That odd 9 is the Comet: the 9♦ in the black pack, the 9♣ in the red pack. Use one pack per deal and take the packs in turn.

Cards rank 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K, with the 2 lowest. Suits don't matter, apart from telling the Comet apart.

Setup

1. Everyone draws a card; the lowest deals first. After each deal the deal passes to the left.
2. The dealer shuffles, the player on the right cuts, and the dealer deals clockwise, starting on the left:

3. The cards left over form the dead hand. They stay face down and are not used. Because they are missing, runs will sometimes get stuck.

Playing

1. The player to the dealer's left starts. They play any card face up to the middle and say its rank. If they hold the next higher card, they play it on top, then the next one, and so on – as far as they can. Then they say "without" and the rank they are missing.
2. The turn passes to the left. The next player carries the run on from where it stopped, as far as they can, and then says "without …" too. A player who can't continue at all says "pass". If you can play, you must – but you never have to play the Comet.
3. King: the King ends a run. Whoever plays it starts a new run at once with any card they like.
4. Stuck: if a player says "without …" and all the others pass, that player starts a new run with any card.
5. Four of a kind: if you hold all four cards of the next rank, you may play them all at once. The same goes for all three natural 9s.

Example: Carla deals to three players. Anna starts: "5, 6, 7, without 8." Ben can't go on: "Pass." Carla: "8, 9, without 10." Anna: "10, Jack, without Queen." Ben: "Queen, King" – the King is a stop, so Ben starts a new run: "2, 3, without 4." Carla and Anna both pass, so Ben starts again with any card.

The Comet

On your turn you may play the Comet in place of any card you need. It is also a stop: afterwards you start a new run with any card.

Whoever plays the Comet collects 2 chips from every other player. If the Comet ends up in the dead hand, it is worth 2 chips more in the next deal (4, then 6 …), until it is dealt to a player again; then it goes back to 2.

Example: later in the deal the run stands at "without 6". Carla has no 6 but holds the Comet. She plays it as the 6, collects 2 chips from Anna and 2 from Ben, and starts a new run with any card she likes.

End of a deal

The deal ends as soon as one player has played their last card. Every other player pays that player 1 chip for every point still in their hand: 2 to 10 count their number, Jack, Queen and King 10 each.

• A player caught with the Comet in hand pays double for all their cards, the Comet counting 9 (so 18).
• If the winner's last card was the Comet, everyone pays double; if it stood for a 9, four times as much.

Example: Anna plays her last card. Ben still holds K, 7 and 3: he pays 10 + 7 + 3 = 20 chips. Carla holds 4, Q and the Comet: she pays (4 + 10 + 9) × 2 = 46 chips.

Winning the game

Agree beforehand how many deals to play – a multiple of the number of players, so that everyone deals equally often. Whoever has gained the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• Start a run with a card from which you can play a long way, and end it where the others are likely to be stuck.
• Keep track of which cards have been played and how many of each rank are still missing – the dead hand hides some of them.
• Don't hold on to Kings and face cards for too long: each one left in your hand costs 10.
• The Comet is your escape from a stuck run – but don't be caught with it, as it doubles your whole payment.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Opera: if the first player goes out in their very first turn, everyone pays double. This works best with two; if the dealer could also have gone out at once, the deal is drawn.
• Two players (Arnold, 2011): 18 cards each; score the points on a Cribbage board or paper, and the first to 121 wins. The Comet is not paid for when played. If the loser still holds the Comet, all scores for that deal are doubled; if the winner goes out with the Comet, the score is doubled, or quadrupled if it stood for a 9.
• Old Comet (1718): one 52-card deck, the Ace counts as 1 and is the lowest card, and the 9♦ is the only wild card (then called the manille). Play as above. Whoever plays a King, or the last card before everyone passes, collects 1 chip from each player; playing the 9♦ earns 10 chips from each. The winner collects 1 chip per point left in the other hands, Ace 1; a player left with the 9♦ pays 10 chips to each other player plus 9 to the winner.
• Commit (American, 19th century): one deck with the 8♦ taken out. Deal as many cards as will go round evenly (9 each with five players); the rest lie face down as stops. Runs go up in suit (7♠, 8♠, 9♠ …), the Ace below the 2. Kings and the 7♦ are stops. Instead of saying "without", you may play the 9♦; the next player then continues either the old run or the diamonds from the 10♦. A player who plays a King collects 1 counter from each other player, the 9♦ 2 counters – but whoever is caught with the 9♦ pays 2 to each. The first player out wins the pool (agree the stake beforehand), and each King left in a hand costs 1 counter to each other player.