Farmer

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Selling the farm
4. Playing a deal
5. Settling up
6. The next deal
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Farmer is an old banking game in which you draw cards to reach a total of exactly 16. The farm is a pot of chips that the players bid for; the highest bidder becomes the farmer, who deals but doesn't play a hand. Whoever makes exactly 16 wins the whole farm. Until someone does, the farmer keeps the farm and collects a chip for every point from each player who goes over 16.

The game began in France in the 17th century as la Ferme, and it is a distant relative of Blackjack. These rules follow Foster's Complete Hoyle (1897). Farmer is hardly played any more.

• Players: 3–10 – one farmer and the others; best with 5–8.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck with all four 8s and the 6♠, 6♦ and 6♣ removed – 45 cards remain, and the only 6 left is the 6♥. Chips (or counters, matches) – about 100 per person. Play for chips only.

Card values

Suits don't matter, except that the 6♥ wins ties (see below).

Selling the farm

1. Everyone puts one chip into the middle. This pile is the farm.
2. The farm is auctioned: in turn (starting on the left of the previous farmer, or with anybody in the first game), players bid how many chips they will pay for it. Each bid must be higher than the last, and the bidding goes round until nobody bids more. The highest bidder puts their bid into the farm and becomes the farmer. (The old books don't say what happens if nobody bids; we suggest that the player on the left of the last farmer then takes it for nothing.)

Playing a deal

1. The farmer shuffles, has the deck cut and deals one card face down to every other player, one at a time. The farmer takes no cards.
2. Starting on the farmer's left, each player in turn must take at least one more card from the farmer, face down, and look at it. You may go on asking for cards, one at a time, until you stand (stop drawing) or go over 16. If you go over, say nothing – just stop. If the deck runs out, nobody can draw any more.
3. When everyone has finished, all hands are turned face up.

Example: Anna is farmer. Ben is dealt a 7, draws a 3 and then the 6♥: exactly 16. Carla has a King, draws a 9 – 19, over 16 – and stops without a word. Dan has a 5, draws a 4 and a 2 and stands on 11.

Settling up

Exactly 16: the player with 16 wins the farm – all the chips in it.

• Several players with 16: a 16 made with the 6♥ wins; otherwise the 16 made with the fewest cards; if that is still a tie, the player sitting nearest the farmer's left.

Over 16: each such player pays the farmer 1 chip for every point over 16. This goes straight to the farmer as profit, not into the farm. They pay this whether or not someone made 16.

Nobody has 16: the farm stays where it is. The player nearest to 16 (below it) gets 1 chip from each of the other players (not from the farmer). Ties are decided as above: 6♥, then fewest cards, then the seat nearest the farmer's left.

Example (continued): Ben's 16 wins the farm. Carla (19) pays Anna 3 chips. Had Ben stood on 15 instead, nobody would have 16: Carla would still pay Anna 3, the farm would stay with Anna, and Ben, nearest to 16, would get 1 chip each from Carla and Dan.

The next deal

• Nobody made 16: the same farmer deals again, with the same farm, and keeps collecting from players who go over.
• Someone made 16: the farm has been emptied. Everyone puts in one chip again and a new farm is auctioned, as at the start.

Winning the game

Agree beforehand how long to play, for example an hour. Whoever then has the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• 16 of the 45 cards are worth 10. From 7 or more points, a 10-point card takes you over 16.
• Going over only costs the points above 16, so a small overshoot is cheap – and only exactly 16 wins the farm. Players who stand low risk nothing but win little.
• As farmer you earn from every player who goes over. A farm that no one wins for several deals is a good business – which is why it's worth bidding for.
• The best hand of all is the 6♥ with a 10-point card: no other 16 beats it.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• La Ferme (French rules, according to Wikipedia after Lacombe, 1800): the farmer deals anticlockwise, starting on the right, and extra cards come from the bottom of the deck. A player who wants no more cards says "Basta". The best 16 is the 6♥ with a 10-point card, then any other two-card 16, then three cards and so on. The player who wins the farm becomes the new farmer.
• Rotating farm: also in the French rules, the table may agree that the role of farmer passes round in turn instead of being won or auctioned.