Horse Trading

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. End of the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants
8. Differences from the model game

Overview

Horse Trading is a game of auctions and bluffing. The cards from Ace to 10 of one deck are animals, four of each kind. You score only for complete sets of four – and the more sets you own, the more each of them is worth. To get animals you auction them to the other players, or you challenge another player to a trade: both of you offer money face down, and the higher offer takes the other's animals. Your money is kept secret in your hand, and you may offer nothing but worthless zeros.

At the end, money counts for nothing. The player with the most points wins.

• Players: 3–5.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks and the 4 jokers of both decks. Two decks with different backs make sorting easier, but it isn't necessary.

Horse Trading is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Kuhhandel, known in English as You're Bluffing! (Rüdiger Koltze, Ravensburger, 1985). The original has its own animal and money cards; ours uses the ranks as animals and a second deck as money. It has not been playtested in this form yet.

The cards

The animals

Take the Aces to 10s of the first deck (40 cards). They are the animals: each rank is one kind of animal, and the four cards of a rank are its set. The suits don't matter. The number of points a complete set scores:

The value is for the whole set, not for each card: four 8s together score 650.

The 7s are special: they are the paydays that bring new money into the game (see below).

The money

All the other cards are money: the whole second deck, the Jacks, Queens and Kings of the first deck and the 4 jokers.

The zeros are worth nothing – they are for bluffing. Sort the money by value into face-up piles: this is the bank. There are more money cards than you need; the bank never runs out.

Setup

1. Shuffle the 40 animals and put them face down in the middle as the animal pile.
2. Each player takes from the bank two 0s, four 10s and one 50 (90 in all). Keep your money in your hand, hidden from the others. How much you have is secret for the whole game.
3. Choose a start player in any way you like. Play goes clockwise.

Playing a turn

On your turn, do one of two things: hold an auction or start a trade. At the start of the game nobody owns animals yet, so the first turns are all auctions.

Auction

1. Turn up the top card of the animal pile. (If it is a 7, first pay out the payday – see below.)
2. All the other players may now bid for it, in any order and as often as they like. Bids are multiples of 10: the first bid is at least 10, and each new bid must be at least 10 higher than the last one. You, the auctioneer, don't bid.
3. When nobody bids any higher, you call out "Going once, going twice, sold!" Then choose: - Sell: the highest bidder pays you the amount they bid and takes the animal. - Buy it yourself: you pay the highest bidder the amount they bid and keep the animal yourself (only if you have enough money).
4. No bids at all: call out the animal once more. If still nobody bids, you take it for free.

Lay the animals you own face up in front of you, sorted by kind, so that everybody can see them.

Paying: money is never changed. If you can't pay the exact amount, you pay more. This applies everywhere in the game.

Can't pay? If the highest bidder doesn't have enough money to pay their bid, they must show all their money to everybody. Then the auction is held again, and in it they may bid no more than they have.

Example: Carla turns up the 9♦ (a 9 – its set is worth 800). Anna bids 10, Ben 40, Anna 50, Ben 60. Nobody goes higher – sold for 60. Carla could buy it herself by paying Ben 60, but she decides to sell. By now Ben's money is two 50s and two zeros, so he pays her 50 + 50 = 100 and gets no change. He lays the 9♦ in front of him.

Paydays (the 7s)

Whenever a 7 is turned up for an auction, everybody first gets new money from the bank – including the auctioneer:

After that, the 7 is auctioned like any other animal. A set of four 7s is worth 500 points.

Trade

Instead of an auction, you may challenge one other player to a trade.

1. Choose an animal of which both of you own at least one card and which is not yet a complete set. Say which animal it is.
2. Put an offer face down on the table: any number of money cards. You may add zeros to hide how much you are offering, offer only zeros, or even offer nothing at all.
3. The challenged player now has two choices: - Accept: they take your offer and give you the animal. - Counter: they put their own offer face down on the table. Then you swap the two offers, and each of you counts the money you received in secret. Whoever offered more gets the other player's animal. On a tie, the challenger gets it. Each player keeps the money they received – so even the loser of the trade gets the winner's offer.

How many animals change hands: if you both own two of that animal, the trade is for both cards – the winner ends up with all four. If one of you owns two or three and the other only one, the trade is for one card.

You can't trade animals of different kinds (a 3 for a 5), and nobody can trade for a complete set. When you complete a set of four, turn the four cards sideways: they are safe for the rest of the game.

Example: Anna and Ben each own one 6 (the set worth 350). On her turn, Anna challenges Ben for the 6 and puts three money cards face down: a 5 (worth 10) and two zeros – just 10, but it looks like more. Ben doesn't trust it and counters with two cards: an 8 (worth 50) and a 0. They swap offers. Anna now has Ben's 50, Ben has Anna's 10. Ben offered more, so he takes Anna's animal 6 and now owns two 6s. Anna lost her animal but gained 40 in money.

End of the game

When the animal pile is empty, there are no more auctions: every turn must be a trade. A player who has no animal to trade for (only complete sets, or kinds that nobody else holds) is skipped. Nobody drops out – a player without any money can still take part in trades by offering nothing.

The game ends when every set is complete. Each player then scores:

1. Add up the values of your complete sets.
2. Multiply the total by the number of sets you own.

Money counts for nothing. The player with the most points wins. On a tie, the tied player with the most money wins; if that is also equal, they share the win.

Example: Anna owns the 9s and the 5s: (800 + 250) × 2 = 2100. Ben owns the 10s, 7s, 3s and Aces: (1000 + 500 + 90 + 10) × 4 = 6400. Carla owns the 8s, 6s, 4s and 2s: (650 + 350 + 160 + 40) × 4 = 4800. Ben wins.

Tips for beginners

• Count the money. Everyone starts with 90, and each payday adds a known amount. Watching who has paid and received what tells you roughly how much everyone holds.
• Paydays change everything: before the second or third 7, money is scarce and animals are cheap; after the fourth 7, everyone is rich.
• The multiplier is powerful: several cheap sets can beat one expensive set. Don't give up on the Aces and 2s.
• When you auction an animal that you need yourself, let the others bid it up, then buy it yourself – you pay the bidder, not the bank.
• In a trade, a thick stack of cards may be mostly zeros. And a player who counters fast may be bluffing too.

Variants

These variants come from the model game.

• Trade and auction: after a trade, the same player also holds an auction.
• Short game: take two cards of each animal out of the game and the Queens and Kings out of the bank. You now need only pairs instead of sets of four; a pair scores the full set value.
• Double auction: always turn up two animals and auction them together as one lot. Paydays are paid as usual.

Differences from the model game

• The animals are ranks instead of named animals; the paydays are the 7s, which have the same place in the value table as the original's money animal.
• The money is a second deck with the same values (0, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500). The original has exactly 55 money cards, enough for five players; our bank simply holds a few more.
• Anyone may start; the original lets the player with the heaviest pet begin.
• Everything else follows the German rules of the model game, including the tie-break by money from its current edition.