Russian Bank

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Words you need
3. Setup
4. Who starts
5. Playing a turn
6. End of the game
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Russian Bank is a patience game for two: like a solitaire (a card game you normally play alone, sorting cards into order), but both players share the same layout and race each other. The goal is to be the first to get rid of all your own cards – by building them onto shared piles in the middle, onto the shared columns at the sides, or by dumping them on your opponent's piles.

• Players: 2.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks, ideally with different backs, no jokers. Each player owns one deck. The decks get mixed during play; the backs let you sort them out again afterwards.
• Paper and pencil for the score.

Words you need

• Foundation: one of eight piles in the middle. Each starts with an Ace and is built up in suit: A, 2, 3 … K of the same suit (e.g. 5♥ only on 4♥). Both players use all eight.
• House: one of eight single face-up cards at the sides, four dealt by each player. On a house you build down in alternating colours: a red 7 on a black 8, a black 10 on a red J. The cards overlap in a row so all can be seen. All eight houses together are the tableau, shared by both players.
• Reserve: your pile of 13 cards to your right; only its top card is face up.
• Hand pile: your face-down pile of 35 cards to your left. You turn it one card at a time.
• Waste pile: your face-up pile between hand pile and reserve, where unused hand cards go.
• Space: a house with no cards left. Any available card may fill it.

Setup

1. Each player shuffles the other player's deck and hands it back.
2. From your own deck, deal 12 cards face down and put a 13th face up on top: this is your reserve, placed to your right.
3. Deal 4 cards face up in a column running away from you, above your reserve, starting with the one farthest away. These are your four houses.
4. Put your remaining 35 cards face down to your left: your hand pile.
5. Leave a gap two cards wide between the two columns of houses for the eight foundations.

The layout, seen from Anna (Ben sits opposite, at the top):

Who starts

Compare the top cards of the two reserves (King high, Ace low). The player with the lower card starts. If they are equal, compare the houses next to each reserve, then the next ones, and so on. After that, players take turns.

Playing a turn

In your turn you make as many moves as you can and want. A move means taking one available card and placing it somewhere it fits.

Available cards:

• the top card of your reserve (when you move it, turn up the next reserve card at once);
• the outermost card of each of the eight houses (the one not covered);
• the card you have just turned up from your hand pile.

You may never take cards from a foundation, from your own waste pile, or from your opponent's reserve, hand pile or waste pile. Cards move one at a time – to shift a sequence from one house to another, you need spaces to park the cards one by one.

Where a card may go:

• Foundation: an Ace to an empty foundation spot; otherwise the next higher card of the same suit.
• House: one rank lower and opposite colour than its outermost card; any card into a space.
• Opponent's reserve or waste pile ("loading"): a card of the same suit, one rank higher or lower than their top card. On a 9♦ you may put the 8♦ or 10♦ – and then, on the 8♦, the 7♦ or another 9♦. This gives your cards away to them.

You may never put cards onto your own reserve, your own hand pile, or (except to end your turn) your own waste pile.

Compulsory moves

1. If the top card of your reserve fits on a foundation, you must play it there before anything else.
2. Whenever any available card fits on a foundation, you must play it there (you choose the order if there are several).
3. While your reserve still has cards, you must fill every space in the tableau from your reserve before you turn a card from your hand pile.

Your hand pile and the end of your turn

When you have made the compulsory moves (and any other moves you like), turn up the top card of your hand pile. You must do this once you have no other legal move. If you can play the turned card, do so, make any compulsory moves that follow, and then turn up the next card.

If you cannot or do not want to play the turned card, place it face up on your waste pile. That ends your turn.

When your hand pile is empty and you need to turn a card, turn your waste pile over without shuffling to form a new hand pile. (If your last hand card went onto the waste pile, wait until your next turn – your opponent may still load cards onto it.)

Example: Anna's reserve shows 2♥ and the A♥ lies on a foundation, so she must play the 2♥ first. Her next reserve card is 8♣, which fits on the 9♥ house. A house is empty, so she must fill it from her reserve (Q♦). Then she turns her hand card: the 5♠. Ben's waste pile shows 6♠, so she loads the 5♠ onto it. Her next hand card, the J♥, fits nowhere, so it goes onto her waste pile and her turn ends.

"Stop!"

If you break a rule – play a card where it doesn't fit, move a card that isn't available, skip a compulsory move or ignore the order above – your opponent may call "Stop!" and say what went wrong. You take back the wrong move (and, if you skipped a compulsory move, make it now), and your turn ends at once. If you put a card on your waste pile that should have gone to a foundation, your opponent can make you play it there before starting their turn.

End of the game

You win as soon as your reserve, hand pile and waste pile are all empty.

If neither player can play any more cards from their reserve or hand pile, the game is blocked and ends.

Scoring

• Winner: 30 points, plus 1 for each card left in the opponent's hand pile and waste pile, plus 2 for each card left in the opponent's reserve.
• Blocked game: each player counts 1 per card in hand pile and waste pile and 2 per reserve card. The lower count scores the difference (no 30 bonus).

Example: Anna goes out. Ben still has 14 cards in hand pile and waste pile and 3 in his reserve: Anna scores 30 + 14 + 6 = 50.

Afterwards, sort the cards back into the two decks by their backs.

Winning the game

Play several games. The first to reach an agreed target, e.g. 300 points, wins.

Tips for beginners

• Empty your reserve first: its cards count double, and each reserve card played uncovers the next.
• Load your opponent's piles whenever you can – every card you give away is one card closer to winning.
• Before turning your hand card, look for ways to make spaces in the tableau.
• Watch your opponent closely: calling "Stop!" in time can win the game.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Own waste pile available: many allow the top card of your own waste pile to be played like a house card.
• Smaller reserve: 11 or 12 reserve cards instead of 13 (the hand pile is larger).
• Who starts: cut the cards (low starts), or take turns starting.
• Stricter rules: you must also uncover tableau cards that could go to a foundation, and load your opponent's piles whenever you can.
• Face-down houses: each house starts with one face-down card under the face-up one; turn it up when it is uncovered.