Using BoardGames Cards
How To Start a New Card Game
When starting a new card game you will see the cards options:
- What kind of deck to use?
52 card decks for normal play
104 card decks for large groups and double-deck games.
- Whether to include jokers?
- What card back to use?
The image you see is the one that will be used on the back of the cards. Click it to locate a BMP
file to be used on the back of the cards. If you use a custom .BMP for your card back, you can
always get back to the default card back by clicking USE DEFAULT under the card image. If people who
are connected to you also have the same custom .BMP file in their BoardGames directory, they too will
see the CardBack image you choose.
TIP: You must use a 50 pixel wide by 70 pixel tall .BMP image or something unexpected might happen !
'NOTHER TIP: Swap .BMP images of card backs with your friends so everybody will be in sync !
Customizing the Cards
After the cards have been created you can change them by selecting CARDS ¦ CHANGE DECK from the menu.
You will see the same options available when creating a brand new card game. If you make a selection
requiring a different amount of cards than are currently on the table, the current cards must be deleted first.
However, you can change the image on the back of the cards without deleting the existing deck.
All of the Card Commands
The following commands are available once a deck of cards has been created. These commands are all accessed
through the CARDS menu or by Right-Clicking a card. Note that each command has a keyboard shortcut. Once
you learn the keyboard shortcuts, you will increase your speed of play considerably !
TIP: Use care when performing an action that affects all of the cards, if a game is in progress
all of the cards on the table will get scrambled.
- Deal (D keyboard shortcut)
You will be asked how many cards to deal. Click DEAL'EM ALL to deal all the cards. Click one of the selections to determine if the cards are to be dealt FaceUp or FaceDown.
Determine whether or not to gather up all the cards. If GATHER UP ALL CARDS BEFORE DEALING is checked, all cards on the table
will be stacked and dealing will proceed. If not, the first dealt card is from the top of the latest GATHERED UP group
of cards on the table.
- Shuffle (U keyboard shortcut)
All of the cards on the table are gathered up and randomly shuffled 12 times. The shuffling algorithm
is much like the process of shuffling "real" cards. That is, the cards are cut and randomly chosen
from the bottom of each half of the deck, piling up from the bottom to the top. You may want to shuffle
several times !
- Cut (C keyboard shortcut)
All of the cards on the table are gathered up and cut into two piles. The size of each pile is
randomly chosen and each pile is guaranteed to have at least one card. The bottom half of the
original pile is on the left and the top half of the original pile is on the right. To complete
the cut, select the left half and place it on top of the right half, thus moving the bottom part on
top of the top part.
To see the size of each Pile: Cut the cards and draw a rectangle around one of the piles.
Drag the selected pile away from the other one and do the CARDS ¦ FAN command from the menu.
Now select the other pile of cards and fan it.
To do a manual Cut: Fan the cards and select any number of cards from the bottom part of the
fan (those cards which are underneath other cards). Now move those on top of the other cards. Click
anywhere on the table to Deselect all the cards. Finally, do a CARDS ¦ GATHER UP command.
The following card commands all work in a special way:
If there are any cards selected, these commands only operate on the selected cards. If no cards are
selected, these commands operate on all of the cards. Remember, you can easily affect all the cards on
the table if none are selected, so take care before using these commands if a game is in progress.
- Gather Up (G keyboard shortcut)
If there are selected cards, they are placed in a neat stack near where the first selected card is located.
If there are no selected cards, all cards on the table are placed in a neat stack in the middle of the table.
If cards have somehow gotten "lost" off the edge of the table, this command is handy to get them all back in one place.
- Sort (S keyboard shortcut)
If there are selected cards, they are sorted by suit first and then by value. Note that the sorted cards are then "Gathered Up" (see above)
If there are no selected cards, all cards on the table are sorted by suit first and then by value and Gathered Up.
- Flip Over (O keyboard shortcut)
If there are selected cards, they are flipped over.
If there are no selected cards, all cards on the table are flipped over.
- Rotate (R keyboard shortcut)
If there are selected cards, they are turned sideways.
If there are no selected cards, all cards on the table are turned sideways.
Tip You can rotate and flip over a card while moving it by using the keyboard shortcuts (R and O) for the ROTATE and FLIP OVER commands.
- Fan (F keyboard shortcut)
If there are selected cards, they are fanned.
If there are no selected cards, all cards on the table are fanned.
The last card command will only work if there are selected cards:
- Place In Hand (H keyboard shortcut)
The selected cards are placed in a separate HandWindow.
Cards in your hand can only be seen by you and not other players. Cards in others' hands will be placed in their own window and you
will not be able to look at them. Use Place In Hand to "peek" at cards on the table.
There are some other card commands which are accessible only to cards in a player's Hand.:
- HAND ¦ FOLD (CTRL-X keyboard shortcut)
All of the cards in the player's Hand are placed faceDown on the table.
- PLACE ON TABLE (Up and Down Arrow keyboard shortcuts)
Note that this command is not available if no cards in the Hand are selected! If there are selected
cards, they are placed on the table, either faceUp or faceDown.
How to play Poker and Blackjack using BoardGames
A Game of Poker
First, join up with at least one other person. Choose CARDS ¦ SHUFFLE to shuffle the cards and have everybody pick a card off the top, highest card gets to deal first.
The Dealer then Gathers Up all the cards and Shuffles several times more to mixup the cards. Then they choose
CARDS ¦ DEAL and fill out the DEAL dialog box with these options:
- Deal an Amount is CHECKED and 5 is entered for how many cards to deal
- Deal FaceDown is CHECKED
- Gather up all cards before dealing is checked
All the people in the CardGame will receive 5 cards.
Before picking up their cards, the dealer may choose to make a designation of a Wild Card. To tell
the others that Kings are WildCards, the Dealer chooses GAMES ¦ TALK and says "Kings are wild".
Now, each player draws a box around their cards to select them and chooses CARDS ¦ PLACE IN HAND.
Each player decides which cards to keep and selects the OTHER cards and chooses PLACE ON TABLE ¦ FACEDOWN
from their HandWindow menus.
The Dealer gives each player in turn the number of cards they need replaced, by dragging the cards individually
from the top of the deck.
Each player selects their fresh cards and chooses CARDS ¦ PLACE IN HAND once again.
The Players are now ready to determine who is the winner by comparing the contents of their hands. Each player's cards
should all be selected and PLACEd ON TABLE ¦ FACEUP.
A Game of BlackJack
First, join up with at least one other person. Somebody decide who will deal.
The Dealer chooses CARDS ¦ SHUFFLE several times to mixup the cards. Then they choose
CARDS ¦ DEAL and fill out the DEAL dialog box with these options:
- Deal an Amount is CHECKED and 1 is entered for how many cards to deal
- Deal FaceDown is CHECKED
- Gather up all cards before dealing is NOT checked. The cards will remain in the center of
the table on this and subsequent dealings.
The Dealer again chooses CARDS ¦ DEAL and fills out the DEAL dialog box with these options:
- Deal an Amount is CHECKED and 1 is entered for how many cards to deal
- Deal FaceUp is CHECKED
- Gather up all cards before dealing is NOT checked. The cards will remain in the center of
the table on this and subsequent dealings.
Now each player will have a card FaceUp and FaceDown in front of them. A player can peek at their
FaceDown card by selecting it and choosing CARDS ¦ PLACE IN HAND. Each player can now tell the dealer
whether they want to "Hit" or "Stand" by choosing GAMES ¦ TALK and typing in which they would like to do.
If a Player wants a "Hit" the dealer drags the top card from the deck in the center of the table and
chooses CARDS ¦ FLIP OVER. At the end of a round of blackjack, all the cards used for that turn
are selected and placed in a pile in a corner of the table. Play can now proceed from the top of
the deck again until the entire deck has been used up.
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