Decade (card game)
Decade or Ten-Twenty-Thirty is a Patience game of the Simple Addition family played with a traditional 52-card deck. It is akin to another solitaire game called Accordion, but during game-play three adjacent cards totalling 10, 20, or 30 can be removed.
History
Decade is a relatively modern game of American origin, first appearing in 1949, but seldom since, perhaps a consequence of its low probability of success.Rules
Using a standard 52-card deck of playing cards, three cards are drawn from the bottom of the deck and placed face-up in a line on the table laid out in the order they were drawn so the faces can be read.Spot cards count their face value while face cards are valued at ten points. If the total of at least two consecutive cards in the line equals 10, 20 or 30, they are discarded. The cards are treated as if in a straight line, so cards coming from both the front and back of the line that value to ten, twenty, or thirty are not considered consecutive unless they occupy a physically adjacent position to the card. After this has been repeated until no more discards are possible, a card is drawn from the stock and placed face up on the extreme right of the line, and checking for discards is resumed.
The game continues until all cards are dealt or discarded, or when no more sets can be collected. The object of the game is to have as few cards as possible at the end; the game is won when all cards are discarded.
Variations
- Cards are placed in seven separate stacks; if all the cards in a stack are discarded the stack is eliminated and cards are no longer added to it. The game is won when all stacks have been eliminated.
- A maximum of three consecutive cards that total ten, twenty or thirty can be discarded.
- Cards that total 5, 15, 25, or 35 can also be discarded.
- The line is treated as a loop instead of a straight line. If the total of up to 3 three consecutive cards in the stack which feature at least one card from the top of the stack equal 10, 20 or 30, they are discarded: