Bunbury's Games for the Tarot of Loka

This is a simple game for three players, all playing for themselves, and should be the starting point for all players new to tarot. Which is not to say that there is little challenge – just that it is the simplest in terms of rules. After all, chess is simple to learn.

Pack: A pack of Loka tarot with 78 cards is used consisting of four regular suits of 14 cards, a suit of 21 trumps, and The Fool.

Ranking: Rational ranking is used...

Pip cards rank in suit from high to low:

King, Queen, Cavalier, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace

Trumps rank by their number, 21 high, 1 low.

Empty Cards: These are cards that have values of 1 point or less.

Honours: The Magician, The World, and The Fool are called The Honours. They are always among the highest scoring cards.

Card Points are:

Honours	5 points
Kings	5 points
Queens	4 points
Cavaliers	3 points
Jacks	2 points
Aces	5 points
All others	1 point

A game consists of three hands.

Deal: First Dealer is chosen at random or by consent with the role moving to the player on the Dealer’s left after each hand.

First Dealer shuffles the cards before but for subsequent hands they are cut by Youngest (Dealer’s Right) – this is done by setting the pack face down and then lifting off three or four piles that are then re-stacked in a different order. On any deal any player may call for the cards to be re-shuffled.

Dealer hands out the cards in packets of five, taking the remaining three cards into his/her own hand. Dealer must then discard three cards that may not include Aces, Kings or Honours – though the Fool may be discarded if no trumps are held. These discarded cards count towards Dealer’s tricks once the hand has been played.

Play: Eldest (Dealer’s Left) leads to the first trick by placing a card face up on the table. Each player in turn, moving to the left, must play a card from their hand of the suit led – this is called following suit. If they do not have any cards of the suit led, it is called being void in that suit and they must play a trump card instead. However, if they have no trumps, they may then play any other card, though it will not win. Whoever plays the highest trump to the trick wins it, or if trumps are not played, then whoever played the highest card of the suit led wins it. The winner takes the cards and places them face down in their trick pile to be counted at the end.

The player that wins the trick then leads to the next one and play continues until the hand has been played out.

If The Fool is held, then it may be played at any time instead of a card that the rules might otherwise require and although it will not win, it is seldom lost. When played, The Fool is returned to to its player who then places it face up beside them until the end of the hand when they must pay the player who won the trick with a card from their trick pile (obviously, they will choose an empty card if they can). However, if they have taken no tricks, then they must surrender The Fool instead.

Scores: Players then count their card points singly and then adding 1 point for each trick they have won. (The Dealer’s extra three cards do not count as a trick). So the total number of card points in the game is 146+25=171. Players win/loses game points from/to each of the other players equal to the number of game points they have over/below 57.

Comments: If you do spot any errors in this post, please do point them out in the comments so that I can correct them.