SHUFFLIN’ JAMBOREE
A solitaire card game by Frank Edward Nora
Invented in basic form on April 29, 2007

Rules beta 1 – December 30,2007

Each round, shuffle a deck of playing cards including two jokers (54 cards total). Look through the deck and remove pairs – two cards of the same rank next to each other in the deck. If there are three of the same rank, only remove two of them. If there are four of the same rank, remove all four, since it is two pairs. If by removing pairs you bring more pairs together you can remove these pairs as well.

If you are able to remove at least one pair from the deck, the deck is “live”, you can decide to stop and score 1 point for each card taken from the deck to end the round – or you can decide to shuffle and go through the process again. If you were not able to remove any pairs, the deck is “dead”, and you score zero points for the round.

During play, you can earn and play “insurance points” (see below).

Play 10 rounds. A perfect score is 540.

You begin the game with zero insurance points (ip).

One way you earn ip is by removing certain pairs or sets of pairs from the deck. To avoid confusion, remember that ip are earned only as cards are removed.

Non-Joker Pair (2 cards removed) = 0 ip

Joke (joker pair) = 1 ip

Triple (3 in a row) (2 of 3 removed) = 1 ip

Quad (4 in a row – acts as 2 pairs for other situations) (all 4 removed) = 4 ip

Non-Quad Sweep (all 4 cards of a rank removed in one shuffle) = 1 ip

Jamboree (6 or more pairs removed in one shuffle) = 1 ip per pair starting with the sixth pair

Chain (2 or more adjacent pairs ) = 1 ip per pair starting with the second pair

Reaction (pair brought together by the removal of cards) = 1 ip

— Note that you can remove pairs in any order you like. For example, removing a certain pair could cause a reaction which would create a chain that was otherwise not there

— Additionally, you score ip for a dead deck scoring zero:

Deck Deck of 52 or less ending round with score of zero = 1 ip

Deck Deck of 54 ending round with score of zero = 4 ip

–SPENDING IP

INSURE (1 ip) = protect one shuffle – deck stays “live” even if no pairs removed. The ip is spent whether or not any pairs are removed. Must be spent BEFORE looking at any cards (other than the top card of the face-up deck).

SWITCH (2 ip) = switch the position of two adjacent cards in the deck

REVIVE (4 ip) = bring an uninsured dead deck back to life

— END OF GAME

Unused ip at the end of round 10 do not affect the final score, and are not carried over to the next game.

NOTES

You can keep score with paper and pen marking ip as little vertical lines and crossing the off as they are used. It can be useful to cross an ip with a single horizontal line to represent insurance before going thru the deck so you can keep track of whether or not you are insured.

Scoring ip for each situation is independent – for example, if there is a triple on the end of a chain, you score for the chain and for the triple.

After shuffling a deck, I often place the deck face-up on the table to be looked thru later, so I know it is shuffled.