WDESPN International presents: Suipi

WDESPN International is proud to present to you the card game known as Suipi. It's a game that's easy to understand, but hard to master. The game appears to be of Pacific Island origin and the version to be presented to you today is the Samoan rules. In order to play you need either 2 or 4 players (with 4 players you play as a team – the person across from you is your partner). These rules apply specifically to the traditional 10 card deck (with 11 points) but you can also play with a 13 card deck (with 23 points) by counting the diamonds in the middle of the 11,12 and 13 cards.

 

Suipi Rules (Version 1.0):

1. The dealer will shuffle the cards and give it to the player on the right to cut.

2. The dealer will give out the cards to each player. Each player should have eight cards for the first round. Four cards should be put face down on the table.

3. There should be no repeat cards on the table (thus no two kings or two cards of the same number, if there are one card goes back in the deck and another one is taken from the deck. If one of the cards out is a spade, that one should be kept and the other one replaced.

4. The player on the left will play first.

5. If that player has a face card and it matches the card on the floor (face card) the player can take it, but if the player has a five and there is a three and two or even a four and an ace on the floor the ace is counted as a one. The player can take those cards with the five and the same goes with other cards that equal a number in the players hands.

6. If a player has a ten (card) whatever suit and she/he wants to add a number on his /her card i.e. the eight is on the floor and the player has a two, they can put the two on the eight to make a ten but another player can take it if they have a ten.

7. If one card is left on the floor and someone takes it, the person who took it will count it as a suipi – the suipi counts as one additional point on top of the 11 points already in the game. To show that you have a suipi, you must leave one of the cards face up. Suipi's can be lost if a person from the other team gets a suipi in which case both players turn their suipi cards face down. You lose one suipi every time the other team gets a suipi i.e. if team one has 3 suipi's and team two gets a suipi, team two will still have 0 suipi's but team one will now have 2. Once team one get to 0 suipi's then team two can start keeping their own suipi's.

8. The dealer will give out the second round of eight cards and play resumes as in the first round.

9. If there are still cards left in the stack to be dealt, deal them out for a third round and play resumes as before.

10. The last card for the last round is not counted as a suipi because the game is finished. Whoever picked up the last card from the table gets all the remaining cards on the table.

11. Count the points for the two teams and whichever team has the most points then subtract from the other teams points.

12. If the team that has the most points also has suipi's, you add to their score i.e. team one had the most points and 2 suipi's. If there score is 2 after counting just cards they would have 4 points. If the team that has the fewest points also has suipi's you subtract from the higher teams score i.e. team one had 3 points after the 11 points were distributed but team two had 2 suipi's, team one would thus have 1 point. Scoring is cumulative from all rounds.

 

Counting the Points:

* Pepa peti fa lima ono                   5-6-1

* Pepa tolu fa                                  4-7-3

* Pepa tolu                                      3-8-5

* Peti tasi lua                                    2-9-7

 

Example: Most cards, most spades-five-six (eleven points)

Altogether one team has five points and one team has six points. Six points minus five points equals one. So the score is 1. You keep playing until:

For 2 players: both players have dealt the person with the highest score wins

For 4 players: until all players have dealt, team with the highest score at the end wins

 

Vocabulary:

Pele suipi – playing suipi

Pele – deck of cards/to play cards

'au – team

pepa o le pele – playing cards

'ai – points

sefulu taimane – ten of diamonds

sai – ace

siaki – jack

teine – queen

peti – spade

'ata – heart

taimane – diamond

fele – club

lo lua peti – two of spades

tulafono – rules

toto – to shuffle

tufa – to deal

Suipi – (last card down) if you have a card that matches that last card take it and it is called a suipi, every suipi

 

Points:

Tele pepe (27 pepa) – most cards (27 cards) most cards has three points

Tele peti (7 peti) – most spades (7 spades) most spades has one point

10 taimane – 10 of diamonds has two points (because of the two diamonds in the middle)

2 peti – two of spades has one point

4 sai – 4 aces (4 points) (each one has a point)

1 suipi – one suipi (1 point) added after 11 points are distributed

 

I know these aren't the best instructions, but that's why it's 1.0 – but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me. It could easily result in improvements so that anyone can read these instructions and learn how to play. Thank you for reading this WDESPN production – all rights reserved.

 

The WDESPN International/WDESPN name and logo are expressed property of WDE Inc. All rights reserved. Any copying done without the expressed written consent of the WDE is strictly prohibited. WDE Inc. Copyright 2005.