Russian Bank Card Game – Competition for Two | Game Rules

The Russian bank card game is an ingenious game for 2 players. All you need are 2 packs of cards and off you go!

The Russian Bank Card Game for Two Players

• Game type: Card game
• Age: From approx. 8
• Players: 2
• Duration: 20 – 30 min.
• Accessories: 2 x French hand with 52 cards, i.e. 104 cards – cards with different motifs or different colours on the back (e.g. blue/red)
• Skills required: Attention, luck, keeping track
• Goal: To be the first to discard all the cards

Preparations Before the Russian Bank Card Game

The two solitaire players sit down opposite each other. Each gets a pack of 52 cards – for example, a whist pack of cards or a poker deck (basically the same thing). Now both Russian bank Card Game players shuffle their cards well and place them in front of them as a pile of face-down cards. Both players lift from their opponent’s pile of cards. If the number is the same, they take off again.

Card ranking from high to low: K-D-B-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-Ass.

The player who has picked up the higher card may begin. He counts the first 12 cards from his pile and places the 13th face up, i.e. with the motif side facing up, on top of the face-down pile. Now the second player places his first 13 cards with a face-up card on top next to him. These 13 cards are called “spare packs”, “13s” or “chicanes packs”. Why? Because it can become harassment for the player, as you will see! 😉

Each player lays out 4 cards

The next four cards from the big deck each player lays out face up in a row one below the other in front of them, so that the two rows are parallel at a distance of at least 2 card widths apart, forming a street between the players, so to speak. There should be space for 8 more cards between the 8 face-up cards in 2 rows. The 8 face-up cards or their positions are also called “”Houses”, the 8 initially still empty positions between are called “Families”..

All 8 houses are called “”Tableau”.  In the 2 empty rows of cards in the middle, the 8 aces are placed first in a quarrel patience and then built up into the so-called “families”as the game progresses.

How To Play the Russian Bank Card Game

In Battle-Patience, both players take turns playing. Each player takes a turn until he or she cannot place any more cards and ends his or her turn by discarding the last face-up card from the deck. The player who has laid all his cards first and is blank is the winner!

The player who drew the higher card begins. His turn continues as long as he can and wishes to lay cards. He may lay cards from his chicanery pile and the main card pile, the “hand”, for as long as he can. He starts the turn by laying as many cards from his chicanery pile as he can and, starting with the first card, covers as many from the main pile or “”hand”” as he can lay. Then the Russian bank card game player ends his turn by discarding the last card from his hand to the discard pile.
Now it’s the secondRussian Bank card game Patience player’s turn.

1. Create on Aces and Build Families

Aces belong in the middle

As soon as the first ace is drawn, the player places it on one of the 8 squares in the middle. The other aces can also be placed on any square in the middle, unless there is already an ace of the same colour, in which case it is placed next to this ace for the sake of clarity..

Example:

If there is already an ♥-ace, you place your ♥-ace next to this ♥-ace. You may place cards of the same suit on top of the aces in ascending order.

During the game, you build families on top of the aces with your own newly revealed cards and the matching cards placed on the houses. That is, you place the following card of the corresponding suit on the ace in each case. The cards placed on the ace are out of the game and may no longer be used. A complete family thus denotes the ascending sequence from the ace to the king in one suit!

Example family:

♣Ass ♣2 ♣3 ♣4 ♣5 ♣6 ♣7 ♣8 ♣9 ♣10 ♣B ♣D ♣K. When a king has been laid, then turn that pile over to show that the family is complete..

2. Houses and Black and Red Sequences

Black follows red when laying

The 2 x 4 cards placed on both sides of the aces at the beginning of the Russian bank card game are the so-called houses. You may always place a red and a black card there in descending order. You always place a card so that it only half covers the previous one and you can see the whole sequence. During the turn, you can also move these cards to fit or build them on top of the families, as long as they fit.

However, you can only ever use the last card, all other cards are fixed. If a house has become free because all cards have been removed and laid down or built up on aces, then you may fill that space with a card of your choice from the chicanery pile or from your hand. Or you place an end card of a sequence on the free space to get to the card below..

Example of a black-and-red sequence:

Player 1 has a ♦ queen in his hand and a ♣ king on a house. He can place his ♦ queen next to the ♣ king and reveals a new card.

3. Push Cards on Opponent

One more card on the chicanes pile

After the 1st player has finished his first Russian bank card game turn, there is another way to get rid of cards. If he reveals cards that are of the same suit, he may put these cards on the chicanery pile and the discard pile: but this is only possible if the card continues the immediately following descending or ascending sequence!.

Furthermore, the player whose turn it is may also summon matching cards from the tableau onto the opponent if they lie free in the houses, i.e. on the very outside. However, this only makes sense if the tableau is changed at this point so that the opponent cannot simply put the card back.

By pushing or summoning up cards you push more stock cards onto the opponent and reduce your own cards: this move is very important to win!

Example:

The opponent has a ♠ 10 on his chicanery pile, the last card on a house is a ♠ Jack and the player reveals a ♠ Queen. He takes the ♠ Jack and his ♠ Queen and places them on the opponent’s chicanes pile.

Or: The ♠ Jack lies on the tableau next to a ♥ Queen. The player uncovers a ♣ Jack and can get rid of it by charging the ♠ Jack to the opponent and placing his own ♣ Jack in its place at the ♥ Queen..

4. Fill Up Free Spots

The aim of the Russian bank card game is to get rid of all the cards. To do this, you put the cards on the ace families and place them on the houses. It is advisable to pay attention to whether the cards placed on the houses can be moved or placed on ace families in such a way that a place becomes free. Because this free space can be filled with a card of your own!

Tip: It makes sense to always fill up the free space with a card from the chicanes pile, because these cards are harder to get rid of or block the cards underneath!

The End of the Game of the Russian Bank Card Game

Whoever lays the last card first wins!

Once the chicanery pile has been used up, only the main pile/hand is used. When the last card of the discard pile is placed on the discard pile, turn the discard pile over without shuffling and it becomes the main pile again. This continues until the last card has been played.

Important: You must not turn over the deck immediately, but only when it has been the opponent’s turn. In this way, the opponent has the opportunity to push cards onto this player.

The winner of the quarrelling patience is the player who is the first to get rid of all the cards in his or her chicanery pile, hand and discard pile!

In rare cases, the game is “”blocked” because one or more aces are hidden in the chicanes pile and none of the players can lay a card. In this case, there is no winner and the game ends in a draw!

Variations Through Further Rules

• Red and black sequences: In the original form of the Russian Bank card game from the 19th century, there was a rule that only cards of the same suit were placed on the houses in descending order. So only pure colour sequences, also called “”hierarchies””, may be placed on the houses.
• Example: ♥K-♥D-♥B-♥10-♥9-♥8-♥7-♥6-♥5-♥4-♥3-♥2 instead of ♦K-♠D-♥B-♣10-♦9-♠8-♥7-♠6-♦5-♠4-♦3-♣2
• Stop rule: In this variation, building the ace families takes precedence over all other actions. If a player misses such a move or does not reveal a card that he can use to build the pile, then the opponent may shout: Stop!
• The player whose turn it is must now end it immediately by discarding the card from his hand.
• Forced moves: In this game variant, the cards must be placed in the following order; if a mistake is made, the opponent may knock and it is his turn.

1. If possible, a card from the harassment pile must be placed on a family first.
2. If another card can be placed on a family, this must be done immediately. If there are several possible cards, you may choose one.
3. Before you can turn over a card from the main pile or from your hand, you must place the cards that can be placed from the chicano pile in houses.

ASS Altenburger 22570092 - Patience, Kartenspiel, 2 x 55 Karten im Format 43,5 x 67,5 mm + Spielregeln, im Folienetui

inkl. Patience-Spielregeln; ab 10 Jahren; 1 bis 8 Spieler; Spieldauer: ab 5 Minuten; Inhalt: 2x55 Spielkarten, Spielanleitung

Have fun with this great card game for 2 players!

By the way, we have even more tips for games for two, but also family games and many more leisure ideas for activities with friends, with children or with your partner.

If you like our ideas and don’t want to miss any more, just follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

*There are affiliate links in this article. This means that if you order a product from amazon via one of these links, Abenteuer Freundschaft will receive a small commission without the product becoming more expensive for you.