It ain’t over till the Fat Lady sings!
Full confession: I invented this card game. But, hey, you still might like it!
Play
The game ‘Fat Lady’ has the exact same basic play as ‘Whist’, so feel free to look that up. The rules of the deal and rules of the play are all the same. So if you’ve played Whist, or Bridge, or even Spades you are good to go as far as the basic rules of play.
Scoring
Where Fat Lady differs from Whist is in the scoring. Now, because the scoring is different, the wise and discerning player will choose to play their cards differently, but the rules of the play are the same.
In Fat Lady, the goal of you and your partner is to take more tricks than your opponents AND to take the last trick (the Fat Lady). If you take more tricks than your opponents, AND you take the last trick, you get one point. It doesn’t matter how many more tricks, just that you take more tricks AND the Fat Lady.
Thus:
Us: 1
Them: 0
And obviously, if they take more tricks and the Fat Lady:
Us: 0
Them: 1
BUT… what if you take more tricks, and they take the Fat Lady? Or they take more tricks, and they take the Fat Lady? Well, then
Us: 0
Them: 0
BUT!!! The play continues, and the next hand, perhaps you take more tricks AND the Fat Lady. Well, then, watch…
Us: 0,2
Them: 0,0
Did you see? The trick after a 0,0 trick is worth 2 points!
BUT WAIT! There’s more!!
Us: 0,0,4
Them: 0,0,0
The trick after two Fat Ladies is worth… 4. And then 8 after three of them, and 16 after four of them!!
Tactics
Now, we haven’t played this game much, so I can’t give you too much in the way of tactics. And most of the tactics that are useful you will find in a good book on Whist or Bridge.
The tactics we need to discuss here are those specific to Fat Lady, and they revolve around the fact that you have to win both the tricks in general and the last trick. Or, in reverse, you need to avoid losing both.
This means the first thing you need to do when you look at your hand is to decide what you are trying to do. Are you trying to win, or to avoid losing? Usually, if you think you can take the most tricks, given your hand and the current trumps, you try to win. If you can’t, you try to avoid losing.
And if you are shooting to win, you need to balance taking tricks with saving a card to win the last trick. If you have the ace of trumps, and long enough trumps that no one can force you to play it, then you might try to save it for the last trick…
Unless that means that you will lose to the king of trumps, and your opponents will get more tricks than you!
Meanwhile, if you don’t think you can take the tricks, then you need to be working to make sure you can take the last trick! Force your opponent to play their good cards, while keeping your good cards in reserve.
Winning the Game
The game ends when one side arrives at an agreed upon number of points. Given the way that the points start multiplying when no one wins a trick, you should think of each hand as producing at least 2 points, and, depending on the level of play, a lot more.
If you decided to try it out, tell me how it went!
I think I was present the first time you came up with this variation. The compound scoring was not yet a factor and yet the charges made for a remarkably different strategy. Looking forward to trying this soon.