भिकार सावकार · Bhikār Sāvkār
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Bhikār SāvkārThis can be transliterated in various ways, for example Bhikar Sawkar or Bhikar Savkar. (भिकार सावकार, “beggar–moneylender”) is a simple luck-based card game played in Maharashtra, India, similar to Snap or Beggar My Neighbour.
The name of the game presumably comes from the fact that the play is self-reinforcing; someone who has won more cards due to having higher cards is more likely to keep winning as they capture more cards.
Play
Any number of players can play with a standard deck (or decks, if many people are playing) of cards.
All the cards are dealt out one at a time. Each player holds their cards face down in their hands and on their turn, plays a single card unseen from the top of their deck into a central face-up pile.
There are two ways by which a player captures the central pile:
If the suit of the played card matches the suit of the previous card on the pile, then the player who played the card with the higher rank wins the whole pile. They shuffle the pile and add it to the bottom of their personal deck.
If the rank of the played card matches the previous one, and the colour of the cards is the same (black or red), then the player who played the second card also captures the whole pile.
A player who captures the pile restarts the game by playing a card.
Once all other players have run out of cards, the player who is left with all the cards at the end of the game is the winner.
Variants
One way to change the game from a pure-luck game into one of more skill is that a player may look at their card before playing it. They can either play it or put it on the bottom of their deck, in which case they must play their next card.A
References
Kulkarni, Hrishikesh (). ‘The Universe is a Game’ [archived]. On the website Chintan Diaries (accessed ).