jammat

Played 2D kitie with Jay - a game of my/our inventing (to be called "jammat" henceforth). He found it fun. Its a little better than just kitie. Std kitie (I am not sure of the spelling - could not find a link) involves dealing 9 cards and making 3 triplets: triples, or sequences, or pairs etc. One with better triplets wins. In the 2D version we require the cards to be arranged in a 3x3 matrix thus generating 8 triplets (3H, 3V and 2D). It is trikier to arrange them thus. Again, the one with better triplets wins. in 3D one will have 39 triplets (or is it 44?) making it intractable (almost). It will start resembling set or 4-in-a-row in some fashion.
Details Deal 9 cards each to all the players. If you wish to have equal probabilities or if there are more than 5 players, use multiple decks. Each player now arranges the 9 cards in a 3x3 matrix (to get 8 3-ples: 3 vertical, 3 horizontal and 2 diagonal). 
1 2 3 4
| | |/
c c c-5
c c c-6
c c c-7
     \
      8
The player tries to maximize the following types of 3-ples in that order:
  1. A triplet: 3 kings, or 3 4's etc. 3 Aces are the highest
  2. A sequence: 6-7-8 or 3-4-5 or A-2-3 or A-K-Q. A-K-Q is highest and 3-2-1 lowest (though some games treat the later to be higher). Also, the 3 cards could be in any order i.e. 2-3-A is the same as A-2-3. A "pure" sequence (i.e. a sequence all of whose cards are from the same suite) is higher than an ordinary sequence. In fact, any pure sequence is higher than every non-pure sequence.
  3. A color: 3 cards of the same suite e.g. 3, 5 and J of Hearts. If tw players have colors in the same round, the higher cards (A counting as highest followed by K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2) determine the winner. All suites have the same value i.e. there is no suite-hierarchy.
  4. A pair: 2 cards with the same face value (and clearly of different suites unless multiple decks are mixed) e.g. H3, C3 and C7. A-pair is highest followed by K-pair etc. In case of tied pairs, the third card decides the winner.
  5. highest card: when none of the above combinations is possible, the higher cards determine the winner.
Once the 9 cards are arranged to maximize the above combinations, players compare their 8 3-ples with those of others. Highest 3-ples are compared to the highest of the others. One who wins more 3-ples is the overall winner.

Examples to come soon.

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