Description: Tabinet is a fun Romanian card game that entices kids to practice addition and stimulates memorization of the cards played.
Age group: 6+ years
What you need: A pack of regular cards
Number of players: 2, 3 or 4
Rules: The dealer shuffles the cards and gives four cards to the first player. The first player can decide to keep these cards in her/his hands and get two more for a total of six, or she/he can put them on the table, facing up. The first player cannot put these four cards on the table if at least two of them are a king, queen, jack, or ace. The dealer gives each of the other players six cards. If the first player kept the original four cards, then at the end of dealing, the dealer puts four cards on the table, facing up. The cards on the table are shared by all players. Now the game can begin.
The cards have the value written on them: the ace is one or eleven points (up to each player), the jack is twelve points, the queen is thirteen points, and the king is fourteen points. For each player's turn, he/she either puts a card facing up on the table or picks up the cards from the table that add up to the value of the card that he is playing on that turn. With one card, the player can pick up multiple sets of cards, as long as they all add up to the value of the card he is playing. For example, if a player uses a ten card from his hand, he can collect an eight and a two from the cards facing up, or a nine and an ace, etc. Each player stacks his collected cards face down, to be used for counting points at the end of the game.
If a player picks up all the cards from the table, he puts the card he played from the hand on a separate stack (because it will count as an extra point at the end).
When all players have used the cards in their hands, each gets six more cards and the game resumes. Note: On the last round, if there are not enough cards for each to take six cards, then the remaining cards get distributed equally. After the game ends, the last player who collected any cards from the table gets the rest of the uncollected table cards.
Keeping score:
Each player counts all the cards they picked up from the table (those that you stacked face down). Add a point for any ten, ace, jack, queen and jack. For the ten of diamonds add two points, instead of one. Add one point for the two of clubs. Add one point for whoever has collected the most cards, and another one for whoever has the most clubs.
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