Playing koopka..	in New York City..	& in Canada!

Koopka is a Czech word that means "small pile or small stack".  This is a game we  learned Grace's Czech Coaches, Draha and Radek Kriz.  It may not have originated in the Czech Republic, but it is now uniquely Czech.

One of the great things about the game is that you don't need a full deck of cards to play it, which is fortunate for those of us already playing without a full deck.  It is more fun to play with several decks and especially extra Jokers.  Draha and Radek play with some extra Jokers that are extremely old and may have been passed down from previous generations.  The game can be played with as few as three players, but it's more fun with more people.

The object of the game is to get all the points, but if you can't get all the points you should try to get more points than anyone else playing.  A player is awarded points for all the cards in front of them at the end of the game.  Scoring is as follows: Five points for each card numbered 2 - 7, ten points for 8 - K, 20 points for each Ace, and 50 points for each Joker.  Jokers are wild and can be substituted as any card.  Jokers are placed under the card they represent to avoid confusion.  Once they are played they cannot be changed, but are still worth 50 points.

Cards are dealt face down in small stacks of six cards each.  Each successive six-card stack is placed at a right angle on top of the next small stack until all the cards are dealt.  The first hand can include the extra cards for a maximum of eleven cards.

The play is traditional; the player to the dealers left starts and play continues to the left.  One hand continues until everyone has finished that hand then the next six-card hand is started by the person who played the last card in the previous hand.  Not everyone plays the same number of cards each turn.

On his turn a player must do one of the following eight things:
01.  Place a pair of cards of the same number face up in front of him on his koopka pile.  For this purpose we will call cards numbered, but we mean number or letter.  These will be at perpendicular (or sideways) to his previously placed pile.
02.  Add one card of the same number to a koopka little pile on the top of his koopka pile.
03.  Discard a card face-up to the top of the discard pile in the middle.  Meaner players make sure that the discard pile is always neat so other players have to remember the order of the cards in the pile.
04.  Take a card from the top of discard pile in the middle and only if he can combine it with a card in his hand to add make a koopka (placed sideways) on the top of his koopka pile.  Note:  This is done sideways regardless if it is the same number as the koopka on the top of the koopka pile.
05.  If the card on the top of the discard pile is the same as his top koopka he may take the card and add it to his top koopka pile and not take any cards from his hand.
06.  If the card on the top of the discard pile is the same as someone else's top koopka, he may take the card on the top and take the other person's koopka and place it sideways on his own koopka pile.
07.  If a card in his hand is the same as someone else's top koopka he may take the top koopka with his card and place them sideways on top of his koopka pile.
08.  When a player is out of cards he may still participate in a hand by waiting until his turn and using the card on the top of the discard pile if he can.  If he cannot use them he passes.

Players should not pick up their next hand until all players are out of cards.

The player who plays the last card from his hand plays the first card of the next hand.

Since some people get the hang of it much faster than others, you may want to switch some positions to make subsequent rounds more fair.

I hope you enjoy this game as much as my family has.