Is Spite and Malice Really a Card Game?
Did you know there are 12 card groups at Paradise Valley Estates? They range from poker, Mah-jongg, and Bunco to Hearts, Cribbage, and Rummikub. And, yes, Spite and Malice!
Of course, Bridge reigns supreme. We have Duplicate Bridge, or you may prefer Swiss Team Duplicate Bridge. What is the difference? According to Shirley, leader of the Swiss Team groups, the difference is only in scoring. “You play with a partner, as in regular match play, but in Swiss Team Bridge your pair is also a team with another pair playing at a different table. Your combined score of two pairs at the end of the day determines whether you won or lost.”
The Swiss Team Bridge game for couples at Paradise Valley Estates was started by Herb in about 2014. They played on the third Saturday afternoon of the month before adjourning for a group dinner in the main dining room. Says Shirley, “It was so much fun I started a Swiss Team Bridge game for ladies!”
Do you know how to play Hand and Foot? Marjorie, group leader, explains that it is “an addicting version of Canasta. A table can be played with two or three players as individuals or four or six with partners. Each player is dealt two sets of cards: one the hand, the other the foot. Once you play all the cards from your hand, then you play the foot.”
Spite and Malice — what a name for a card game! Even better, historically it was known as “Screw Your Neighbor!” Phyllis, group leader, has been playing this competitive form of solitaire for years and has many fond memories. “When we lived in Fresno (three times, about eight years each time), we had neighbors, Jim and Judy, with whom we played (partners) regularly. Men being men, Jim and Hal wanted to be partners — so be it. Our plan was for the losers, at the end of a year, to plan a trip as far away from Fresno as the difference in the two scores (J&H vs J&P). We didn’t tell the fellows where we were going until a day before. It should have started with dinner on the Bay Bridge, but we extended the trip into San Francisco. It was a fun way to play the game.”
