Newmarket

Players and equipment

Any number can play; four to eight is comfortable, and three can manage. You need a standard 52-card deck plus four more cards from a second deck — the boodles — laid face up on the table as a staking board: a king, queen, jack and ten, each a different suit. Bring a pile of chips or coins. The game is built around staking them, not around a score, and the app never sees a single one of them.

The deal

Before a card is dealt, everybody antes five chips: one into a pool in the middle, the other four split across the four boodles however you like — all on one card if you fancy it, or a chip on each. First dealer is whoever turns up a jack: deal the cards face up, one at a time, until one appears, and whoever gets it deals the first hand. After that the deal passes to the left.

Deal the whole pack face down, one card at a time, clockwise from your left, with one extra place at the end of every round for a spare hand, or widow, that nobody touches. With more players at the table, everybody simply holds fewer cards; there's no fixed hand size.

Play

Aces count low and kings high. Whoever sits to the dealer's left leads: play the lowest card you hold in any one suit — your choice of suit — and say what it is as you lay it down. Whoever holds the next card up in that same suit plays it and names it too, and so on up the suit — three, four, five — and you can lay down several of your own cards in a row if you hold an unbroken run.

If you're holding the next card in sequence, you have to play it. There's no sitting on a card to block somebody; a run only stops because nobody at the table has the next one. That happens two ways: the king has just been played, or the card that's needed is stuck in the spare hand nobody can see. Either way is a stop. Whoever played the last card before the stop leads the next run, starting again with their lowest card in any one suit they still hold — their choice of suit.

Whenever you play one of the four boodle cards sitting on the table, sweep every chip on it. If a boodle never gets played during a hand — usually because it's buried in the spare hand — its chips just sit there and roll into the next deal.

The first player to play every card in their hand calls "Out!" and the hand ends immediately, however many cards everybody else is still holding.

Scoring

There's no score to type in. Each hand is its own match on the app's win table: the moment somebody plays their last card and calls "Out!", tap their name — your own, if it's you, or the host can tap it for anyone else — and the match files itself there and then. The next deal opens straight away; there's no Next match button to look for. Everything with a chip riding on it — the pool, the boodles — is settled at the table in real chips. SquareScores doesn't deal a card or see a chip; it only remembers who went out.

A worked hand

Four players — Ana, Ben, Cho and Dev — each ante five chips before the deal: one to the pool, four spread one apiece across the king, queen, jack and ten on the boodle board.

Ante

5 chips

paid by each player before the deal

Pool

4 chips

one chip from everybody

Each boodle

4 chips

one chip from everybody, four separate piles

Ana plays the queen of clubs partway through the first run and sweeps its pile. Later, Cho plays the ten of hearts and sweeps that one too. The king and the jack never come out — both are sitting in the spare hand — so their chips stay exactly where they are for the next deal. Ben is the first to empty his hand and calls "Out!", sweeping the pool.

Queen of clubs

4 chips

swept by Ana when she plays it

Ten of hearts

4 chips

swept by Cho when he plays it

King and jack

8 chips

stuck in the spare hand, carried to the next deal

Pool

4 chips

swept by Ben, first to call Out!

On the app, none of that chip arithmetic appears. The host or Ben taps Ben's name on the win table, the match files as a win for Ben, and the next hand is already waiting.

Ending

A hand ends one way: somebody plays their last card and calls "Out!" Tap their name on the match table there and then, and the app opens the next deal by itself — there's no button to press first. If the table breaks up before anyone goes out, any player can end the match; it doesn't have to be the host.

Whatever's sitting unclaimed on a boodle carries straight into the next deal, so don't reset the stakes between hands at the table — only a fresh session starts the boodles empty.

You can't hold a card back

Playing the next card in sequence is compulsory, not optional, so there's no bluffing and no blocking. The whole game is reading where the gaps are, not deciding whether to play a card you're holding.

Work the spare hand out from the stops

Every time a run stops, it's because the king's gone or because the next card is buried in the untouched spare hand. Keep a rough mental list of what's been played; whatever's missing and isn't a king is sitting in that spare hand, and it tells you who's stuck leading next.

Spread or pile your stake

Your four chips go down before you've seen a card, so there's no hand to read when you place them. One on each boodle gives you a share of every sweep; piling them on one card is a straight gamble, and whatever nobody claims rides on into the next deal.

Lead your weak suits early

Get rid of your short, awkward suits while the pack is still full of cards to follow them. Hang onto a short suit too long and a stop can trap it in your hand right when somebody else calls "Out!"

Keep a rough count of who's close

Watch how often each player leads and how big their runs are; it tells you roughly how many cards they're down to. Somebody who's led three short runs in a row is close to going out, and once they do, every boodle still unplayed stays where it is for the next deal.

Michigan

The American cousin of Newmarket, and different enough to feel like a separate game: aces count high rather than low, the boodles are an ace, king, queen and jack of different suits rather than a king, queen, jack and ten, and the spare hand is dealt first, with the dealer allowed to swap their whole hand for it. There's no central pool — everybody antes one chip to each boodle, the dealer two to each — and the winner is paid a chip for every card still held by each other player, rather than sweeping a shared pool. Players must change suit whenever a suit is stopped.

The older staking rules

The 1885 American Hoyle rules skip the pool entirely. The boodles are an ace, king, queen and jack from a second pack, the eight of diamonds is removed from the main pack so the seven is always a stop, and the dealer stakes double everybody else's amount before the deal. Going out is paid a chip for every card the other players are still holding, the way Michigan still does it, rather than a pool swept in one go.

No chips at all

Plenty of tables play Newmarket for fun, with nothing riding on the boodles. Skip the ante and the sweeping, and the shedding game underneath plays exactly the same: deal the pack and the spare hand, lead your lowest card, follow the sequence, and the first to play every card wins. Tap the winner on the app the same way either way.

A different staking board

Which four cards sit on the boodle board has never been fixed — rule books through the years have used a king, queen, jack and ten; an ace, king, queen and jack; or, in one 2008 version, all four kings, swept when the matching queen is played instead of the king itself. Lay out whichever four your table's used to; nothing else about the deal or the play changes.

How many cards do you deal in Newmarket?

The whole pack, one card at a time, round the table, with a spare hand, or widow, dealt as the last place in every round, and nobody touches it until the deal is over. The more players at the table, the fewer cards each one holds; there's no fixed hand size to aim for.

What are the boodle cards in Newmarket?

Four cards from a second deck, laid face up on the table before the deal — commonly a king, queen, jack and ten of different suits, though older rule books use an ace, king, queen and jack instead. Players stake chips on them before the hand starts, and whoever plays the matching card during play sweeps whatever's sitting on it.

Do you have to play a card if you can?

Yes. If you hold the next card in suit sequence, you must play it there and then — there's no holding one back to block somebody. A run only stops because nobody at the table has the next card, usually because it's buried in the untouched spare hand.

What's the difference between Newmarket and Michigan?

Michigan is the American cousin: aces count high instead of low, the boodles are an ace, king, queen and jack rather than a king, queen, jack and ten, the spare hand is dealt first with the dealer allowed to swap for it, and the winner is paid a chip for every card everybody else is still holding instead of sweeping a shared pool.

Can you play Newmarket without any chips or stakes?

Yes. Skip the ante and the sweeping and you still have a complete shedding game: deal the pack plus a spare hand, lead your lowest card, follow the sequence up each suit, and the first player to empty their hand wins. The staking is what turns it into a gambling game; without it, it plays like a quieter cousin of Crazy Eights.

How do you win Newmarket?

By being the first to play every card in your hand. Call "Out!" the instant you do, and the hand ends there and then, however many cards everybody else is still holding. Tap the winner on the app's win table and the stakes on the table — the pool, and anything swept off the boodles — settle however your table plays it.