Description

Suipi is a classic Samoan card game played using a standard deck of cards, similar in play to "Casino" or "Scopa".

Play starts with four cards being laid face up in the middle of the table, and eight cards being dealt to each player. The goal of the game is to capture the most points by matching cards and building stacks of cards. While regional rules may slightly alter how the game is played, some standard rules apply.

To gather a card from the table, players play a card from their hand which matches a table card in number, or matches the sum of two table cards (if the player has a 9 in their hand, they can gather a 5 and 4 from the table for example). Additionally, cards can be stacked (built) and taken as a stack on the next turn, but only if the player has the stacked number in their hand (for example, a 7 could be built onto a 3 to create a 10, allowing a player with a 10 in their hand to gather the whole stack on their turn). Face cards have no value and can only be gathered using matching face cards.

Additionally, if a player plays a card which matches several cards, stacks, or sums of individual cards on the table, the player may take all those cards. For example, if a player plays a 10 and there is on the table a 10, a stack of 3 & 7, and individually a 6 and 4 the player may take all of those cards as their 10 matches the first individual card, the total stack number, and the sum of the individual 6 and 4 cards.

If a player can not gather a card, they must 'drop' a card onto the table from their hand. If all cards are removed from the table, the player who removed the last card immediately scores 1 point and proclaims 'Suipi!'. The other player must then drop a card to continue the round. "Suipi" is played over 3 rounds, with each round ending when both player's hands are exhausted. Cards on the table remain there between rounds. At the end of the 3rd round, when cards run out of players hands', any cards remaining on the table go to the player which completed the most recent match.

Points are scored per round as follows:
Most cards = 3 points
10 of Diamonds = 2 points
2 of Spades = 1 point
Most Spades = 1 point
Aces = 1 point each
Each Suipi = 1 point (scored during the rounds)

• Note: depending on the village the game is learned in, scoring may be slightly different