HOW TO DEAL Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal thirteen piles, face down, with four cards per pile. Arrange twelve piles into a circle, mimicking a clock face, and set the thirteenth pile in the center of the circle.Feeling obstinate? This quirky game has “I am stubborn, you shall not easily win me” written all over its smug clock face (the odds of winning are less than 1 in 100 games). If you enjoy the game play of Clock but are frustrated by its long odds, try the similar but easier game called Grandfather’s Clock.
HOW TO DEAL Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal thirteen piles, face down, with four cards per pile. Arrange twelve piles into a circle, mimicking a clock face, and set the thirteenth pile in the center of the circle.
WINNING The goal is to create thirteen piles sorted by rank—for example, a pile of 4s, a pile of 5s, a pile of 6s, etc. The game is lost as soon as all four kings are turned up.
HOW TO PLAY Turn up the top card of your thirteenth pile (the one in the circle’s center) and place it face up at the bottom of the pile that corresponds to its position on the clock face. Turn up a 3, for example, and place it face up at the bottom of the pile in the 3:00 position; turn up a 9 and move it to the 9:00 position, etc. In Clock, jacks count as 11, queens as 12, kings as 13 (center pile), and aces as 1.
After moving a card, turn up that pile’s top card and repeat. If you start by turning up an ace, for example, move it to the bottom of the pile in the 1:00 position. Then turn up the top card of the 1:00 pile and move it as appropriate. The game continues in this way until all thirteen piles are sorted by rank, or until you have turned up the fourth king.
If the final card in any pile belongs to that pile (e.g., if the last card in the 3:00 pile is a 3), turn up the topmost face-down card in the next pile moving clockwise (e.g., the topmost face-down card in the 4:00 pile).