Monday, February 28, 2011

Klaverjassen or Klaverjassen Online?

Klaverjassen is a popular trick-taking card game played all over the world, but mostly in Netherlands, where it originated from. Originally, the game was played in social clubs, cafes and pubs, as well as at home. Today klaverjassen gradually goes online.

It goes without saying, sometimes you’re alone and want to play klaverjassen when it’s cold outside and you have no wish to go out. In this case you make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and go online to find klaverjassen partners to play it in a comfort of your favorite armchair. However, online klaverjassen doesn’t provide you enough socializing, which is easily brought by klaverjassen somewhere in a club. Also, playing klaverjassen at home, with a family, is obviously much more pleasure than doing this with a PC and with virtual players.

On the other hand, when you’re too tired to go anywhere or there are no more powers left to talk to anybody, playing online klaverjassen is a great way out. You can enjoy your rest freely, with no limits and no one interrupting your flow of thoughts.

Online Klaverjassen – Is It Actually Harder to Play?

No, it’s not, really. But, there are several peculiarities you need to take into account. As far as you don’t know nor your partner neither your opponents, it’s more difficult to develop your own strategy of the game. Also, there is no possibility to use any signaling sings you could use sitting opposite each other. Therefore, you should be more attentive and accurate when playing online klaverjassen. As a rule, the better you play klaverjassen in reality, the more successfully you play it online.

Is Klaverjassen Played for Fun Only?

Klaverjassen is a very flexible game, it brings you relax when playing in a company and provides you with a rest playing online. At the same time, klaverjassen can be referred to gambling as well, because you can play it for money. Certainly, the bids are not really high, as well as the wins, but still playing for money brings much more excitement than playing just for fun. When you become a strong klaverjassen player, you can even make some money winning different tournaments. Of course, you should spend enough time for this, and like this way of spare time. It’s only up to you to decide which klaverjassen is better to play: online or real.

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about klaverjassen and online klaverjassen.

Online Hartenjagen: Pros and Cons

As any other game, hartenjagen has its rules and its requirements. First, it is a card game of four players. Hence, you really need to find other players if you want to spend some time playing hartenjagen. Moreover, as this game is based on logical thinking, playing with other people is much more interesting when you know them, you know their way of thinking, it’s easy for you to predict the strategy of players. Considerably, your opponents can predict your tricks, too. However, this is what adds hartenjagen excitement and fun.

At the same time, sometimes you can be not in the mood to go out and play with somebody at a club, or all your friends and acquaintances are busy/out of the city and you actually have no people to play with. In this case, playing online hartenjagen is a great decision. Thus, you can get relax and fun at the same time.

So, what makes online hartenjagen so wonderful and pleasant? There is a short list of some advantages of playing hartenjagen online:

• You don’t have to find three more players to play
• You don’t need to go anywhere
• You can enjoy the quiet and cozy atmosphere of your home
• You can play as much time as you want to, and no one will be telling you that there is time to go home, sleep, etc.
• You can choose whether to play with a computer or with real people
• Thus, you can choose a proper level of hartenjagen for you to practice or find strong players to make the game even more challenging
• You can earn some money playing tournaments

Inevitably, online hartenjagen has its cons, and here are some disadvantages of online gaming:

• You don’t actually socialize
• Sometimes you don’t feel time limits and can get tired more than have a rest
• You don’t know your opponents, thus you can’t predict their nor their strategies neither their level of mastering the game
• You can actually lose your money and get used to gambling, which is not a good thing
• Finally, you spent the time playing online instead of communicating with your friends or family members

As far as you can see, both online and real hartenjagen have their advantages and disadvantages, and it’s up to you to decide which one is better. However, sticking to the golden mean is always the best thing to do.

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about hartenjagen and hartenjagen online

Klaverjassen – The Most Sociable Card Game

The origins of klaverjassen date back to 1890–95, proclaimed by the Dutch, Swiss, French, and Hungarians. However, klaverjassen is considered to be the Dutch game, widely played throughout Netherlands. When you enter any café or a pub, you often see four people at a table, playing cards and enjoying their time. Most likely, they play klaverjassen, or any of its variations, like Rotterdam or Amsterdam klaverjassen. Most often the variation of the game depends on the city you’re in.

What Are the Rules?

The rules of klaverjassen are pretty simple: it’s a trick-taking game, played by two teams of two payers, who sit opposite each other around the table. The game is played clockwise, with a piquet, a pack of 32 cards (6s are excluded). The aim of the game is to score more points for following the cards of the suit. Therefore, each player tries to win as much suits as he can.

Points are scored in klaverjassen not only for winning the suit, but for the card, which won it. Only the first suit brings 20 points to the winner. Usually, klaverjassen supposes using trumps, hence players should choose it. The most popular method of choosing trumps is when the second player, who is the next sitting clockwise from the dealer, picks a card out of the pack of cards. Thus, the players get trumps. However, the method can be very different depending on the klaverjassen variation.

What Makes You a Good Player

As the rules of klaverjassen are simple and easy to learn, knowing the rules only can’t make you a good klaverjassen player. In fact, you should know much more. You are supposed to know all variations of the game (each variation has its details in rules about using trumps, scoring, etc.) as well as signaling sings. Klaverjassen is played in pairs, so ideally you and your partner should understand each other well even on a distance.

Having your own strategy, some interesting and various experience is always a bonus. However, if you have a properly developed logical thinking and a little bit of time, you are almost guaranteed to become a great klaverjassen player. The only thing to do is to take your chances and play. Enjoy every moment of the game, play for fun, play at home and at social clubs, play with family and friends, and get your qualification of a wonderful klaverjassen player quickly.

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about klaverjassen and online klaverjassen.

Klaverjassen: Gambling or Relax?

Card games have always been popular among all nations all over the world. Probably, the first card game appeared when the first nation developed on the Earth, and they didn’t know what to do in the evening. As card games are the easiest to play, their first discovery were cards, I think. Considerably, the first and the most popular card games became trick-taking ones.

One of such point trick games, klaverjassen, originated from Netherlands. Actually, klaverjassen is one of the games in Netherlands, which are played by people all ages. When you go to a café or a pub, it is easy to notice there a lot of groups of players, who are enjoying klaverjassen. Usually, the players are friendly and invite strangers to play with them.

In fact, the rules of klaverjassen are very simple to learn, but there are many variations of the game, which aren’t so easy to remember. Also, all good players of klaverjassen are supposed to know the signaling tricks, as the game is played in pairs. Therefore, it’s not enough to learn the rules to become a good klaverjassen player. You have to know a lot of small but important things behind the rules.

Due to the popularity of klaverjassen, it’s not only played for fun, but also for the victory and for money. Usually there are 16 rounds of klaverjassen, played with the same 3 people. When it’s a tournament held, you play with 50 different people, and must play with every participant of this tournament. Usually, bids are not high, like several dollars. However, you can win a hundred dollars, or something like that. Thus, you can even earn some money playing klaverjassen, if you like this way of making money.

Traditional Way of Playing Klaverjassen

As the game originated with the major aim to entertain people, it has been always played by friends and family members. During quiet family evenings, families gathered together and played klaverjassen. Parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren enjoyed the company and learnt something new.

Today we cannot afford ourselves these quiet evenings, but we tend to spend the weekends or at least holidays this way. Certainly, it’s not an easy deal to find the game, which would be interesting to all family members. In Netherlands it’s not a problem. Family gets a pack of cards and a table, and starts to play!

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about klaverjassen and online klaverjassen.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Complex Hearts Variant of Hartenjagen

People all around the world know Richard Garfield to be the brains behind the popular collectible card game known as Magic the Gathering. However, few know of the fact that he has also made a significant contribution to the card game hearts, the American version of the popular card game better known to many as Hartenjagen. This version of Hartenjagen utilizes the complex number system where the addition of the new rule also adds new twists to game play. In fact, ever since its inception, this variant has developed a quite large fan base as veteran players looking for something new to add into the mix as a means to keep things interesting usually play the variant.

Complex hearts is a great way to spice up the game due to the fact that even seasoned Hartenjagen players will have to rethink their strategies in order to win. In complex hearts, the addition of the revised scoring scheme literally forces players to swim on new waters. The new mechanics of this variant mainly revolves around ten of clubs. The Complex hearts ruling states that whosoever takes the ten of clubs in a round gets his end round score multiplied by 2*i. This means that even significant threats in Hartenjagen like the queen of spades, given the right situation, may become a blessing, as it could potentially offset any points you might acquire. However, this also means that the Jack of diamonds, which is normally a blessing as it removes penalty points, may just do the opposite and add more points when combined with the ten of clubs.

Even Hartenjagen’s special rule of shooting the moon becomes riskier than usual as the ten of clubs has the potential to put you ahead by a long run, if your gamble pays off, or put you behind for a number of rounds, if it doesn’t. Though some players might find these changes to be nothing like the Hartenjagen they know, they can rest assured knowing that complex hearts is not a far cry from the original Dutch game as it still follows all of the original rules. Players familiar with Hartenjagen’s rule of passing three may even be delighted to know that the dynamics and card to card interactions during this phase of the game have never been more crucial and significant to the outcome of the game.

To sum it all up, complex hearts adds a whole new positive dimension to Hartenjagen. While it is still unclear whether or not this variant will undergo new evolutions in the future, the only thing that’s certain is that it is still gaining popularity among veteran players.
Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about hartenjagen and hartenjagen online

What Makes Hartenjagen a Lovable Game

There are many aspects that make Hartenjagen an endearing game in the hearts of many people. One of these includes playing to avoid getting the vile queen of spades. As all players know, the queen of spades is the most dreaded card in all of Hartenjagen. In this game, the queen of spades is assigned the highest penalty weighing in at 13 points and as everyone knows, the player with the lowest points wins the game. As such is the case, getting the queen of spades not only seals a player’s fate in a round but also puts them at a disadvantage for the next few rounds. Players playing against friends in a casual game of Hartenjagen, usually make this card the center of their delight as they outwit one another in a free for all rumble.

Aside from the fact that a lot of people derive a lot fun from seeing the look on their friends’ faces when see realize they’re going to get the queen of spades, shooting the moon is another part of the game that also makes it so lovable. To those who don’t know, in Hartenjagen, shooting the moon is a special rule that gives players with a bad hand, full of hearts or face cards, a chance to turn the tables on the other players. When choosing to shoot the moon, players must collect all the penalty cards in every trick.
However, it would also be good to mention that if a player fails to collect even one penalty card, it would be game over for him or her since he or she would be earning all the accumulated penalty points. Due to the fact that collecting all penalty cards in Hartenjagen is very risky, as you can’t account for everything in every round, shooting the moon not only requires players to have skill but luck as well.

Though shooting the moon doesn’t happen too often, the feeling you get once you’ve pulled it off is one of the most fulfilling emotions you could possibly experience. To paint a picture, shooting the moon in Hartenjagen is a lot like pulling off a royal flush in poker, twice! Now you can imagine your friends’ priceless faces when they finally realize why you’ve been keeping your head down and playing poorly in each passing trick for the entire round. But remember, outwitting others to steer clear of the queen of spades and shooting the moon are only some of the things that make Hartenjagen a lovable game. Who knows that as you play the game some more, you might even find something else that’s special about it.

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about hartenjagen and hartenjagen online

Winning Against your Hartenjagen Playgroup

Playing against your Hartenjagen playgroup represents some interesting challenges, especially if you’ve been playing against one another for years now. Aside from the fact that all of you will have difficulty surprising one another with your old strategies and tactics, you’ll also have a hard time reading each other’s mind. However, this isn’t to say that the satisfaction you’ll get once you’ve defeated someone from your Hartenjagen playgroup isn’t as sweet, on the contrary, beating someone you’ve know to be a good player has its own little rewards.

One of the best things about having a Hartenajgen playgroup is that the experience you’ll earn will do wonders for your game. Not only will it sharpen your edge over other players but depending on the intensity of your playgroup’s level of game play you’ll also reach the peak of your game that much quicker. On the other hand, having a great playgroup doesn’t really mean anything if you can’t win against them and more importantly learn something new after every game right?

Luckily, the trick to winning and learning new things isn’t some big secret, heck even mid level players know this. The trick to winning and learning new things from your playgroup or any other player for that matter is to keep an active but a relaxed mind. Remember, that in Hartenjagen expert level players tend to keep a relaxed state of mind, this is good since a relaxed state of mind helps you concentrate more. Not only that but a relaxed state of mind also allows you to grasp your opponent’s psyche that much easier.

Though one might say that winning against his or her Hartenjagen playgroup will be easy since, he or she will only need to concentrate and anticipate his or her opponent’s movements, remember that winning becomes a lot harder especially against people you know. Keep in mind that in the playgroup you’re probably not the only one who is thinking about keeping a relaxed state of mind, and anticipating moves. In most cases, you may even find yourself a step behind the players in your playgroup but this is a good thing, as it’ll most likely force you to up your game. The quote that says necessity is the mother of all inventions applies here since it’ll most likely be your desire to win that’ll help you tune up your game to a level capable of overcoming even the best players in your Hartenjagen playgroup.

Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about hartenjagen and online hartenjagen.

Where to Learn Klaverjassen

Learning to play Klaverjassen can be a lot of fun and since the experience can be amplified when learning in a comfortable environment, choosing the best environment can be a challenge. Though people might say that learning Klaverjassen is just like learning any other card game and that there’s nothing special about it, they haven’t experienced just how enjoyable learning the game could be.

There are a number of things that could make learning Klaverjassen special but they usually have something to do with the environment. Keep in mind that Klaverjassen is many things to many people. It could be a medium to earn money for some, or a medium to pass the time for others. Whatever the case, the environment you find yourself in will largely determine what sort of Klaverjassen player you’ll become.

The word environment here means the situation where you find yourself in when you go about learning the game. If you’re learning in a relatively docile environment where wining is second and people play mainly for fun then chances are you’re going to absorb some of that energy. However, if you’re learning in an environment where people play to win and that winning is second to none then chances are you’re going to be a very competitive conquest driven player.

On the other hand, that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with being a competitive Klaverjassen player. Keep in mind that the point here is to have much fun as possible when learning the game and to do that you’ll first need to determine what type of person you are. Once you’ve determined what’s best for you then looking for the ideal environment to learn the game becomes simpler.

If you’re the type of person who enjoys competitive plays then you’d be better off playing Klaverjassen online. The game’s online environment can give you one of the most competitive settings available. What’s even better is the fact that you can learn to play the game anytime you want, as the Internet never sleeps. Conversely, if you prefer playing for fun then learning to play the game from family or friends would be a better choice.

For those of you who might think that it really doesn’t make that much difference where you learn to play so long as you learn it, you are mistaken. Learning the game in the wrong environment can have harmful effects. For lack of a better term, picture eating peanut butter with onion. Not only will it most probably upset your stomach but the combination just plain wrong. Remember, learning to play Klaverjassen in the wrong environment just ruins the game for everyone.
Jan Kaas is specialized in writing about klaverjassen and online klaverjassen.