Category: Card Games
Submitted By: Ken McGuire (kjm@norlight.com)

Get a deck of playing cards and remove all cards below 7 (aces are high). After you are done you should have all suites of the 7's, 8's, 9's...etc., up to aces. You will also need 1 two (it doesn't matter what suit it is).

This game requires either 3 or 4 players. You can't play with more than 4, however, you can play with 2 and a blind hand. If you have 3 players every player gets 12 cards and if you have 4 players every player gets 9 cards.

In one round of dragon master, there are 5 different games to be played. They are: diamonds, jack of spades, 10's, first and last, and then dragon master.

The dealer chooses which game he will play before dealing. In one round, each game can only be played once. So if the person who dealt before the current dealer played, for instance, 10's the current dealer would have to pick diamonds, jack of spades, first and last. The dealer can't choose dragon master since this is the last game played in a round.

The purpose of each game is as follows:

Diamonds:

In diamonds you don't want to win a trick with a card that has a suit of diamonds. If you do win a trick with a diamond in it, you must drink three drinks for each card that belongs to the diamond suit. For instance, I win a trick that has ace of spades, 7 of diamonds and 10 of diamonds. If I won that trick, I would have to drink 6 drinks; three for the 7 and three for the 10. A hand is played as follows: dealer leads off. So, if I dealt and I chose the diamonds game, I would lay a card down that I feel will not win a trick with a diamond in it.

10's:

In tens you don't want to win a trick with a ten in it. If you do, you must drink 10 drinks for each 10 won.

Jack of spades:

In jack of spades, you don't want to win a trick with the jack of spades in it. If you do, you must drink 20 drinks (in most people's book 20 drinks constitutes one full beer).

First and last:

In first and last, you don't want to win the first trick or the last trick. All other tricks in between are played but no drinks are given out. When you get really good at the game you will learn how to use the hands in between for strategy to set yourself up so you won't win last trick.

Dragon master:

Dragon master is the final game. It is to be played after all other games have been played. In dragon master, you combine all the games into one. That means that you don't want to win first or last trick, any 10, any diamond, or the jack of spades. This is where it gets really interesting-- i've seen people win over 50 drinks in one trick.

Now that i've given a description of each game, let me tell you the rules now. In each game you must follow suite. If a spade is led, then you must play spades; if you don't have any spades, then you can lay any card you want. The game is played similar to sheepshead in this regard. Second, if you win a trick you must lead that next hand. The way you win a trick is if you are the highest card played for the suit that was led. So if the dealer starts the game and they are playing diamonds and they lead with the 7 of diamonds and the next people play an 8 and ace of diamonds respectfully, then the person who played the ace would win the hand and would have to drink 9 drinks. He would then have to lead the next hand. He can play anything he wants, but it would be wise not to play a really high diamond just in case nobody plays a diamond higher then yours. The 2 in the deck is the highest card; it beats everything and can be laid at anytime regardless of the suit played. The game ends when all diamonds are played. Likewise for let's say the jack of spades. If you are leading off you would not want to lay the ace of diamonds since everyone will be able to lay lower and if someone has the jack they will give it to you.

It may seem a little complicated at first, but if you enjoy playing spades or sheeps head and you like to play drinking games with a small group of people then you will really like this game. One last word: after we all started to get older and didn't drink as much, we decided to tone down the game a little. We totally dropped the diamonds game and divided everything else in half. So the jack of spades was worth 10 drinks, a ten was worth five drinks, and first and last trick was worth 3 drinks. I hope you enjoy this game, we certainly do.