My ship sails

Ochse, leg dich!

Type	Collecting
Players	4
Age range	5+
Deck	32 French or German cards (Skat pack)
Play	clockwise
Playing time	5-10 minutes
Chance	Easy
Related games
My Ship Sails

Ochse, leg dich! ("Ox, lie down!") is a simple, family card game that is often played with children and is useful for learning the card values and card suits.

Rules

The following rules are based on Gööck.

Aim

The aim of the game is to collect cards of the same suit until you have all eight cards of one suit.

Playing

Dealer deals 8 cards to each of the four players. Forehand leads by passing a card of his choice to the player on his left - middlehand. Middlehand then passes a card to rearhand and so on in clockwise order. Play continues in this way until a player has collected all eight cards of one suit in his hand, whereupon he lays them face up on the table and declares "Ochse, leg dich!" or "Ox, lie down!"

Scoring

The winner then receives as many chips or gaming counters from each other player as that player has fallen short in collecting eight cards of the same suit. For example, if a player has only collected five cards of one suit, he pays 3 chips to the winner.

English variant

The game of My Ship Sails is similar, but played with a 52-card French pack. From four to seven play, each is dealt 7 cards and the rest are set aside. Players discard one card to the table and, when everyone has done that, each player picks up the discard on his right. The first player to collect 7 cards of the same suit, says "my ship sails" and lays her hand, face up, on the table. If 2 go out simultaneously, either the first to say "my ship sails" wins or the one with the highest ranking card.

Literature

• Gööck, Roland (1967). Freude am Kartenspiel, Bertelsmann, Gütersloh
• Parlett, David (2008). The Penguin Book of Card Games, Penguin, London. ISBN 978-0-141-03787-5