Schwimmen Deluxe (31, Blitz)

Schwimmen Deluxe, that’s the German card game "Schwimmen". It is similar to "Thirty-one", "Big Tonka", "Nickel Nock", or "Blitz". In "Schwimmen Deluxe" you play the game exactly as you like it:

✓ Play against up to eight computer opponents
✓ Change the rules of the game as you know it
✓ Choose one of three difficulty levels
✓ Look at statistics about your successes
✓ Use intutitive controls
✓ Enjoy the beautifully arranged graphics and the ingenious sound effects
✓ Read the tips on the rules during the course of the game

Here are the rules of the game again in case you don‘t remember them all:

Your goal is to score as many points as possible with a hand of three cards. In doing so, an ace counts eleven, king, queen and jack count 10, and the other cards count face value. You can add up the score of the single cards, if the cards are of the same suit. The highest score possible amounts to 31, which is called a "blitz". It can be achieved, for example, by an ace, a king and a ten of the same suit. Besides, three cards of the same rank (e. g. three jacks) count as a score of 30 ½.

At first, the dealer chooses to put her cards face-up on the table or to keep her cards. In the first case she gets new cards from the stack. In the second case she puts three new cards from the stack on the table.

Then the game starts. The players take turns and have the following options:

• Discard one card to the table and pick up one card from the table (choose this option by using drag and drop)
• Pick up all cards from the table and discard all your cards to the table (Button "Swap all")
• Do nothing (Button "Pass")
• "Knock". The other players have one more turn each and then the game ends.

If all players choose "pass", new cards are drawn from the stock to the table.

The game ends immediately, if one player’s score is 31 (blitz) or if one player holds three aces.

Finally all players show their hands. The player with the lowest score loses the game. If more than one player have the same lowest score, each of them loses. But if one of the players with the lowest score has knocked, only this one loses the game. If one player holds 3 aces, all other players lose the game regardless of their score.

At the start of a series each player has three tokens. If a player loses a game, she also loses a token. Only in the special case of two players playing the game and one of them having three aces, the loser of the game has to give up two tokens. When a player has lost all of her tokens, she continues to play on a "free ride". Losing again, she is eliminated from the series. The last remaining player in the series has won the series. If she still owns all three of her tokens, she has "won with crown".