Russian Bank or Crapette is a competitive patience game for two players. As with most patience games, the first player to get rid of all his/her cards is the winner. In North America people also call this game Stop or Touch, but the typical stop or Touch rule does not apply in this version.
At the start of the game, each player receives a shuffled deck of 52 cards. 12 of these cards are dealt in a pile face down with a 13th card face up on top of it. This pile is called the "reserve deck".
From the deck of each player, 4 cards are placed face up in a column above the reserve. These four cards are known as the "houses". Between the two columns of houses, room is left for 8 "foundation piles".
Each player will have 35 cards left over which are placed face down next to the reserve pile. This pile becomes their "hand". Next to their hand is room for their "waste" pile.
The object of the game is to get rid of all the cards in your reserve, hand, and waste piles by either playing them to the houses, the foundation piles, or loading them on your opponents reserve or waste piles.
Players take alternate turns. A turn consist of moving cards around according to strict "building rules". Each move consists of taking one "available card" and playing it by placing it onto a house, a foundation pile, or your opponents reserve or waste pile. A player ends his/her turn by moving the top card of their hand to their waste pile.
Building rules:
- An empty foundation pile can only be filled with an ace. The foundation is then build up using cards from the same suit
in ascending order: A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K.
- On any of the eight houses the cards are build in descending order with alternating colors. So a black Ten can be placed
on a red Jack.
- The reserve and waste piles of your opponent can be loaded with cards of the same suit as the current top card. The rank
of the new card must be one higher or lower than the current rank. So on a Seven of Diamonds you can place a Six or an Eight of Diamonds.
Available cards:
- The top card on your reserve pile.
- The outermost card of one of the eight houses.
- The top card on your hand pile. You may only turn this card over when there are no more "compulsory moves" to be made.
Compulsory moves:
- If your top reserve card can be played to a foundation pile you must do so.
- When an available card can be played to a foundation pile you must do so.
- If your reserve is not empty and there are empty houses, you must fill the empty houses before turning your hand card.
Moving stacks:
In order to speed up play you can play stacks of cards from one house to another if you have enough empty houses to make
the move card-by-card.
Scoring:
The winner of the game receives:
- 2 points for every card left in your opponents reserve pile
- 1 point for every card left in your opponents hand or waste pile
- 30 bonus points for winning the game
A stalemate is reached when both players have gone through their entire hand without playing any hand or reserve cards.
In this case, the player with the least penalty points (as explained above, without bonus points) receives the difference
in points.
The first player to reach 150 points wins the match.
