Decade or Ten-Twenty-Thirty is a Patiencegame played with a traditional 52-card deck. It is akin to another solitaire game called Accordion. Like Accordion, it is traditionally played with the cards in a line; however due its minimal use of space, it can also be played in one hand by placing the deck face-down in the hand, and placing the line in a stack on top of the deck, with the discard pile face up on the bottom.
Rules
Using a standard 52-card deck of playing cards, three cards are drawn from the bottom of the deck and placed face-up in a line on the table laid out in the order they were drawn so the faces can be read. Spot cards count their face value while face cards are valued at ten points. If the total of at least two consecutive cards in the line equals 10, 20 or 30, they are discarded. The cards are treated as if in a straight line, so cards coming from both the front and back of the line that value to ten, twenty, or thirty are not considered consecutive unless they occupy a physically adjacent position to the card. After this has been repeated until no more discards are possible, a card is drawn from the stock and placed face up on the extreme right of the line, and checking for discards is resumed. The game continues until all cards are dealt or discarded, or when no more sets can be collected. The object of the game is to have as few cards as possible at the end; the game is won when all cards are discarded.
Variations
Cards are placed in seven separate stacks; if all the cards in a stack are discarded the stack is eliminated and cards are no longer added to it. The game is won when all stacks have been eliminated.
A maximum of three consecutive cards that total ten, twenty or thirty can be discarded.
The line is treated as a loop instead of a straight line. If the total of up to 3 three consecutive cards in the stack which feature at least one cardfrom the top of the stack equal 10, 20 or 30, they are discarded.
Cards that total 5, 15, 25, or 35 can also be discarded.
An unsubstantiated but often repeated folk tale about this game, common among Filipino and some Latino people, is that this game is actually a very old fortune-telling method, akin to Tarot. There is speculation that the game may have come from Roma in Europe and then through Spanish exploration. Each time the player gets down to a single showing card, the suit and status is noted, and if the game is won, the player notes the final card, which is the most important to the player's fortunes. The single cards, read by one knowledgeable in their meaning, provide a limited look at the future, particularly people the player may come into contact with, or is involved with.
