Ninety-nine is a simple card game based on addition and reportedly popular among the Romani people. It uses one or more standard decks of Anglo-American playing cards in which certain ranks have special properties, and can be played by any number of players. During the game, the value of each card played is added to a running total which is not allowed to exceed 99. A player who cannot play without causing this total to surpass 99 loses that hand and must forfeit one token. Due to the simple strategy and focus on basic addition, the game is ideal for culturing math skills in children. This is also true because the new total must be called out on each play, lending enjoyment to more expressive children and assertiveness practice to others.
Gameplay
At the start of the game, three tokens are distributed to each player. Each hand, three cards are dealt to each player, and the player to the left of the dealer takes the first turn by choosing one of the cards in their hand, places it on the discard pile, calls out its value, and then draws a new card. The player to the left then chooses one of their cards and places it on the discard pile, adds its value to the previous card and calls out the new total. If a player forgets to draw a new card before the next player plays, that player must remain one card short for the remainder of the hand. Play proceeds in this manner until a player cannot play without making the total value greater than ninety-nine. That player must turn in one of his or her tokens, all cards are then collected and a new hand is dealt. Any player without tokens loses and is out of the game, while the last player remaining with token wins. A variation is to play with dollar bills, instead of tokens. The dollar bill is folded instead of giving a token. Five folds are allowed: all corners, then in half and after that player is out. The final player wins all the dollar bills.
Standard Rules
Cards of certain ranks have special values or properties, which are:
A: value is 1 or 11.
3: value is 3 and the next player is skipped.
4: value is 0 and the order of play is reversed.
*Once the game is down to two players the order is not reversed.
9: value is 99 no matter previous deck value.
10: value is -10 or +10.
J: value is 10.
Q: value is 10.
K: value is 0.
*Therefore previous deck value remains unchanged and can be thought of as a pass.
Alternate rules allow use of the Joker cards and rank the cards as follows:
A: value is 1 or 11.
9: value is 0 and can be thought of as a pass.
10: value is -10.
J: value is 10.
Q: value is 10.
K: value is 99 no matter previous deck value.
All other cards have their face value
Chicago variation
Chicago variation follows the standard rules but with these differences:
9: value is 0 and the next player is skipped.
10: value is -10 only.
K: value is 99 no matter previous deck value.
Hawaii variation
Hawaii variation follows the standard rules but with these differences:
10: value is -10 only.
5: value is -5
J: value is 99 no matter previous deck value.
Iceland variation
Iceland variation follows the standard rules but with these differences:
A: value is 1 or 14.
5: value is 5 and next player is skipped
* Note this replaces 3 in the standard rules.
7: value is 7 and order of play is reversed.
9: value is 99 no matter previous deck value.
J: value is 11.
Q: value is 0 and next player cannot pickup up unless they also play Q.
* If two Qs are played in succession, next player must play two cards.
* If three Qs are played in succession, next player must play three cards.
* If four Qs are played in succession, next player must play four cards!
K: value is 0.
Michigan variation
Any time a player gets three of kind, he can lay it down, call out and all the other players have to fold a corner of the dollar bill. The hand is ended and the next one is dealt. Also, when one player cannot play because the score is 99, he drops out and play continues with the remaining players. Should a player run out of cards completely due to forgetting to draw, that player loses the hand the next time they would have to play a card.
Strategy
During each round of the game, the running total will eventually climb to 99, and once it has, it is not likely to decrease very much before someone is unable to play. The game's strategy, therefore, revolves around cultivating a hand that can survive for as long as possible once ninety-nine is reached. This consists of saving 10s, 4s, 9s, and kings while playing cards of large value. Another strategy is to raise the total to 99 early by use of the required card in the hopes of catching another player unprepared. Strategy and rationale for keeping cards of various values
Least valuable: 5, 6, 7, 8 have no long-term value
Worth considering: Ace, 2, 3, can be used effectively when the score is in the high 90s. The Ace potential value of 11 is almost never of strategic value.
Most underrated: Jack and Queen. If someone plays a 10 against a 99, these will push it right back to 99
Overrated: King only buys you one extra turn, hardly better than a 9 at end-of-game play. If you are forced to play a high-value card, prefer to throw out a King in favor of keeping a 4 or 10 in reserve.
Most valuable: 4. Playing 4 when the score is 99 buys you the most number of turns until you have to confront the 99 score
Strategy for the bold move
If you have a 99 value card and two other high-value cards then you already have the "best" possible hand and waiting to play the 99 value card is no point.
Commercial Versions
publishes a commercial version of Ninety-Nine called "Zeus On The Loose" with a purpose-built deck which has suitless cards numbered from 1 through 10. Cards depicting Greek deities have special functions, e.g. playing Poseidon subtracts 10 from the current count. This version also introduces a Zeus token which can be "stolen" under certain circumstances. The person holding Zeus at the end of a round wins that round; the action that ends the round can cause the player performing that action to steal Zeus and win the round. The first player to win four rounds wins the game. The Mattel game Boom-O is a bomb-themed variant of Ninety-Nine. Players must keep the running countdown timer at 60 seconds or fewer in order to guard their bomb tokens from "exploding".
