Talk:Mau-Mau (card game)

Correct Rules
Someone, an IP, edited the "Special Card Values" and introduced a set of completely ridiculous rules. That was on May 22 and no one seems to have noticed that until now, otherwise I'm sure it'd been changed already. I replaced the edited rules with the original ones. These are the ones that I'm familiar with (and I am a German and quite familiar with the game. However, since the weird rules have been around for quite a while, I wondered whether there might be a point to them and ask whoever thinks so, to give some kind of reason why!


 * I'm as well surprised about the set of rules listed here. Whenever I played Mau Mau here in Germany it was 7 -> next one draws two, 8 -> next one is skipped, jack -> decide the next color, and last card must be announced.
 * The rules are well known and explained to new players. I think many people mistake Mau Mau for Mao, where the rules are a secret and vary from group to group. 77.20.122.93 (talk) 09:46, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

History
Does anyone know if the name of the game has anything to do with Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s?

Switch
When I was taught Switch the rules were further limited such that the ace of the current suit could not be used to switch. There was also a further variation in that the dealer dealt himself only four cards (alternatively his last card started the playing stack).

Korean Version
A version of this game exists in Korea, called one card (원카드). It is heavy with konglish, and was most likely introduced to Korea in English classrooms where educational versions of Uno are very common. Young Koreans tend to call a standard set of playing cards "one cardu" rather than just cards. I'm placing this on the discussion page because I have no sources; it's just what I've learned from playing with my students and friends. If someone can turn this into an article, be my guest. While the rules vary quite a bit, these are the ones I've come across most often:

Korean one card is played with a standard deck of 54 cards (jokers included). All players are dealt 7 cards to start with. Like other versions, cards can be played on matching faces or suits. More than one card of the same face can be played in a turn, but the first card must match the suit. If a player does not have a card to play he or she may draw a card from the pile, but that card can not be played until the players next turn.

Draw Cards: Ace - Take 3 2 - Take 2 Black Joker - Take 5 Color Joker - Take 7 Aces and 2s must be played on cards with the same face or suit, or on top of another draw card (of any face or suit). A 2♠ can be played on top of a A♦. Jokers may be played on top of anything. If a draw card has been played, you can avoid drawing by playing any draw card. If you do not have a draw card you must add up all the draw card values, take your cards, and then your turn is skipped. After the drawing ends, if the top card is a joker, the suit and face is determined by the card directly under the joker.

Playing the 7 card lets you choose a new suit of your choice. By most rules it can only be played on a card of the same suit or face.

The jack is called "jump" in this game, and subsequently it has become known as "jump" outside of One Card (I've played poker with people in their twenties who have had "a pair of jumps"). If one jack is played the next player will be skipped. If two jacks are played, three players will be skipped. If three jacks are played, five players will be skipped. Four jacks will skip seven turns. This is because the card is treated as if it lands and then jumps again.

The queen is used to reverse direction. If two or four queens are played the game will continue in the same direction.

The king is sometimes used as a "go again" card. After a king has been played, the player who played the king may set down any card (or cards of matching faces) of their choice. Sometimes, however, the king is not used as a special card.

When a player plays his second to last card he must call out "one card" as soon as the card leaves his hand. If someone calls "one card" before him he has to take one more card (as opposed to taking two cards like in most versions of the game). If the player who is playing his second to last card calls "one card" at the same time as the other players, paper-scissors-rock is usually used to determine whether or not the player has to draw another card (I've tried to convince my students that the player should not have to draw because he did not forget to say "one card" but they do not agree).

Rules
First it says:
 * As soon as a player plays his last card, he must say "mau" to win the game. If the last card is a Jack, he must say "mau mau" for double score. If a player forgets to say "mau", he must draw cards as penalty (usually 4) and hasn't won.

Then it says in the variations section
 * A popular variation is that a player must already say "mau" (or alternately "last card") as soon as he plays the next-to-last card and has just one card left in his hand. Failure to do so usually means the player has to draw 2 or 4 cards.

These seem to be saying the same thing. Since this is an informal game with AFAIK no defined set of rules, I guess we have to decide whether saying mau is common enough that it's a rule or a variation Nil Einne 14:06, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

They're not saying the same thing. The first paragraph says you must say mau when you have no cards in your hand and the second paragraph says you must say mau when you have only one card in your hand.

Jack-Change-It
I'm surprised there's no mention of Jack-Change-It here. Jack-change-it is the most common name I've heard for this game in Northern Ireland, Scotland and North-East England. Rules are similar, 2 of any suit is pick up two cards, ace is pick up four cards, Jack changes suit and 8 reverses direction of play. Unlike Uno (game), there is no reverse play in most circles.

I think if someone can place something on the article about it, it should go up. Mouse Nightshirt 20:56, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

slap jack rule
there is no metion of the slap jack rule. The way i was taught you had to slap yourself across the face after playing a jack. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.34.145.183 (talk) 20:01, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Merging Switch & Mau Mau
This merge should, by no means, take effect because like this all the other card games related to the Crazy Eights family would have to be merget into a single article too. Each and every game of this family of games have their own featured rules and peculiaritys. I have been working on every and each one of them, diagraming, adding pictures, formating, reading, studying evry single detail of games like Screw Your Neighbour, Craits, Switch, Mau Mau (card game), Crazy Eights, Black Jack, Bartok, Taki (card game), Mao (card game), Uno (card game) and Eleusis too, and they are, although similar, completely different from one another in every rule. Instead of merging these articles into a disform mass of rules, find me some info so we can date these games. Go find some sources, references, historical content and mainly dates because like this, every one will be able to know which game came first, witch game was derived from which and from which country, in a perfect lineage of card games related to this family. No merging is possible in this particular case. Krenakarore (talk) 22:38, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Maryland variation.
Originated at the University of Maryland in 1988: Much of the rule are the same, except that the 7 acts as a "draw two", but if the person who is required to draw two also holds a 7, that player can play the 7, thus forcing the next person to draw 4, and so forth. Also if all 4 cards of like value are played together, regardless if by one or more players, that player says "mau mau" and wins the round, and does not score the cards still held. Game play is to 500, and last player left wins. 8's act as reverse, but two 8's negate the reverse and play continues in the same direction. Also, if a Jack is the last card played, all other players' scores are doubled.

An offshoot of the Maryland variant has spurned the "Mau Mau Cup". Initiated in 2007, it is an invitational game played annually around the New Year holiday. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.75.253.181 (talk) 21:23, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Überarbeitet
Ich habe den deutschsprachigen Artikel radikal überarbeitet, wer Lust hat kann ihn gern ins englische übersetzen, denn was hier steht ähnelt doch zu sehr dem was ich in de.wikipedia als Müll entfernt habe. --Aineias (talk) 07:28, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Translation: I've radically revised the German article, anyone can translate it into English, because what is here is similar to but too much I removed what is in de.wikipedia.

RedPanda25 17:17, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

The Rules of Mau are Simple
I have told you this many times, you cannot speak of the rules. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheTrumpocalypseIsComing (talk • contribs) 14:46, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

Doubts about accuracy of history
Only references to Zeara Robinson I could find on google are citations of this article. And it was added by an anonymous user with no other contributions. Would it be better to remove this section? (--94.230.146.151 (talk) 14:39, 9 December 2020 (UTC))