Tonk (card game) agreed on before each game starts). Each player pays the stake to the winner of the hand. Games typically involve two to four players. Stakes may be any amount. A game consists of several hands. The players take turns dealing. A standard fifty-two card deck (plus two jokers) is used. The jokers are wild and can be played as any card needed by the player who's lucky enough to get one of the jokers. Players are dealt five, seven, or nine cards, depending on the number of players, in turn. The dealer turns up the first of the un-dealt cards
A Gamut of Games Abbott expanded his game Crossings, published here, into the more-refined title Epaminondas. Many of the games covered in the book were creations of Sid Sackson himself, who was a prolific game designer. The sections of the book and the games covered therein are as follows: "All of the games in this section use a standard pack of cards." "All of the games in this section use a checkerboard." "All of the games in this section are meant to be played with pencil and paper." A second edition of the book was published in 1982; Dover Publications released an unabridged reprint,