Dingo is a unique game designed specifically for four players. It appears to be a recently created game, and was first reported being played in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
The game uses one standard 52 card deck, with the ranking of the cards in this deck as follows (from high to low); Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Determination of the first dealer can be performed in a variety of ways, with drawing for high cards from a shuffled face-down deck a
commonly
used method. If two or more players draw cards of the same denomination, those players must redraw again until drawing a unique card no other player drew during this draw.
Once the first dealer is determined the game can begin. To start, the deck is first divided into two sections the "Rabbits deck" and the
"Main deck". The Rabbits deck is created by taking the King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2, all in the suit of Diamonds and creating a small stack. These cards should be stacked
face-up in order from low (2) to high (King) with the 2 face up on the top of
the pile. This Rabbit deck is then placed in the center of the table with the top, lowest card on top.
The remainder of the deck (the Main deck) is then thoroughly shuffled by the dealer and cut by the player to his immediate right. This deck consists of the Ace of Diamonds (Ace Rabbit), all the card in the suit of Clubs and Spades from a standard deck (called the Wolves), and all cards from a standard deck in the suit of Hearts (called the Dingoes). After the Main deck is cut, the dealer then begins dealing out this deck, one face-down card at a time in a clockwise rotation around the table. He deals out the entire main deck, such that each of the four players (including himself) will receive a total of ten cards.
The game is played in three phases, first a discarding and passing phase, in which the players attempt to form hands capable of scoring the maximum number of points, then the second phase in which
each player attempts to capture the most Rabbit, Dingo and Wolf cards in his scoring pile to earn points, and finally a last phase in which the players will attempt to capture the Aces.
The first phase of the game occurs in a series of seven rounds consisting of a discard or pass of a card to another, specific player. The following shows the order of these rounds:
First Discard
- On the first round each player, starting with the dealer discards one card face-up from his hand onto the table. The dealer discards first, placing his card face-up on the table to begin a discard pile. Each additional player in turn then adds his own card face-up to the top of the discard pile. A player may discard any card except an Ace.
Card Exchange Left
- After the first discard, each player in turn, starting with the dealer, passes any card remaining in his hand to the player to his immediate left. The card should be passed face-down so no other player views the face of the card. The dealer passes the first card to the player at his left. Each subsequent player first adds the card passed to him into his hand and then passes his own card, face-down to the player to his left. This continues until each player has passed one card from his hand to the player at his left.
Second Discard
- A second round of discarding to the common discard pile is again performed, starting as before with the dealer making the first discard. Any card from a player's hand may be discard except an Ace.
Card Exchange Across
- After each player has discard a card in the second round, another card passing round occurs, this time passing to the player straight across the table from yourself. The dealer passes the first card to the player directly across from him, face-down. This player then adds the card to his own hand. After the dealer passes his card, the player to the dealer's left passes any card from his hand to the player directly across from him. After this pass, the player directly opposite the dealer passes any card to the dealer, and lastly the player to the right of the dealer passes a card to the player to the left of the dealer.
Third Discard
- After the previous card passing round, the players again participate in discarding one card to the common discard pile, starting with the dealer. As before a player can discard any card except an Ace.
Card Exchange Right
- After the third discarding round, the players will each, starting with the dealer, pass one card to the player to his immediate right. The player who receives the card will then add the card to his hand. After the dealer, the player to the dealer's immediate left will pass one card of his own to the player to his right (the dealer in this case), and this will continue until each player has had the opportunity to pass one card to his right.
Last Discard
- After the third card passing round, one last round of discarding is performed. As in all the other discarding rounds, each player, starting with the dealer discards one card of choice from his hand (excluding Aces), face up to the common discard pile in the center of the pile.
After the passing and discarding has been completed, each player should have 6 cards remaining in hand. The common discard pile should be set
to the side, with the cards in that pile no longer used in the current game. At this point, the second phase of the game begins, sometimes called The Hunt.
During this phase, each player
attempts to capture the most cards into his scoring pile. Thus, each player will have two piles in front of them, a scoring pile and a penalty pile.
The scoring pile represents all of the Dingoes, Rabbits, and Wolves he manages
to capture during the second and third phase of the game. The penalty pile should be placed at a 90 degree angle to the scoring pile to help distinguish these two piles.
The dealer
begins this phase of the game by announcing the first, face-up card in the
Rabbits deck, which should be the two. The play of some cards during this round is optional and the play of other cards is mandatory, as follows:
After the rank of the top card of the Rabbit deck is announced, the player who has the card in the suit of Hearts (the Dingo) of that exact same rank must play the card to the table. If no player has this card (it having been discarded previously) no additional cards will be played. If the Dingo card of that rank is played, the remaining players, in turn, starting with the player to the immediate left of the player who played the Dingo card, have the option to player the other cards of this same rank in the suits of Clubs and Spades (called the Wolves). The player who played the Dingo card of a specific denomination can never play a wolf card (regardless of whether he has a wolf card). The remaining players, however, do have the option to play the Wolves of this denomination. If a player has one or both Wolves he may opt to play as many as he wants or may opt to play none. The scoring for each round will be directly dependent on which cards are played. The following shows all possible scoring scenarios for the round on this card:
No Dingo Played
- If no Dingo is played, the Rabbit card is played to the discard pile with no player earning any scoring or penalty cards.
Dingo played but no Wolves
- If the Dingo is played but no Wolves are played (either they are not in play or the players opt not to play them, the Rabbit card is discarded and the Dingo card is placed in the penalty pile of the player who played that Dingo card.
Dingo and 1 Wolf
- In this event, the Dingo is added to the player who played that Dingo card's scoring pile and the Wolf and Rabbit are placed in the scoring pile of the player who played the Wolf.
Dingo and Two Wolves
- In the event that the Dingo is played and both Wolves were played, the Dingo card and the first Wolf played is added to the scoring pile of the player who played the Dingo card. The second Wolf played and the Rabbit are added to the scoring pile for the player who played that second Wolf card.
This same pattern is used for each of the cards in the Rabbits pile, with the dealer announcing the card and the players playing the cards as appropriate and able. After all the cards in the face-up Rabbits pile have been captured or discarded, the Ace Hunt is then declared by the dealer which is the third phase of the game.
Once the Ace Hunt is declared, the player who has the Ace of Hearts in hand (Ace Dingo) must play this card to the table. He may play no other cards at the same time, but may have another opportunity to play other cards at his last turn. After the Dingo is played, each player has one more turn, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer who played the Ace Dingo. Each player in turn, then has the option to play one or two wolves. The players are not required to play these cards but may do so as willing. If a player has the Ace of Hearts in hand (Ace Rabbit) he may only play it if the Ace Dingo and two Ace Wolves were previously played on this round. If this player has the Ace Rabbit and both Wolves, he may play all three cards on his turn. If the player has the Ace Rabbit and one Wolf, he may play the Rabbit and Wolf if the other Ace Wolf has already been played on this round. After the turn rotates back to the player who played the Dingo, after this player has the opportunity to play any legal plays, the hand ends. The possible scoring scenarios for the Ace Hunt are as follows:
If one or more Ace Wolves were played, that Ace on the table is added to the scoring pile for the player who played that card.
If no Wolves are played, the Ace Dingo is added to the penalty pile of the player who played that card.
If the Ace Rabbit was not played, the player who holds it must show it and add it to his own penalty pile.
After the Ace Hunt completes, the players must display any cards remaining in his hand. Any player still holding any red cards
in his hand is said to be "Caught Red Handed" and cannot win the hand. Any other cards in the player's hands are discarded to the common discard pile.
Then each player examines his scoring and penalty piles to determine his score for the hand. The total score for a player is the total score in his penalty pile subtracted from the total score in his scoring pile (his captured Rabbits, Dingoes and Wolves). The value of the cards, when found in a player's pile is as follows:
Card
Point Value in Scoring Pile
Negative Score in Penalty Pile
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (of any suit)
1
1
Jack, Queen, King (of any suit)
2
2
Ace (in the suit of Spades, Diamonds or Clubs)
3
3
Ace of Hearts
10
3
The player with the highest score for the hand is declared the winner of the hand. If two or more players tie for the highest score. the player with the highest ranked Rabbit card in his scoring pile is declared the winner.
