6 nimmt! (Take 6!): 171 bullheads in the deck — where they hide and how to avoid them

171 bullheads, 95 of them on 28 cards

Each card is worth 1 bullhead, except: multiples of 5 (2 bullheads), multiples of 10 (3 bullheads), the doubles 11, 22, 33… 99 (5 bullheads) and the 55, both a double and a multiple of 5, which carries 7. In all, the 104 cards carry 171 bullheads, or 1.64 on average. But 76 cards are worth only one: the remaining 95 bullheads are concentrated on 28 cards.

The lesson is immediate: a row of five “ordinary” cards costs 5 bullheads, a row that contains the 55 and a double costs 15. Before deciding where to play, look at what is in the rows, not just how many cards they hold.

The number of players changes everything

Each player is dealt 10 cards and 4 go to the rows: with 4 players, only 44 cards out of 104 are in play; with 10, all of them are. That sets the size of the “gaps”. With 4 players, if the last card of a row is the 37 and you hold the 51, there are 13 cards between the two, 58% of which are in nobody’s hand: your 51 has a good chance of landing quietly. With 8 or 10 players, those same 13 cards are almost all in play and your 51 will be overtaken three times before it lands.

Hence two styles of play: with few players, you can calculate and play tight; with many, you empty your big cards early and accept taking small rows.

Which cards to play early

The very high cards (95 to 104) are a gift: they always land at the end of a row and never reach sixth place as long as you play them when a high row has just been cleared. Play them as soon as a row holds one or two cards and ends on a high value. The very low cards (1 to 10) are the opposite: they land nowhere except by taking a row, which can be deliberate.

The real danger is the middle cards (40 to 70), especially when every row ends above them: they then go on the highest row below them… that is, none, and you take. Get rid of them as soon as a row offers a reasonable gap, even if it means not playing the “perfect” card.

Taking a row on purpose

Playing a card lower than every row forces you to take the row of your choice, and you don’t choose at random: you take the cheapest row, not the shortest. A row of a single 3-bullhead card (a 70, say) costs more than a row of three 1-bullhead cards. Taking a 1- or 2-bullhead row early is even an excellent move if it lets you get rid of a useless small card and open a row that restarts from your card, where your middle cards will then land without risk.

Conversely, never let yourself be caught having to play onto a row of five cards: count them before every move. Among the 4 rows, there is almost always one with 4 or 5 cards that sucks in the middle cards.

The “pro” variant: no more gaps

In the so-called professional variant, you only play with the cards from 1 to (10 × number of players + 4): 44 cards with 4 players, all numbered 1 to 44. Every card is in play, there are no gaps left, and the calculation becomes exact: if a row ends on 37 and the 38, 39 and 40 have not yet come out, someone is holding them. It is a completely different game, far tenser, reserved for players who like to count. The scoring does not change.

The game to 66: how many rounds?

The game stops when a player reaches 66 bullheads, and the lowest wins. With 4 players, a round hands out about forty bullheads on average (those of the 44 cards in play, minus those left in the rows), or about ten per player: expect 5 to 7 rounds. With 8 players, almost all 171 bullheads are handed out every round, about twenty per player: 3 or 4 rounds are enough. Many tables play a fixed number of rounds instead (often 3); our counter lets you choose between the two.

Frequently asked questions