According To Huth: The Official Huth Telefunken Rules and Cardways

According to Huth
The Official Huth Telefunken Rules and Cardways

written, designed, and codified by
Geof Huth
2003
2003
Geof Huth * Telefunken: The Official Huth Rules and Cardways * 08/08/03 * 2
Telefunken The Official Huth Rules and Cardways
According to Huth
The Official Huth Telefunken Rules
and Cardways
written, designed, and codified by
Geof Huth
Schenectady New York pdqb 2003
ADD TO TEXT Reproduction of first telefunken score pad Supplementary, removable score pads Change all a players in text to yous?
Hes got two chips left, and weve got three hands to go.
Jacquie Huth, noting a serious situation
shovel, ice, puppyfoot, love

various methods of counting cardwise appear at the head of each section of this book
telefunken: the official huth rules and cardways was produced in a desultory way by Geof Huth with the help of many Huths familial from about August 1997 to XXX 2003 it is the 2nd in the Huthhold series which documents the history and folklore of the families of Geof Huth and Nancy Frye 1st edition published by pdqb XXX XXX 2003 Schenectady, NY Huthhold # 2 pdqb # XXX this is copy number ______ of XXX
Card Table of Contents

A History of Telefunken in the Huth Family Playing Telefunken
Object of the Game Number of Players Cards Used for the Game Distributing Chips Stealing Chips Shuffling and Cutting the Deck Picking for Pick Picking for Deal Dealing Misdealing Counting Cards in Hands Roles of the Joker Order of Play Method of Play Discarding Re-Placing a Card Discarded Facedown Buying Buying Jokers Melding What Constitutes a Telefunken Run Adding to Another Players Meld Taking Jokers Knocking Scoring Going Out Winning End of Play
5 X
Playing Double Telefunken (or Elefunken)

The Name of the Game Cards Used for the Game Distributing Chips Picking for Deal Dealing
Role of the Joker Order of Play
The Telefunken Playing Field Sample Telefunken Hand Organizational Schemes Hints for New Players Huthian Card Etiquette Stock Telefunken Jokes and Turns of Speech Glossary of Telefunken and General Card Terms Certification of Official Telefunken Rules The World Telefunken Coordinating Body by Family Appendix Telefunkiana Telefunken Score Sheets Elefunken Score Sheet
X X X X X X X X X X X
A History of Telefunken in the Huth Family

ace, deuce, trey, quatre, cinque
Telefunken is a card game we Huths have played for a little more than a quarter of a century, and it now is the official card game of the Huth family. Whenever we all get together, we tend to play dozens of games of telefunken. When we decide to play cards with friends, we teach them telefunken. Telefunken is a seven-hand card game in the canasta family in which players must make a different minimum meld in each hand before they can lay down. The object of the game is to get rid of cards so you will have the fewest points. I learned the game of telefunken sometime in 1974 from the Longs in Calacoto, Bolivia. Tracy Long was a good friend of mine, and I spent a lot of time at her house. Eventually we spent much of our time playing telefunken with her family. Although the Longs did a good job of explaining the rules of the game, I still remember being frustrated by not knowing or remembering all the rules right away. I believe I taught the game to my family (my father Donald, my mother Maureen, and my siblings: Erick (Rick), Kathleen, Jeannine (Nini), Jacquelynne (Jacquie), and John. Even before we learned telefunken, card playing was a big part of our life. When we were young, the preferred game was steal the pack, which we played all the time when we lived in Portugal. In Canada, I remember playing mostly goofy games like fish, slapjack, war and crazy eights. When we grew older, especially when we lived in Barbados, we played years worth of pinochle, a wonderfully fun game full of weird melds and intricate rules, but a game designed for a maximum of four people. And we were a family of eight. So we learned telefunken at the right time, just as the younger children in the family were learning to play more sophisticated card games. What weve discovered about telefunken and younger players is that it is sometimes too stressful a game for them. The process of intently watching discards and trying to yell out Buy before the next player in line draws a new card requires more persistence than many young players can muster. And for most of the game all a player need do is remember to look forsayeights and queens. In the final hand, telefunken itself, where players might need an eight, ten, queen and king of spades (four different and specific cards), the younger kids can become tense and they can be quite upset when they miss a buy. For this reason, we try to be a little nicer to young children during telefunken. Once while living in Somalia with nothing much to do, maybe in 1980, I came up with the concept of double telefunken, a fourteen-round variation on telefunken. Because it has so many hands and longer hands, double telefunken takes hours to
play and weve only played it a few times: circa 1980 in Somalia, in 1985 in Germany, and in 2000 in Tennessee (each time on a separate continent). The last time we played the game it was a seven-player game that lasted four hours (excepting set up and tear down). Because there are more hands and because each player is dealt twenty-two cards in each hand, double telefunken is even harder on young children. In 2000, I also devised an alternate name for double telefunken (elefunken) because of the elephantine size of the game. Our telefunken playing is a bit ritualistic. We usually use plastic Kem brand cards, which are durable, more fun to riffle (because of their slipperiness and flexibility), and expensive. We carefully collect the right number of decks for each game (based on the number of players), making sure to retain the jokers for each deck. Then we shuffle the cards, trading stack of cards among ourselves. After the game, we quickly return the cards to their original decks, counting like crazed accountants to ensure no card has been lost. And if a card has been lost, the course of the entire game weve just played is called into question, since the true deck (the full deck) wasnt in play. The rituals of cards are so important to us that I even included a section on it in my June 1999 eulogy to my mother: I think of our mother playing cards with us, in Barbados, in Bolivia, Ghana, Somalia, Germany, and how cards taught us about life. There are rules. We follow them. The rules are there to ensure justice. There must be a certain number of cards in the deck, so we must make sure that there are: after each game, we count the cards quickly, efficiently. There are other skills we must learn, such as how to shuffle a deck so that each bridge of each shuffle is a spinning mesmery of interweaving cards. Where telefunken actually came from, were not sure. Ive checked different rule books of cards for even a mention of the name, but have found none. Ive searched the Internet for clues but have come up with nothing more than the fact that telefunken is a card game in the canasta family that is played in canasta-crazy South America. We assume the game is named after the German electronics company Telefunken, but weve no idea why. The word telefunken roughly translates into long-range transmission of radio signals, which is of no help. Ive always imagined that Nazis living in self-exile in South America invented this game. As the years progress, telefunken is the one game weve continued to play. By now, weve played telefunken on at least four continents (North and South America, Africa, and Eurasia). As weve continued to play the game, weve developed new or more precise rules that were not part of the game: joker of-a-kinds, pick for pick, hands off the stack before a discard, and others. This rule book lays out the rules of the game as we follow them.
Playing Telefunken
singleton, doubleton, tripleton, four
All games are about applying a set of rules as a way to have fun, which makes telefunken the gamiest of all games. The rules of telefunken are quite confusing to newbies, and almost every newcomer to telefunken has been introduced to the subtleties of the game with the phrase, Oh, you cant do that. These rules, written down, should help reduce the number of these confusions in the future. Rules appear below in roughly the order that players would apply them during the course of a game.
Object of the Game

To accumulate the fewest points by the end of the game. The rarely seen perfect score is zero. (Our mother, Maureen Huth, once played a perfect game in Bolivia. I remember no other instance of a perfect game after playing hundreds of games of telefunken on four continents.)
Number of Players
Three or more. A two-person game of telefunken is possibleand is often played by bored childrenbut is little fun.
Cards Used for the Game

The number of cards needed for telefunken changes depending on the number of players. You will need one more deck of cards than the number of people playing. For example, if five people are playing, you need six decks of cards for that game. Each deck must be a standard fifty-four-card deck with four suits of 13 cards plus two jokers each.
Distributing Chips
Distribute seven chips to each player. The players can use their chips to buy cards placed on the discard pile during the game. Regular card chips or any other small items (such as pennies) can be used as chips. I recommend not using otherwise suitable items that are edible (such as M&Ms or popcorn).
Stealing Chips
In the version of telefunken I was taught, players were allowed to steal chips from their opponents. The stealing of chips is not allowed under Huth rules.
Shuffling and Cutting the Deck

All the decks must be shuffled together. Although the person to the right of the picker is officially responsible for shuffling the cards, all players usually help with the shuffling. Cutting the deck is optional.
Picking for Pick

In order to determine who gets to pick first, each player chooses a card randomly from the shuffled deck of decks by cutting the deck and showing the other players the card on the bottom of the set of cards. The person who picks the highest ranking card wins the honor of being the first to pick. For these purposes, a joker is the highest-ranking card. The card the player shows the other players is the official pick card, not the card that may have been at the bottom of the cut but which had fallen off In the event that two or more people pick the same highest card, those people pick again, and the person picking the highest card in that round gets to be the first to pick. In picking for pick, disregard the suit of the card; suit is not a marker of rank. Picking for pick is, as far as I remember, a Huthian enhancement to the game. The reason for this addition to the game is that being the first to pick sometimes ensures that youll get a second chance to pick, and picking successfully can help your game by awarding you an extra buying chip.
Picking for Deal

The person who wins the pick for pick gets to be the first to pick for deal. Always called picking, picking for deal involves a player trying to pick the exact number of cards that the dealer needs to deal: either eleven cards for each player, or that number plus one (the first discard). The picker who picks the exact number of cards needed wins an extra chip, which means the opportunity for an extra buy during the game.
Dealing
The dealer is the person to the left of the picker. The dealer deals eleven cards to every player in a clockwise sequence. There is no requirement that the dealer deal these cards in any particular pattern, so the dealer can deal one card at a time or eleven cards at a time or deal in a pattern such as the popular 1-2-3-4-1 (invented by me). After dealing eleven cards to each player, the dealer places one card face up near the pile of remaining cards. This card, the upcard or reveal, is the foundation of the discard pile (or slough), and any player can buy this card just as if it were any other discard. The dealer may wait for everyone to finish arranging their cards before setting down the reveal but is not required to do so. If any cards remain from the pick at the end of the deal, the dealer indicates how close the picker was to a perfect pick. Usually, the dealer does this by showing the remaining undealt cards to the other players or, if there are few cards, by counting the cards and then announcing how many there were. Often, the pickers pick is short, so the dealer must draw more cards off the stock. In such cases, the picker can just watch how far off the pick was.
Misdealing
A misdeal occurs whenever the dealer inaccurately deals the cards. Inaccurate dealing could include such errors as dealing the wrong number of cards to a player or players, or dealing the cards in the wrong order. If there is a misdeal, players can call for the cards to be reshuffled and redealt. There is no penalty for misdealing. Flashing a card accidentally is not considered sufficient to call a misdeal. In the case of a misdeal, no-one can repick the cards for the deal; the picker does not get a second pick, and the pick does not proceed to the next person until the next hand.
Counting Cards in Hands

To verify the accuracy of the deal, given the large number of cards dealt, players should always count the cards in their hands after each deal. This is the way misdeals are most frequently discovered.
Roles of the Joker
Jokers are the only wild cards in the game of telefunken, and they can replace any card in any submeld. However, only one joker can be used in any submeld (except in one rare circumstance explained below). To explain submeld: In a certain telefunken hand, two threes-of-a-kind might be a minimum meld, and a submeld would be either of those threesof-a-kind. In such a situation, there can be two jokers in that meld, so long as there is not more than one joker in each submeld. Although doing so is fairly rare, a player can use more than one joker in a meld or submeld when jokers are not used as wildcards. This exception happens when a player makes an of-a-kind entirely out of jokers. In such a case, the only card that can be built onto that of-a-kind is another joker, since the jokers are not serving the purpose of being wild cards but are representing their distinct denomination.
Order of Play
The game of telefunken is divided into seven rounds, each defined by the minimum meld necessary to lay down: 1. one three-of-a-kind (or 1/3) 2. two three-of-a-kind (or 2/3) 3. one four-of-a-kind (or 1/4) 4. two four-of-a kind (or 2/4) 5. one five-of-a-kind (or 1/5) 6. two five-of-a-kind (or 2/5) 7. Telefunken, a run of seven cards in the same suit (or T)
Method of Play
Each player in turn draws one card from the stock, decides whether to keep it, and sloughs a card. The players turn ends with that discard.
Discarding
Until discarding, the player may modify any play made. XXX
Discarding is required at the end of each turn, except in those instances when a player can go out either by melding or by adding cards to opponents melds. Until making the first required meld, a player can do no more than pick cards from the deck and discard the least useful card left in the hand. Usually, a player will first discard the singletons with the highest points (except for the jokers). You can only discard at the end of your turn. You cannot discard merely because you have just bought a card.
Re-Placing a Card Discarded Facedown

Since people can buy discards, each player must discard carefully ensuring that discards fall faceup and every player can see the card equally well. In cases where the card falls facedown, a player should re-place the card on the discard pile, ensuring that no one player sees the card first.
Buying
As soon as a card hits the discard pile, anyone (even the person discarding the card) can buy the card. People must indicate their intent to buy the card by saying Buy. Picking up the card, pointing at the card, or throwing a chip down to pay for the card do not count as indications of a desire to buy. If two people say Buy, the person who said Buy first gets to buy the card. If there is a conflict about who said Buy first, the rest of the players decide by consensus who said it first. A player who says Buy and then discovers no need for the card must still buy that card. However, if a person begins to say Buy but doesnt complete the word, that does not count as indicating intention to buy, and that person need not buy the discard. After the player whose turn it is picks up from the stock (or pick-up pile) and sees the card, no-one can buy the previous discard. However, if the player picks up the card but doesnt see the face of the card before someone else yells out, Buy, then that is a legal buy. Since the fewer points you have at the end of the game, the betteryou must pick up one card from the top of the deck in addition to the card you are buying. In this way, every buy is also a potential detriment, since youll always get one other card that you may not need. If you buy a card just
before your turn, then you must pick up two additional cards, one because you bought a card and another because you must draw a card for your turn.
Buying Jokers
Sometimes players discard jokers to reduce the number of points theyre carrying in their hands. However, it is illegal to buy a discarded joker.
Melding
A player can lay down cards only when it is their turn and only when they have accumulated the required meld for that particular hand. (See Order of Play for a list of the minimum required melds.) A player can only lay down during their turn, not before their turn and not right after buying. This means that you may have a playable meld but not be able to play it because another player goes out before your turn. A meld larger than the required meld may be laid down in place of the minimum. So when playing one three-of-a-kind a player may lay down a four-of-a-kind to meet the minimum meld. In double meld situations (two threes, two fours, etc.), a player can have two submelds of the same denomination. For example, for two threes a player can lay down one three-of-a-kind made up of queens and another three-of-akind also made up of queens. After laying down the minimum meld, a player may lay down any other legal meld: either a run of three or more cards, or an of-a-kind of three or more. The player may use no more than one joker in any submeld, unless the submeld consists entirely of jokers.
What Constitutes a Telefunken Run

A telefunken run must include seven consecutive cards in the same suit. The run can begin with any card in the deck. The ace can be the card at the beginning or end of the run, but a telefunken cannot continue from the ace in two directions: A player cannot, for example, lay down a run that is J-Q-KA-1-2-3. For the same reason, another player cannot add to a telefunken in such a way that the run continues in two directions from an ace. However, players can add to a telefunken until it has an ace at both ends.
Adding to Another Players Meld

After laying down the minimum meld, a player may also add to other players runs. For instance, a player can add nines to a three-of-a-kind of nines, or can add an eight of spades to a run ace through seven of spades. Adding cards to other players melds is an important way to get rid of cards during the game. Players can add to a run and extend it in that manner, but it is illegal to join two already played melds together. A played meld is one that is laid down followed by a discard by the player who laid it. It is illegal to add cards to anyones meld until you have first laid down the minimum meld. If you have extra jokers, you can add one of them to any run or of-a-kind, so long as that meld doesnt already have a joker in it.
Taking Jokers
When you add to anothers of-a-kind, you may opt to take a joker in that meld, and you can use that joker to form another meld of your own. If you take the joker but end up not needing it, you can either return it to the place where you took it or add it to any other meld that does not already have a joker. Of course, you can only do this until you discard; otherwise, youll need to wait until your next turn. It is against the rules, however, to replace or move the joker in a run once it is played. Because of this, players often take jokers out of play by removing them from of-a-kinds and placing them in runs. In the case where there is an of-a-kind constructed entirely out of jokers, a player cannot take any of the jokers since the jokers are not wild cards in this situation. Even if taking jokers were allowed, a player could only do this by placing a joker on the meld, so it would be pointless anyway.
Knocking
Although it is merely an accepted formality, once you have reduced the cards in your hand to one, you should knock on the table once. This is a warning to the rest of the table that you may be going out soon. Some people also knock twice to show they are down to two cards, but this is not at all in the rules of the game. Knocking for any number of cards above two is considered obnoxious.
Scoring
After one of the players goes out, the rest of the players have to count their points to determine their score for the game and announce their score to the scorekeeper (who can be any of the players). The table below lists the values for various cards. The player who goes out, of course, earns zero points for that hand. Joker: Ace: Face cards: Spot cards: 30 15 10 Face value
Going Out
A player goes out by getting rid of all their cards. In order of frequency, there are three ways to do this: 1. Discarding the final card in your hand 2. Laying down a meld that uses up your remaining cards 3. Adding your final cards to anothers meld
Winning
After the final hand of the game and the scores of all the players are added up, the player with the lowest score becomes the winner of the game.
End of Play
Traditionally, in a Huthian telefunken game, we end the game by dividing the cards by deck, counting each pack to ensure each has exactly 54 cards, and returning them to their original packs.
Playing Double Telefunken (or Elefunken)

two-eyed, one-eyed, un-eyed
Double telefunken is essentially the same as telefunken, except for being a much longer game. This section outlines the differences between the two games. Those rules of telefunken that are identical for elefunken are not listed here.
The Name of the Game

Since about 1980, we have called this variant of telefunken by the name double telefunken, because the game has twice as many hands as a game of telefunken and because the meld required for the final hand is twice as large as a telefunken. I proposed the name elefunken (because of its elephantine dimensions) as a variant name for double telefunken on 22 December 2000.
Cards Used for the Game

The number of cards needed for telefunken changes depending on the number of players. You will need twice as many decks of cards, plus two, than the number of people playing. So if five people are playing, you need twelve decks of cards for that game (exactly double what you would need for regular telefunken). Each deck must be a standard fifty-four-card deck with four suits of 13 cards plus two jokers each.
Distributing Chips
Distribute 14 buying chips to each player.
Picking for Deal

The picker who picks the exact number of cards needed in double telefunken wins two extra chips, double the number in regular telefunken.
Dealing
The dealer is the person to the left of the picker. The dealer deals cards to every player in a clockwise sequence. There is no requirement that the dealer distribute these cards in any particular pattern, so the dealer can deal
one card at a time or eleven cards at a time or deal in any other pattern. After dealing 22 cards to each player, the dealer places one card face up (the reveal in our parlance) near the pile of remaining cards. This upcard is the foundation of the discard pile, and any player can buy this card just as if it were any other discard.
Role of the Joker

Jokers are the only wild cards in the game of telefunken, and they can replace any card in any meld. However, only one joker can be used in any submeld, except for the double telefunken meld, where a player can use two jokers.
Order of Play
The game of elefunken is divided into 14 rounds, each defined by the first meld necessary to lay down: 1. one three-of-a-kind (or 1/3) 2. two three-of-a-kind (or 2/3) 3. three three-of-a-kind (or 3/3) 4. four three-of-a-kind (or 4/3) 5. one four-of-a-kind (or 1/4) 6. two four-of-a kind (or 2/4) 7. three four-of-a-kind (or 3/4) 8. four four-of-a-kind (or 4/4) 9. one five-of-a-kind (or 1/5) 10. two five-of-a-kind (or 2/5) 11. three five-of-a-kind (or 3/5) 12. four five-of-a-kind (or 4/5) 13.Telefunken 14. Elefunken
The Telefunken Playing Field

spot card, face card, ace
The design below gives some idea of the arrangement of players and playing materials around a standard telefunken table. The best table to play around is a round table, which will allow every player to see the discard pile and others melds equally well. The numbered rectangles below represent both the players and the melds they have upon the table. Ive included eight players in this diagram since we spent a large number of years playing eight-people games. Although usually everyone helps with shuffling, Player 1 here is designated the shuffler, who gives the cards to the picker. The picker tries to pick the right number of cards to be dealt for the hand. The dealer deals the cards to the First Player. In the next round, each persons role moves clockwise by one person. Each player has a pile of chips beside the melds. The pick-up and discard piles are near each other but staggered to make the discard pile easier to see. Since the pickup pile can get quite tall in a game with many people, the bottom of the pile is stored off to the side. The used chips are usually tossed in the middle of the table, and the store of extra chips is usually kept somewhere out of the main area of play. Dealer Picker
3 2 4
The Stock
The Eldest Hand
Shuffler
Used Chips Pile

8 6 7
Stock of Chips
Discard Pile Players Chips
Bottom of Pick-Up Pile
Sample Telefunken Hand Organizational Schemes

ace-high, too low
There is no standard way to organize cards in your hand during telefunken, but these possible organizational schemes provide one solution.
Sample Scheme for an Of-a-Kind Hand
9 9 9 K K 5 5 J A 6 2 o k e r
The three-of-a-kind is set off to the left, followed by pairs in order of value. Possible discards by value, separate from melds.
The joker here is used as a dividing line between possible melds and possible discards.
Sample Scheme for a Telefunken Hand Hand
S S S S C C C J K 9 3 o k e r
Cards from two possible suits, the four spades (S) before the three clubs (C). Possible discards by value, separate from melds.
The joker here is used as a dividing line between possible melds and possible discards. Geof Huth * Telefunken: The Official Huth Rules and Cardways * 08/08/03 * 26
Hints for New Players

one-spot, two-spot, three-spot, four-spot
Telefunken can be a confusing game for new players, so to make playing easier for these people here are a few hints to help their play.
Especially if young, begin your apprenticeship in telefunken as a member of a team.

If you begin to learn telefunken as the member of a two-person team, the veteran can help you better learn the intricacies of the game. This is the only way we teach younger children how to play.
Whenever you have a bad hand dealt to you, pray for a misdeal.
Okay, this isnt much of a hint, but its a common enough (if not too useful) tactic. You might, I suppose, be able to insist a deal was a misdeal under such circumstances.
Discard high-point singletons first.

Since any cards (and their related points) left in your hand at the end of a hand count against you, its best to get rid of the higher cards as soon as possible, especially if theres no way you can use these cards to meld.
Dont necessarily discard high cards from a pair.

Some players become so intent on discarding high cards that they discard even high cards in a pair, thereby eradicating the possibility of a three-of-akind. Keep in mind that the true high card in your hand is always a singleton and that it probably makes more sense to leave your hand open to easy melds than to simply reduce the number of points in your hand.
Dont buy in telefunken until two fours.

There really is no hard and fast rule about when you should start buying. If buying a card early in the game can allow you to go down and avoid racking up a large number of points, then that makes sense. But most players hold off buying until two four-of-a-kind, because that is when collecting the cards only by drawing cards becomes almost impossible. Because weve played
double telefunken so infrequently, we dont have a firm rule of thumb about when to start buying in that game, but buying in two fours probably still makes sense.
Arrange the cards in your hand in a logical order.

One of the most important parts of the game of telefunken is to organize your cards so you can easily evaluate your ability to meld and appraise the value of any discard to you. So be sure to devise an organizational scheme that is sensible to you and that separates the cards for possible melds from deadwood (potential discards). The Sample Telefunken Hand Organizational Scheme section provides an example of one way to organize your cards.
Buy only the discard just before your turn if other players are likely to go out.
If other players have knocked or are holding few cards and may go out, dont buy unless the discard just before your turn is a card you can use to meld and go down. This technique can ensure you dont just waste a buy and simultaneously increase your number of points.
Save three chips for the telefunken round.

Although you may not need this many chips, three is generally considered a safe number of chips to save for the telefunken round of the game.
Pay attention to the suits people buy during the telefunken round.
One of the ways to improve your chances of winning during the telefunken round is to keep other players from buying cards they need in their long suit. The best way to do this is to avoid discarding cards in the suits people are searching for. The only way to do this is to pay attention to what suits people are buying and at what point in the suit (such as ace to seven or eight to ace). Of course, you cant necessarily keep from discarding any suit people might be interested in, but you can try to discard low cards in a suit you suspect someone is building a high-card run. Also, you can keep from discarding cards in the suit the game leader is looking for, thereby increasing the chances that that person will not lay down and that you will go out instead.
Pay close attention to discards during the telefunken round.

Although its important to pay attention to discards throughout the game, this becomes especially important during the telefunken round, because youre not looking only for a certain value of card, but also for the specific suit.
Generally, try to make high-card runs.

Since people more commonly discard high cards, you will be more likely to make a high-card run (like 8-A) since you will have a better chance finding cards you need as discards from others hands. A low-card run (like A-7) is much harder to make.
Dont always meld as soon as you can.

This hint was one of the first ones the Longs ever taught me. Sometimes, its a better strategy to hold onto your minimum melds until you have the cards to go out in one fell swoop. In this way, others wont have time to get worried and discard high-point cards. However, theres always a risk that you might end up holding cards you could have put downbecause someone else went out before you.
If all else fails, just discard your high cards.

This hint is especially important during the telefunken round. If you end up in the telefunken round ahead of everyone else but without any buys, then your best technique might be to organize your cards purely in order of value and spend the entire round discarding the cards with the highest points.
Count cards in whatever way is easiest for you.

Counting your points in telefunken can be tedious, especially if you made many buys but never got a chance to lay down. (Remember that you add to cards to your hand each time you buy.) So do whatever you can to make counting easier: Count the cards worth ten points first, assemble cards in groupings of ten points, whatever.
Set up a standard deck of telefunken cards.

If you end up playing telefunken often, you might want to consider merging four or five identical decks of cards to serve as the foundation pack for playing telefunken. This hint will save you a lot of time in setting up and breaking down for the game.
Huthian Card Etiquette

five-spot, six-spot, seven-spot, eight-spot
When we Huths were growing up all over the world, card playing was a common pastime, and following specific card-playing etiquette was very important. As a service to people playing cards with us, here is a brief explanation of that etiquette. These rules appear roughly in the order they would first occur during a game.
Do not look at or fiddle with your cards until all cards are dealt.
This rule is important because otherwise the dealer is always at a disadvantage to other players, who can look at their cards and decide if they want the upcard before the dealer can even pick up the first card. You shouldnt even fiddle with your cards too much before the dealing is done because you might end up causing the dealer to misdeal if you are playing with your pile of cards and the dealer doesnt see your hand and skips over you.
Do not bend the cards.

This rule is especially important to us since we are finicky about cards and since the Kem cards we usually use are quite expensive.
Keep your cards above the table.

Players must always keep their cards where others can see them. A standard card rule, this helps make cheating harder and so helps give the players confidence that the game is fair and aboveboard.
Dont look at other peoples cards; dont let others see yours.
This is such a basic rule that there should be no need to present it to anyone. It should be part of everyones innate cardplaying instinct. But its not. Card games are based on the fun of not knowing what others are going to do or when; looking at cards undermines the premise of fun the game is based on.
Do not help veteran players play the game.

Its perfectly fine to help new players or young children with the rules and to point out to them what they can do to help their play: make additional melds, add cards to others melds, or retrieve jokers from others melds. But
we play cut-throat card games, and we dont like people helping veteran players play better.
Do not touch the pick-up pile while waiting for a discard.

We had to institute this rule after too many people waited for their turns by resting a hand on the pick-up pile, thereby retrieving their draw card immediately after someone else discards and making it impossible for anyone to buy the discard.
Do not play other peoples hands or pay for their buys.

Sometimes to speed up a game, people find it beneficial to help people put down their cards or to place others' chips in the chip pile to pay for buys. This is generally considered rude. It is usually allowable, however, to give somebody their card from the stock if they are not close enough to the pile to retrieve the card easily themselves.
Do not peek at a buyers extra card just because that would have been your next draw.
You may feel a strong temptation to peek at the card that would have been yours if someone hadnt have bought just before your turnjust to see if it wouldve been a better card than you will draw. But dont do it. Looking at other peoples cards is cheating and that extra card is actually another players card.
Pay attention to the game.

Telefunken is a long game, so sometimes a players attention may wander. Dont let this happen, since the length of the game makes people more anxious that the playing of it proceeds as quickly as possible.
Dont count your points out loud.

This is the big no-no. The end of every hand of the game of telefunken ends with everyone counting the points in their cards, so its rude to count your points out loud since it makes it difficult for others to count their cards.
Stock Telefunken Jokes and Turns of Speech

nine-spot, ten-spot, jack, queen, king
Telefunken is just a card game, so the real point of playing is having fun with people. Since we Huths have played telefunken so much over more than a quarter of a century, we have developed a number of stock jokes to use during the course of the playing.
Changing the names of the players.

I am always the scorekeeper whenever I play telefunken, and I almost always change everyones name on the score sheet by changing the ends of each persons name, except for my own. For instance, on 29 July 2000, the players of that days game are listed as Timbo, Alebo, Erinbo, Jacbo, Geof, Nicbo and Nanbo. On 5 Aug 2000, the players are listed as Xannacatastrophe, Nantastrophe, Timtastrophe, Geof, Jaqtastrophe, and Erintastrophe (almost exactly the same set of people as for the game in July).
Perfect.
What I say whenever I hand my pick for pick stack to the dealer. I say this because I never pick successfully.
What do we have to get?

The common query at the beginning of each hand in telefunken, this means What is the minimum meld for this hand? Its so common, that Ive suggested we call the minimum meld the havtoget.
What hand is this?

Not a joke, really, but a common query, since the goal of the hand changes with each hand, and since keeping track of the hands is important to winning the game.
Oh, yeah!
The phrase said upon drawing a cardbut only when the draw is of no use to you.
Buy!
What you yell out once the next person in the line of play draws a card off the stock and you can no longer buy the discard.
Bye!
What you explain you actually said after youve said Buy by mistake.
See you later!

Said, punningly, after someone yells out, Buy, and you dont want them to buy.
Ive got one three (or four or five)! Or Ive got two threes (or fours or fives)!
A joke used during an of-a-kind round when you dont have one three-of-akind or two five-of-a-kind, but you have instead merely a three of hearts or two fives of diamonds.
Why cant this be telefunken? Or Is this telefunken?

The common complaint when you have a good hand for telefunken hand but a bad hand for an of-a-kind hand.
Ive got eleven one-of-a-kind!

The common joke when you have a terrible hand, with no or few cards that match.
Are you going out?

The worried phrase uttered whenever another player starts to lay down a number of cards and you have too many points in your hand.
I see your <queen>.

Used when the discard you throw down on the pile is the same as the last discard on the pile.
I see your <queen> and raise you a <king>.

The extension of the last turn of speech, this is said when the discard you are throwing down is higher in value than the last discard. It is said most often when the two discards are in the same suit.
Weed em and reap!

Something I say, in a goofily threatening manner, when I have nothing to put down besides a discard or when I show people my pick without even looking at it myself. This phrase is, of course, a twisting of the cardplaying phrase, Read em and weep!
Why dont you throw down a card I can use?

A common complaint.
Can we please make this telefunken? or Why isnt this telefunken? or I wish this were telefunken!
Some of the phrases said when you have the start of a good telefunken during an of-a-kind hand.
Glossary of Telefunken and General Card Terms

upcard, downcard, sidecard, plain
This glossary includes those terms unique to telefunken (or to the Huth playing of telefunken), the general card terms we use, and a few card terms we rarely use but which appear elsewhere in the text. The glossary includes headwords with parts-ofspeech markers, definitions and (sometimes) illustrative quotations showing how we actually used the terms in conversation during games of telefunken. The glossary also includes two bogus terms inserted just to ensure the glossary had at least one word beginning with each letter of the alphabet. It is up to the reader to identify those bogus terms. The symbol & designates a word or meaning that is used only in telefunken, used only by my family in telefunken or includes significant telefunkenization in its definition. Some of the words so marked (such as buy, knock and raise) may have definitions in some ways different than the standard definitions in the cardplaying world. The glossary uses standard abbreviations for various parts of speech: abbrev (abbreviation), adj (adjective), interj (interjection), n (noun), and v (verb). A. abbrev. an ace aboveboard. adj. honest and in plain sight [from the rule to keep ones cards above the table during a game] ace. n. & the single-spotted card in a suit of cards, serving the place of a one or that of a card higher than a king in a run, and worth 15 points in telefunken Jacquie Huth: Lets make sure thats an ace in there. {27 Dec 2000} ace-high. adj. having a sidecard ace as the highest card in a hand of cards add. v. to append other legal cards to a played meld advantage. n. XXX age. n. the order of priority of players in a card game, starting with the eldest hand (the player immediately to the dealers left) and ending with the youngest hand (usually the dealer) bluff. v. to pretend to have a better hand than one actually does
bridge. n. the humped construction of interleaved cards in the process of being pushed back together by a shuffler after riffling buy. & v. to obtain a card by trading a buying chip for it Tim Huth: I bought two. {27 Dec 2000} n. a card one has bought; the process of buying a card Erin Huths note on a telefunken score sheet to Alexandra Huths final score of 54: Used one buy in T, went out as soon as went down. interj. the call made when buying a card Nancy Huth: Buy! {27 Dec 2000} card. n. a playing card cardplayer. n. a person who plays cards card game. n. any game played using playing cards cardways. n. the ways of playing and thinking about cards in human society chip. n. & any small token used to buy cards in telefunken Jacquie Huth: Hes got two chips left, and weve got three hands to go. {30 Dec 2000} chip pile. n. & the pile used buying chips are placed in Geof Huth: Apparently, the chip pile is there. {27 Dec 2000} club. n. one of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, marked by an icon consisting of three black circles with a stem protruding from between two of them; sometimes called puppyfoot coffeehouse. v. to lead your opponents in a game of cards believe that one has different cards than one actually does crazy eights. n. a card game where the eight is a wild card and players discard cards of the same denomination or suit onto the last card laid in a pile until someone has no cards remaining cut. v. & to split a shuffled deck in two portionseither after dealing to rearrange the cards a bit more (a process rarely carried out in telefunken because the final playing deck is so large) or to reveal the bottom card to determine who goes first (picking for pick in telefunken)
cutthroat. adj. (in cards) playing for oneself alone, without partners deadwood. n. & 1. (in telefunken) potential discards; cards in a hand of cards that do not fit in any potential meld in ones hand; penalty cards remaining in a hand after another player has gone out 2. (in rummy) unmelded cards in a hand that will count as points against the player 3. (poker) cards that have been discarded deal. v. to distribute to each player the cards they will use during a hand n. the period of a card game between two deals; a hand; a round Jacquie Huth: So I dealt, so Erin goes first? {27 Dec 2000} n. a person turn to deal cards Common query during telefunken: Whos deal is it? dealer. n. the person who deals the cards deck. n. & 1. a complete set of playing cards (52 or 54 in all, depending on the game); a pack 2. a complete set of cards for playing a game of telefunken, which can consist of three or more regular decks of playing cards shuffled together declaration. n. & the announcement of the points remaining in ones hand at the end of a round of telefunken denomination. n. a designation of order in a deck of cards (such as ace, two, three, , ten, jack, queen, king, ace); the value of a card deuce. n. a two in any suit diamond. n. one of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, marked by an icon consisting of a red, four-pointed geometrical diamond discard. n. the card thrown out of ones hand at the end of ones turn of play Erin Huth: They bought the discard because you werent here. {28 Dec 2000} v. to throw such a card out of ones hand
discard pile. n. the pile of cards where discards are laid Geof Huth: I mean, have you ever seen a discard pile so red? Jacquie Huth: Yes, I have. Nancy Huth: Its a bloodbath. {30 Dec 2000} Geof Huth: Holy jumping squeazebags! Have you never heard of the discard file? {To Alexandra Huth, 18 Mar 2002} double telefunken. n. & 1. a Huthian variation on the card game telefunken that has twice as many hands and is twice as long and twice as hard as regular telefunken; a card game for two or more players and consisting of 14 distinct hands (twelve differing of-a-kinds and two runs) representing the minimum melds for each hand, the object of which is to meld and add to other players melds to ensure you have the least number of points at the end of the game; the longest short game in the world; elefunken Erin Huth: In double telefunken, you have to get four fives. {27 Dec 2000} 2. the minimum meld for the last hand of the game that consists of a run of 14 cards from ace to ace 3. the round in the game double telefunken where the minimum meld is a double telefunken doubleton. n. two cards in the same suit in a hand with no other cards of that suit downcard. n. a card dealt facedown draw. v. to take a card from the stock during play Nancy Huth: Erin, perhaps if you didnt comment on every card you had to draw, maybe the game would go a little quicker. {30 Dec 2000} draw card. n. the card players take from the top of the stock when it is their turn to play E. abbrev. & elefunken edge. n. & the age, since the order of playing in some card games (including telefunken) affects ones chances of winning eight-spot. n. a playing card displaying eight pips; an eight in a pack of cards eldest hand. n. & the player with the first turn in any round; the player with the advantage in any early round in a game of telefunken elefunken. n. & another name for double telefunken
Jacquie Huth: Two fives? There isnt two fives in telefunken. Geof Huth: Yes, there is. Jacquie Huth: Stupid two fives! I was hoping it was only in elefunken. Erin Huth: In double telefunken, you have to get four fives. {27 Dec 2000} Tim Huth: It would be amazing if someone got a perfect score in elefunken. {28 Dec 2000} extra card. n. & the card a player must draw as a result of buying a card Tim Huth: Sometimes, people buy just to get the extra card {6 Jan 2001} face card. n. & any card with the face of a person on it (a jack, a queen or a king), each worth 10 points in telefunken facedown. adj. with the front of the card pointing down Geof Huth: Tim, dont discard facedown. {27 Dec 2000} faceup. adj. with the front of the card pointing down fan. & n. a hand of cards held in the palm in a V shape, so that all the cards are easily readable at the top but are compact and easy to hold on the bottom v. to arrange a hand of cards in a fan shape fish. n. (called go fish by most people) a card game for two or more people, where players ask their competitors for the cards needed to make of-a-kinds in their hands five. n. & a five of-a-kind Jacquie Huth: One five? Geof Huth: Oh, yeah! Is that all? {27 Dec 2000} five-of-a-kind. n. a set of five cards of the same denomination (such as five kings) five-spot. n. a playing card displaying five pips; a five in a pack of cards flash. v. to show the face of a card or cards accidentally while dealing four. n. & a four of-a-kind Jacquie Huth: What are we doing? Geof Huth: This is one four. Jacquie Huth: Oh, boy, this is going to be a long hand. {27 Dec 2000} four-flusher. n. a person who bluffs (from the term four-flush: in poker, a false flush with four cards from one suit and a fifth card from the other suit of its color)
four-of-a-kind. n. a set of four cards of the same denomination (such as four queens) four-spot. n. a playing card displaying four pips; a four in a pack of cards go down. v. & to meld for the first time in a round; to lay down the minimum meld Erin Huths note on a telefunken score sheet to Alexandra Huths final score of 54: Used one buy in T, went out as soon as went down. go out. v. & in telefunken, to get rid of all cards from a hand and win that round Erin Huths note on a telefunken score sheet to Alexandra Huths final score of 54: Used one buy in T, went out as soon as went down. hand. n. 1. the cards dealt to a player, including cards picked up during the course of play; the legal cards held by a player during the time of play 2. a round in the course of a card game; the period in a card game between two deals; a deal Geof Huth: Okay, only 15 minutes for one hand! {After the one three-ofa-kind in elefunken, 28 Dec 2000} havtoget. n. & the minimum meld for a particular hand of telefunken heart. n. one of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, marked by an icon consisting of a red conventional heart shape Erin Huth: Im getting really worried that everyone is discarding hearts. {27 Dec 2000} high card. n. & 1. the card in a hand with the highest value 2. (more common definition) the singleton in a hand with the highest value ice. n. & (Geof Huths invention) the diamonds suit in playing cards J. abbrev. a jack joker. n. & one of the two supplementary cards in a standard deck of cards that do not belong to any suit and that bear the representation of a jester; the wild card and highest ranking card in telefunken, worth 30 points Erin Huth: Can I have that joker? Thank you. {27 Dec 2000} K. abbrev. a king
Kathy. n. a person who places melds and submelds facedown in piles awaiting a turn (after the manner of Kathy Huthand, actually, other of my sisters) Nancy Huth: What, Kathy? {Nancy to Nicholas Huth, after he set a four-of-akind facedown in front of him, 30 Dec 2000} Kathy, to be. v. & to place melds and submelds facedown in piles awaiting a turn (after the manner of Kathy Huthand, again, other of my sisters) Jacquie Huth: Im being Kathy. {28 Dec 2000} Kem cards. n. a brand name of plastic cards made uniquely from cellulose acetate knock. v. & to knock once during a telefunken game to indicate a players hand has been reduced to a single card lay down. v. to place melds on the table Jacquie Huth: Is somebody else going to lay down tonight? {27 Dec 2000} long suit. n. & the suit of cards in a hand in which you have the most cards close enough together upon which to build a run in telefunken or elefunken love. n. & (Geof Huths invention) the hearts suit in playing cards low card. n. & 1. the card in a hand with the lowest value 2. the singleton in a hand with the lowest value meld. & n. a legal combination of cards that can be laid down during the course of a game, which in telefunken could be an of-a-kind or a run, both of at least three cards Erin Huth: What do I need? Three threes? Geof Huth: Oh, yeah, we gotta make sure people make their melds. {28 Dec 2000} v. to lay down a meld Jacquie Huth: Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You gotta meld first. {To Tim Huth, 30 Dec 2000} See also minimum meld and submeld minimum meld. n. & the required meld a player must put together in order to lay down in the first place See also meld and submeld Erin Huth: This is the minimum meld. {28 Dec 2000} misdeal. v. to deal the wrong number of cards or the cards in the wrong order
Geof Huth: Im gonna try not to misdeal this time. {28 Dec 2000} n. a set of cards that has been misdealt Erin Huth: We had a misdeal [yesterday] because you were so confused. {27 Dec 2000} natural. n. a meld without a wild card nine-spot. n. a playing card displaying nine pips; a nine in a pack of cards number card. n. any playing card with a number on its face; a spot card of-a-kind. n. & a set of cards in the same denomination (such as four sevens or three aces) of-a-kind round. n. & one of the first six hands in the game of telefunken, or the first twelve hands in the game of double telefunken, where the minimum meld for the hand is a certain number of threes-, fours- or fives-of-a-kind one-eyed. n. being a face card with one eye showing on each of the faces of a jack or king (usually possible only with the jack of spades or hearts and the king of diamonds) one-spot. n. what should be a playing card displaying one pip; what should be an ace in a pack of cards out. adj. & to win a hand in telefunken by playing all ones cards Erin Huth: Im out! {27 Dec 2000} Jacquie Huth: That really made me mad, because Nancy started dumping her cards because she thought Nini was going to go out. {27 Dec 2000} pack. n. & 1. a complete set of playing cards (52 or 54 in all, depending on the game); a deck 2. a complete set of cards for playing a game of telefunken, which can consist of three or more regular decks of playing cards shuffled together pair. n. & two cards in the same denomination, the building blocks of an of-a-kind, but not yet a meld pick. n. & 1. the card chosen during the process of picking for pick in telefunken; the pick card 2. the set of cards chosen during the process of picking for deal in telefunken
pick. v. & to try to separate the correct number of cards to be dealt in a round of telefunken Jacquie Huth: Am I picking? from this pile? {27 Dec 2000} pick card. n. & a card chosen during the process of picking for pick in telefunken; the pick (definition1) pick for deal. v. & to pick pick for pick. v. & to pick a card from the deck to try to acquire the privilege of being the first person to pick during a game of telefunken Geof Huth: Are they shuffled? Everyone: Yes. Geof: Did you pick for pick? Everyone: No. {Conversation, Goodlettsville, TN, 28 Jul 2000} Jacquie Huth: Pickin for pick? Pickin for pick? Geof Huth: Yeah. {28 Dec 2000} Jacquie Huth: Whos dealing? Or are we picking for pick? {18 Mar 2002} pick up. v. & to draw (a card) pick-up pile. n. & the as yet undealt and undrawn stack of cards; the stock picker. n. & the person who tries to pick the correct number of cards to be dealt in a round of telefunken pinochle. n. a card game using a special 48-card deck and played by two to four people, usually in teams pip. n. a spot in the form of the suit icon on a playing card and usually denoting (by the number of such spots) the value of the card plain. adj. 1. being a card not in the trump suit 2. being a card that is not a face card player. n. any competitor or team of competitors in a game of cards playing card. n. a card in a conventional deck of cards used to play games point. n. & a unit for counting the score in a game of telefunken, where a point is always a negative to the player; a unit for counting the value of a certain card in telefunken (where jokers are 30, aces 15, face cards ten, and spot cards are face value)
Tim Huth: I think Ill get rid of this. Its only a one-point difference. {30 Dec 2000} poker face. n. a card-playing face that belies none of the emotions or thoughts of the player Erin Huth: Woo-hoo! Jacquie Huth: Shes got a really good poker face. Erin Huth: Were not playing poker. {27 Dec 2000} puppyfoot. n. the clubs suit in playing cards; any card in the clubs suit Q. abbrev. a queen rainbow. n. & (Alexandra Huths term for) a bridge made during shuffling cards Word of the Day (Alexandra Huth's word for a bridge in card shuffling):/Rainbow {Geof Huth, ePostcard cXXX,1 Aug 2000} raise. v. & to discard a card higher in value than the last card discarded, particularly in cases where both cards are in the same suit reveal. n. & (Nancy Huths word for) the upcard; the card the dealer places face up on the table after dealing the cards for the hand Erin Huth: Can somebody turn over the thingee? Can somebody turn over the card? The reveal! {28 Dec 2000} Nini Renfro: I bought the reveal. Jacquie Huth: Then the reveal is in Ninis hand? {28 Dec 2000} riffle. v. to shuffle playing cards in the standard Huthian manner by taking two stacks of cards in opposing hands, bending each into a U shape, and interleaving the two stacks into one another round. n. the period of a card game between two deals; a hand; a deal run. n. a sequence of three or more consecutive cards in the same suit (such as 3-45 or 6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A) Russian rules. n. any fake rules made up on the spot; a mode of playing a game (especially of cards) that uses rules made up on the spot Erick Huth: Youre doing Russian rules again. {To Nick Huth, 17 Mar 2002} Alexandra Huth: 2002 Rachel, Russian rules are anything goes. {18 Mar 2002} scorekeeper. n. & the person who tracks the points against each player over the course of a telefunken game
see. v. & to match the discard of the person who discarded just before you; to discard a card equal in value to a card discarded by another player (used only humorously to approximate the meaning of see in poker) Erin Huth: I see your queen of diamonds {28 Dec 2000} sesquitelefunken. n. & the fabled version of telefunken that deals out different numbers of cards depending on the difficulty of the hand Erin Huth: Why do you get twenty-two [cards] even for one three? Geof Huth: Erin, this is double telefunken. Its not telefunken and a half. Its not sesquitelefunken. {28 Dec 2000} seven-spot. n. a playing card displaying seven pips; a seven in a pack of cards short game. n. & any game of cards, such as telefunken, in which all the cards are not dealt at the start of the game shovel. n. & (Geof Huths invention) the spades suit in playing cards shuffle. v. to mix up the cards before dealing them to ensure they are well mixed shuffler. n. the person who shuffles the cards sidecard. n. 1. a card that is not trump 2. in poker, the highest card that is not part of a meld in a hand and that determines which of two otherwise equal hands wins the round of a game singleton. n. & a card that does not fit into any potential meld in a persons hand six-spot. n. a playing card displaying six pips; a six in a pack of cards slapjack. n. a childs card game in which players turn over the cards in the deck one by one, trying to be the first player to slap an upturned jack and win that portion of the deck slough. n. a discard; the discard pile v. to discard cards spade. n. one of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, marked by an icon consisting of an upsidedown black heart shape with a stem protruding from where the two curves meet
spot. n. 1. a pip 2. a playing card which shows numbers denoting its value; a card with a value of two through ten spot card. n. & a numbered card in a deck, two through ten, worth face value in telefunken steal the pack. n. a simple card game where players acquire others cards in order to accumulate the most fours-of-a-kind stock. n. & those cards not dealt out to players but left in a stack on the table for players to draw from; the as yet undealt and undrawn stack of cards; the pick-up pile strong suit. n. & a long suit of high cards with which a player can most easily build a run in telefunken or elefunken submeld. n. & an independent part of a minimum meld in telefunken or double telefunken, such as a single three-of-a-kind that is the submeld in a minimum meld of two threes-of-a-kind See also meld and minimum meld suit. n. one of the four main series in a deck of cards: spades, diamonds, clubs, hearts Erin Huth: Its the only suit I could go inthat is the problem. {27 Dec 2000} T. abbrev. & telefunken Erin Huths note on a telefunken score sheet to Alexandra Huths final score of 54: Used one buy in T, went out as soon as went down. telefunken. n. & 1. a card game in the rummy family most similar to contract rummy, designed for two or more players and consisting of seven distinct hands (six differing of-a-kinds and one run) representing the minimum melds for each hand, the object of which game is to meld and add to other players melds to ensure you have the least number of points at the end of the game Geof Huth: Erin, take a look at how good these [manuscripts] look, especially the
telefunken one. {3 Jan 2001}
2. the seven-card run minimum meld in the last hand of the game telefunken Also called telefunken run
Erin Huth: Ive got four cards of a telefunken run. {27 Dec 2000} 3. the round in the game telefunken or elefunken where the minimum meld is a telefunken telefunken hand. n. & (usually called simply telefunken) the round in the game telefunken where the minimum meld is a telefunken telefunken run. n. & in the games of telefunken or elefunken, a run of seven cards in the same suit ten-spot. n. a playing card displaying ten pips; a ten in a pack of cards three. n. & a three of-a-kind Erin Huth: Why do you get twenty-two [cards] even for one three? {28 Dec 2000} three-of-a-kind. n. a set of three cards of the same denomination (such as three jacks) three-spot. n. a playing card displaying three pips; a three in a pack of cards tripleton. n. a set of three cards in the same suit that are dealt into a hand turn. n. a players time to play a hand Nancy Huth: No, its my turn. {30 Dec 2000} two pair. n. a set two cards of the same denomination, plus another set of two cards in a different matching denomination two-eyed. n. being a face card with two eyes showing on each of the faces of a jack, queen or king (the queens always being two-eyed) two-spot. n. a playing card displaying two pips; a two in a pack of cards upcard. n. the card the dealer places face up on the table after dealing the cards for the hand; the reveal value. n. & 1. the denomination of the card 2. the number of points of a card in telefunken (30 points for jokers, 15 for aces, ten for face cards, and face value for spot cards)
war. n. a simple card game in which players separate a deck of cards into even piles then play cards one against the other, the player with the higher card winning each set of played cards, until someone has won the entire deck wild card. n. & a card that can stand in for any other card in a meldin telefunken, the joker World Telefunken Coordinating Body. n. the organization responsible for promoting the playing of telefunken and elefunken across the world and for certifying the official Huth rules of the game WTCB. abbrev. World Telefunken Coordinating Body xenofunker. n. & a person who has never heard of telefunken youngest hand. n. & the player who plays last in any round of a card game (always the dealer in telefunken) zealofunker. n. & a fanatical telefunken aficionado
Certification of Official Telefunken Rules

The World Telefunken Coordinating Body is responsible for promoting the playing of telefunken and elefunken across the world and for approving the official Huth rules of the games. The members of the WTCB consist of all six children of Donald Huth and Maureen Tanner, spouses of those offspring, and grandchildren of Don and Maureen Huth over the age of 10. The WTCB has never met in formal session and was only organized on 30 December 2000 to serve as the authorizing body for the first codified set of telefunken and elefunken rules. The signatories to this document certify that the rules as codified by Geof Huth in December 2000 and presented in Telefunken: The Official Huth Rules and Cardways represent the official rules of the games of telefunken and elefunken (AKA double telefunken) as played by the Huth family. Alexandra R. Huth Erick E. Huth Erin M. Huth Geoffrey A. Huth Jacquelynne E.-A. Huth John A. Huth Jonathan Huth Judy Huth Nancy F. Huth Nicholas A. Huth Timothy L. Huth Kathleen A. Powell Michael Powell Douglas S. Renfro Jeannine A. Renfro Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 31 Dec 2000 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 1 Jan 2001 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 12/31/00 Date: 12/31/00 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 12/30/00 Date: 30 Dec 00 Date: 30 Dec 00 Date: 30 Dec 00 Date: 1/1/01 Date: 12/30/00
The World Telefunken Coordinating Body by Family

Progenitors Children of Donald Huth and Maureen Tanner Spouses of These Children WTCB Grandchildren of Donald Huth and Maureen Tanner (Upcoming WTCB Grandchildren) Donald E. Huth Maureen E. Tanner Geoffrey A. Huth Nancy F. Huth Erin M. Huth Timothy L. Huth Erick E. Huth Judy Huth Jonathan Huth Nicholas A. Huth Alexandra R. Huth Kathleen A. Powell Michael Powell (Jacob R. Powell) (Lillian J. Powell) (Thomas R. Powell) Jeannine A. Renfro Douglas S. Renfro (Martin E. Renfro) Jacquelynne E.-A. Huth John A. Huth Date: 1 Jan 2001 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 12/30/00 Date: 1/1/01 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 30 Dec 00 Date: 31 Dec 2000 Date: 12/31/00 Date: 12/31/00 Date: 12/30/00 Date: 30 Dec 2000 Date: 30 Dec 00 Date: 30 Dec 00
Appendix Telefunkiana
two pair, four-flusher, crazy eights Telefunken Rules under Leisure on Fernando Martincic Website
Fernando Martincic could certainly be a South American, which would explain his familiarity with the game of telefunken. What is remarkable in these rules presented here, however, is that they are so different from the ones we play by. Here they deal 12 cards and play 12 hands, while we play eleven and seven. The rounds are similar, but not the same as the ones we play. Here deuces are wild, and you need a pair of cards in the same denomination to take the joker from an of-a-kind. And here you get extra points for going out early in a hand, and the scoring is not identical to our rules (only aces, face cards, fives and tens are scored as in our version). I present these rules just as information for those people wondering what telefunken really is. 1. 1/3 + 4 2. 2/3 + 4 3. 1/4 + 4 4. 3/3 5. 4+4 6. 1/4 + 5 7. 1/3 + 7 8. 2/5 9. 5+5 10. 1/8 11. 10 12. 2/3 fractions are sets, whole numbers are runs deuces and jokers are wild deal 12 cards to every player dealer calls game then flips over a card pull from discard pile + 3 cards 15 pulls/person (18 pulls if 4 or more players) must always discard a card (but not a wild card) can remove wild cards from triples by substituting with 2 of the card the wild is replacing double points for dropping all cards before anyone else triple points for dropping all cards before anyone else on first turn precedence for pulling from discard pile follows the deal 3 through 9 worth 5 points each 10 through K worth 10 points each Aces worth 15 points Wild cards worth 20
Los tres primos y las cartas

por Elena Huth
Una chica, se llama Alejandra viva en Tennessee. Tiene un hermano, se llama Nicolas. Tienen un primo se llama Timoteo. Timoteo viva en Nueva York y no visitar sus primos muchas veces.
Pero, cuando Timoteo visita Tennessee, los tres primos divertirse. Ellos siempre jugan juegos juntas. Se gustan jugar a las cartas,
El juego a las cartas favorito de ellos es Telefunken. Ellos aprenden este juego de sus padres. Es un juego de todo la familia.
Pero, a veces los chicos no llevanse bien. Cuando uno de los chicos perden, ya no quiere jugar. El otro chico est ganado, bularse del otro chico a veces.
El primer chico no quiere ser un perdidor y ponerse furioso. Cuando este occure, los tres primos no puede jugar. Los dos chicos pelean juntos cuando no les gustan el juego.
La chica no pelea con los chicos. Despues de pelear, Timoteo vea la tele y Nicolas va a su casa.
Alejandra siempre lea despues de ver pelean. Usualmente, los chicos no estan enojado por muchos dias. Pero, cuando los tres chicos estan jugando a las cartas hoy, algo differente occure. Timoteo y Nicolas estan peleando de siempre.
Timoteo est ganado y Nicolas est perdido. Timoteo ets riendose al Nicolas. Nicolas no le gusta este y va a su casa. Timoteo pienso que puedo rierse a Nicolas porque Nicolas siempre esta riendose a su.
Alejandra es preocupada de este situacin. Este situacion no occuro antes de este da. Alejandra es una chica amable. No pelea con Timoteo o Nicolas. Siempre bien educado y practico.
Alejandra conoce que hacer por su hermano y su primo la mayoria del tiempo. Pero, este prolema es differente. Alejandra trata de hablar con Timoteo.
Alejandra habla por telefono a su hermano tambin. Pero, este tiempo Timoteo y Nicolas son demasiado enojado. No quieren hablas juntas. Timoteo no visita o habla con Nicolas y Nicolas no visita o habla con Timoteo.
Este tiempo Alejandra no puede ayudarse los chicos. Alejandra habla con su tia Ana sobre la problema. Ana es la madre de Timoteo tambin. Ana piensa que Timoteo y Nicolas pueden ver una pelcula.
Los chicos quieren ver la misma pelcula y van juntas. Timoteo y Nicolas les gustan la pelicula y charlan la da completo. Los chicos piensan que deben jugar a las cartas con Alejandra.
Cuando jugan Telefunken Timoteo y Nicolas saben que disfrutar estan cerca de el uno al otro. Ahora, Timoteo y Nicolas jugan juntas y Alejandra est contento con la situacion. Los tres primos siempre jugan juntas sin problemas.
La moraleja de este cuento es si tienes primos o hermanos siempre es amable. Jugan son ellos sin argumentos o problemas. Si haces este, tu quiere jugar todos los das con sus amigos, hermanos, primos y toda la gente.

According To Huth: The Official Huth Telefunken Rules and Cardways

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According to Huth

The Official Huth Telefunken Rules and Cardways

Telefunken The Official Huth Rules and Cardways

written, designed, and codified by

shovel, ice, puppyfoot, love

Card Table of Contents

Playing Double Telefunken (or Elefunken)

Role of the Joker Order of Play

A History of Telefunken in the Huth Family

Object of the Game

Cards Used for the Game

Shuffling and Cutting the Deck

Picking for Pick

Picking for Deal

Counting Cards in Hands

Roles of the Joker

Re-Placing a Card Discarded Facedown

What Constitutes a Telefunken Run

Adding to Another Players Meld

Playing Double Telefunken (or Elefunken)

The Name of the Game

Cards Used for the Game

Picking for Deal

Role of the Joker

The Telefunken Playing Field

The Eldest Hand

Used Chips Pile

Discard Pile Players Chips

Bottom of Pick-Up Pile

Sample Telefunken Hand Organizational Schemes

Sample Scheme for an Of-a-Kind Hand

Sample Scheme for a Telefunken Hand Hand

Hints for New Players

Especially if young, begin your apprenticeship in telefunken as a member of a team.

Discard high-point singletons first.

Dont necessarily discard high cards from a pair.

Dont buy in telefunken until two fours.

Arrange the cards in your hand in a logical order.

Save three chips for the telefunken round.

Pay close attention to discards during the telefunken round.

Generally, try to make high-card runs.

Dont always meld as soon as you can.

If all else fails, just discard your high cards.

Count cards in whatever way is easiest for you.

Set up a standard deck of telefunken cards.

Huthian Card Etiquette

Do not bend the cards.

Keep your cards above the table.

Do not help veteran players play the game.

Do not touch the pick-up pile while waiting for a discard.

Do not play other peoples hands or pay for their buys.

Pay attention to the game.

Dont count your points out loud.

Stock Telefunken Jokes and Turns of Speech

Changing the names of the players.

What do we have to get?

What hand is this?

See you later!

Why cant this be telefunken? Or Is this telefunken?

Ive got eleven one-of-a-kind!

Are you going out?

I see your <queen>.

I see your <queen> and raise you a <king>.