House Rules
The great card games, played properly, in the rooms they were made for.
Five clubs across a century, from a gaslit Boston parlour to a Chicago supper club. Each room plays its own game, with real rules, opponents who can actually play, and regulars with something to hide. One membership opens every door, and the first one opens with Canasta Club.
One membership, five doors. The first is open; the rest open one at a time.
- 1888Boston
- 1925At sea
- 1941Culver City
- 1949New York · open first
- 1956Chicago
Card games, the way they deserve
Played properly
Every room plays one standard set of rules for its game, and plays it strictly. There are no house variants to learn and no table options to argue about.
Opponents worth sitting with
Most card apps ship computer players you can beat half-asleep. Ours count cards, remember what was discarded, and play properly with a partner, at three levels of difficulty.
A cast with a century of secrets
Every room has its regulars, and they have histories, grudges and one another. Some of them turn up decades later, older and saying less.
One membership, every room
Your Vinyl Owl account opens every door. Your name, your friends and your partnerships come with you from room to room, and each game keeps its own ladders and house standing.
Wherever you play
Browser, iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac and Windows. Sit down for a live game, take your turns by post, or play the regulars offline, with no connection at all.
The history, told properly
Each room keeps a house book of where its game came from: who invented it, where it spread, and what the rest of the story left out.
Five games, five eras, one door at a time
Each room is a real card game set in the years it belonged to. Canasta Club, at the Blue Lantern, opens first; the others follow, and their files are already open.
- No. 11888
The Lamplight Society
Hearts
Boston, 1888
4 players · every seat for itself
Gaslight, flocked wallpaper and a Beacon Hill parlour where everyone is polite about the scores.
Coming laterVisit the room → - No. 21925
The Meridian Room
Contract Bridge
At sea, 1925
4 players · partners across
The first-class card room of a transatlantic liner: sunburst panelling, portholes, and a Purser who knows everyone’s cabin.
Coming laterVisit the room → - No. 31941
Stage Nine
Gin Rummy
Culver City, 1941
2 players · head to head
A card table on a soundstage between set-ups, under the lights nobody has bothered to switch off.
Coming laterVisit the room → - No. 41949
The Blue Lantern
Canasta Club
New York, 1949
Partners, heads-up or three-handed
Two floors above a restaurant in the West Forties, with a membership from everywhere and nobody telling the whole truth.
Open firstVisit the room → - No. 51956
The Late Set
Spades
Chicago, 1956
4 players · partners across
A supper club between the first and second show, with the band on its break and the good table by the stage.
Coming laterVisit the room →
Some faces turn up more than once
The regulars don’t stay in one room. A passenger on a 1925 liner is still at the card table in 1949, and a Beacon Hill scandal has a granddaughter in pictures. Nobody will confirm any of it.
| Who | 1888The Lamplight Society | 1925The Meridian Room | 1941Stage Nine | 1949The Blue Lantern | 1956The Late Set |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Ashbys | Julian, 34 | Vivian, 29 · his granddaughter | |||
| The Quans | Quan Shing, 41 | Henry Quan, 70 | |||
| Nikolai Barsov | 34 · second class | 58 · a third of a taxicab | |||
| Ada Brennan | 34 · the other half | 58 · the quiet half | |||
| Emmett Calloway | The Major, 37 | The Colonel, 61 | |||
| Gerald Prym | 31 · asked to witness | 55 · drew the wills | |||
| Fay Marlowe | 27 · billed under another name | 35 · still not her name | |||
| The Late Set | Files sealed |
Every room keeps a file on its members, and every room has already opened one on you.
Every game has a story
- HeartsThe 1887 Hoyle called Hearts brand new: played only “for the last five years.”Read the house book →
- Contract BridgeContract bridge was born on a pleasure cruise, when Harold Vanderbilt rewrote the scoring in 1925.Read the house book →
- Gin RummyGin rummy spent thirty years as a New York secret, until Hollywood got hold of it in 1941.Read the house book →
- Canasta ClubCanasta is Spanish for “basket.” Its two inventors never saw a royalty.Read the house book →
- SpadesSpades was first dealt in Cincinnati in the late ’30s, then carried round the world by soldiers.Read the house book →
Posted at the Blue Lantern, by order of the committee
House rules
- Every table plays the same game. There are no house variants and no table options, because rules are the rules.
- In a partnership you may ask, “Partner, may I go out?” The answer binds you. If you go out on a yes and then can’t, your side pays a hundred.
- Red threes go face up on the table as soon as you get them.
- Leave a rated game and your side takes the loss. Lose your connection and you have two minutes to come back.
- House players never sit in a rated game, and never appear on the ladders.
- At ranked partnership tables there is no typed chat. The phrase book is always open.
The Committee
Before you sit down
Which game comes first?
Canasta Club — canasta, played at the Blue Lantern, New York, 1949. It opens in your browser first, then on iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac and Windows. The other four rooms follow one at a time.
Can I play against the computer?
Yes. Any seat can be filled by one of the regulars, at easy, medium or hard. You won’t be able to tell which from the name. The regulars play offline too, with no account needed. Games against the regulars never count toward the rated ladders.
Do I need a separate account for each game?
No. One Vinyl Owl account works in every room, and each new room is waiting for you when it opens. Live tables, rated games, named partnerships and a place on the ladders need you signed in with your Vinyl Owl account.
Why are the rules fixed?
So that a win means the same thing at every table. Each room plays its game’s standard rules, and the only thing that changes from table to table is who’s sitting at it.
Can I play with a friend as a team?
Yes. Two members can form a named partnership with its own rating and its own place on the ladders. You can still play with a pick-up partner whenever you like.
Canasta Club opens first
Canasta at the Blue Lantern, New York, 1949. It opens in your browser, then on your phone and your computer. Playtesters are at the tables now.
- Browser
- iPhone & iPad
- Android
- Mac
- Windows
Doors open to everyone · date to be announced
Then the Lamplight Society, the Meridian Room, Stage Nine and the Late Set, one room at a time.
The clubs and their members are fictional; the games’ histories are not.