Moames

Tally Fifteen

About Tally Fifteen

Tally Fifteen is a card game of quick sums. Sixteen cards lie face up, and you clear any group that adds up to exactly 15. Big groups score far more than pairs, but spending your small cards too freely can leave the picture cards stranded with nothing to match.

How to play

  1. Tap cards to pick them. The Sum counter shows their total.
  2. When the total reaches exactly 15, the cards clear and new ones are dealt from the deck.
  3. Aces count 1, number cards count their number, and jacks, queens and kings count 10.
  4. If a pick goes over 15, it is cancelled. The game ends when no group on the board adds up to 15.

Scoring

A set scores its number of cards squared, times 10. Two cards earn 40 points, three earn 90, four earn 160 and five earn 250. One five-card set is worth more than three two-card sets, so it is worth looking past the first pair you see. Drawing the last card from the deck earns a 300-point bonus.

The deck

The game uses all 52 cards. Sixteen start on the board and the other 36 wait in the deck, which deals a new card into every gap you clear. The values in a full deck add up to 340, which is not a multiple of 15, so the board itself can never be cleared completely. The real goal is to get through the deck and pick up the bonus before you run out of sets.

Look after the tens

There are 16 cards worth 10 in the deck: the tens and every jack, queen and king. Each one needs exactly 5 more to make 15, from a five, a four and an ace, a three and a two, or similar. Fives are the simplest partner, so do not spend them carelessly. A board full of tens with no small cards left is the most common way for a game to end.

Big sets versus safe sets

Small cards make the biggest sets. Ace, 2, 3, 4 and 5 add up to 15 for a 250-point set. But those same small cards are the ones the tens need. When you take a big set, check that at least one way to pair off the tens remains on the board. If not, a smaller set that uses a ten may keep the game going longer, and more sets usually mean more points in the end.

Controls

Tap a picked card again to put it back, or press Escape to clear your whole pick. New game shuffles a fresh deck at any time, and your best score is saved in this browser.

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