How to Play

Newmarket (also Michigan, Boodle, Stops) is a classic British stops-and-boodle card game for 3 to 8 players. Four 'boodle' cards from a second deck receive chip antes; players then play ascending sequences in suit, claiming boodle chips when their plays match and racing to empty their hand first and sweep the kitty.

Newmarket (also Michigan, Boodle, Stops, Chicago, Saratoga) is a classic British 'stops' card game for 3 to 8 players, dating from the 1880s and named after the English racing town. A second-deck set of four boodle cards (typically an Ace, King, Queen, and Jack, each of different suits) is laid out in the centre of the table, and before each hand every player antes chips onto their favourite boodle cards plus a single chip to a central kitty. The 52-card pack is then dealt evenly between all players PLUS one extra 'dead' or 'widow' hand that sits face-down and is not used. Play proceeds as a stops game: the first leader plays the lowest card of any suit; whoever holds the next ascending card in that suit plays it (out of turn), and so on until the sequence STOPS, either at the King or because the next card is in the dead hand or has already been played. The last player to legally contribute starts a fresh sequence, required to lead a different suit if possible, with the lowest card they hold. Whenever a player plays a card matching one of the four boodle cards, they claim every chip staked on it. The first player to empty their hand wins the kitty and collects one chip per card still in each opponent's hand. Any unclaimed chips on boodle cards carry over to the next deal.

Players

3 to 8 players, each for themselves. 5 or 6 is the sweet spot; fewer players make the dead hand too large and too many stops, while more than 8 makes hands tiny and the game shallow. Turn order for starting the first sequence is left of the dealer, but within a sequence the 'turn' simply jumps to whoever holds the next required card. The first dealer is chosen by a cut (highest card); the deal rotates clockwise.

Card Deck and Boodle Cards

• Main pack: standard 52-card pack, no jokers.
• Boodle cards: four cards taken from a SEPARATE second pack and set out face-up in the centre. The classic 1885 selection is the Ace of Spades, King of Hearts, Queen of Clubs, and Jack of Diamonds, but modern rules often simply specify 'any Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of four different suits'.A♠K♥Q♣J♦
• Rank order (for sequences): Aces are low. Sequences run A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and always stop at the King because there is no rank above it.A♠K♠
• Chips or counters are needed; a casual home set of 40 chips per player is enough for an evening. Chips can represent pennies, matchsticks, or abstract score units.

Objective

Win two ways: (a) collect chips by playing cards that match the four boodle cards in the centre, and (b) be the first to empty your hand, which sweeps the central kitty and charges every remaining opponent 1 chip per card they still hold. Over a session the richest chip stack wins.

Setup and Ante

1. Before the first deal, everyone agrees on the boodle-card identities (e.g., A♠, K♥, Q♣, J♦) and lays those four cards from a second deck face-up in the centre.A♠K♥Q♣J♦
2. Each player antes 5 chips: 1 to a central kitty and 4 to the boodle cards in any distribution they like (all 4 on one card, 1 on each card, 3 on one and 1 on another, or any other split).
3. The dealer shuffles the main 52-card pack; the player to the dealer's right cuts.
4. Deal the ENTIRE 52-card pack face-down, one card at a time, to each player AND to one extra 'dead' hand placed face-down in the centre. With 4 players, for instance, you deal 5 hands (10 cards each +2 dead, rounded by suit). With 5 players, 6 hands (8+ cards each plus dead). Nobody looks at the dead hand; it is the main source of stops.
5. Any chips left over on boodle cards from the previous hand remain in place; new antes stack on top.
6. The player to the dealer's left leads the first sequence.

Playing a Sequence

1. The first lead plays the LOWEST card of any suit they hold. They announce it aloud (for example, 'Three of clubs').3♣
2. Any player holding the next card up IN THE SAME SUIT plays it immediately, announcing it; they do not have to wait for their turn.
3. Sequences ascend one rank at a time in the same suit: 3♣, 4♣, 5♣, 6♣, and so on.3♣4♣5♣6♣
4. If multiple players could in theory both hold the same next card, that cannot happen: the 52-card pack has one of each, so at most one player holds the next card.
5. Playing a card that matches one of the four face-up boodle cards immediately wins all chips stacked on that boodle card; any ties (another player had also matched its boodle) are resolved in the obvious first-come-first-served order since sequences are linear.

Stops: When a Sequence Ends

1. A sequence stops when NO player can or will play the next ascending card in the same suit. The three causes are: (a) the next card is sitting in the dead hand and cannot be played; (b) the King of the current suit has just been played (Kings always stop the sequence, since there is no rank above); (c) no player holds the next card because it has already been played earlier in the hand (possible only under multi-pack variations).
2. The player who played the LAST card before the stop becomes the new leader.
3. The new leader starts a fresh sequence with the LOWEST card they hold in a DIFFERENT suit; if they have no card in a different suit, they may lead the lowest card of the same suit as the previous sequence.
4. If the new leader has run out of cards, the lead passes clockwise to the next player who still has cards; they then lead their lowest card of any suit.

Winning a Hand and Collecting Chips

1. The first player to play their last card (empty their hand) is the hand winner.
2. The hand winner immediately collects the entire central KITTY (the 1-chip per player ante pile).
3. The hand winner also charges every remaining opponent 1 chip for each card that opponent still holds. Pay immediately from opponent chip stacks to the winner.
4. Boodle chips already collected during play stay with whoever won them. Boodle cards that were NEVER matched during the hand keep their chip stacks for the next hand; new antes layer on top.
5. The deal rotates clockwise; the next player becomes dealer and everyone antes again.

Session and Winning the Game

Newmarket is typically played for a set number of deals (often 5, 10, or until everyone but one player runs out of chips) or for a fixed time. At the end of the session, the player with the most chips wins the session. In casual holiday play, the session simply ends when everyone is tired or the hosts declare last hand.

Common Variations

• Michigan (American): the most widely played variant in the US, mechanically identical but often using A, K, Q, J of the same suit as the boodle cards, all taken from a second pack; also sometimes played with a buyable dead hand.A♠K♠Q♠J♠
• Boodle: another American name; rules identical to standard Newmarket.
• Saratoga / Chicago: variants named after American cities; they typically change the boodle card identities or the ante structure but keep the core stops-sequence mechanic.
• Buy-the-dead-hand: after the deal and a look at their hand, the dealer may pay an agreed fee (often 4 chips) to swap their hand for the dead hand. The discarded hand becomes the new dead hand.
• Progressive stakes: boodle cards that go unclaimed grow their chip stacks from deal to deal, sometimes reaching large piles that create dramatic single-card payouts.
• Pope Joan stops heritage: Newmarket descends directly from the older Pope Joan family of stops games; the mechanics are clearly related, and a Pope-Joan-style circular board can be used instead of loose boodle cards.

Tips and Strategy

• When leading a fresh sequence, lead LOW in a suit where you hold many cards; you keep more consecutive cards in the same sequence and are more likely to play several in a row.
• Before anteing, look at which boodle cards most often get played in your group; if the Queen rarely lands, skew your chips toward the others.
• If you hold a boodle card (say Q♣), try to get the sequence into clubs so you can play it; leading a low club early is often worth the positional cost.Q♣
• Tracking stops is the main counting skill. Once a specific suit has stopped once, note which card caused it; that information narrows where the dead hand's cards are.
• Do not hoard low cards for big sequences later. An early empty hand wins the kitty plus 1 chip per opponent card; the longer you linger, the more you may lose if someone else goes out first.
• When forced to lead after a stop, prefer the lowest card of a suit that has not yet been opened; your opponents have less information about missing ranks there.

Glossary

• Boodle card: one of the four face-up second-deck cards on which chips are staked before each hand.
• Kitty: the central chip pile built from the per-player 1-chip ante, swept by the player who empties their hand.
• Dead hand / widow: the extra face-down hand dealt with the others; it is never played and is the main cause of stops.
• Stop: the end of a sequence when no player can play the next ascending card in the suit.
• Lead: the first card of a sequence; a player becomes the leader by being the last to contribute before a stop (or by being to the dealer's left for the first sequence).
• Ante: the pre-deal chip placement on boodle cards and to the kitty.
• Pope Joan family: the broader historical category of stops games from which Newmarket descends.