Figgie: Simulate stock trading with a deck of cards

FTA: <i>&quot;Figgie is a card game that was invented at Jane Street in 2013. It was designed to simulate open-outcry commodities trading.&quot;</i><p>This is crediting Jane Street in 2013 as if Pit didn&#x27;t exist since 1904:<p><i>&quot;Pit is a fast-paced card game for three to eight players, designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. The game first went on sale in 1904 by the American games company Parker Brothers.&quot;</i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pit_%28game%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pit_%28game%29</a><p>Certainly official mechanics vary, but there were always Pit variants for regular decks, and as long ago as the 1970s and 1980s there were rule variants that play like the linked game.<p>Parker Brothers&#x27; Pit cards were ornate in 1914, featuring the Bull and the Bear:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;americanhistory.si.edu&#x2F;collections&#x2F;nmah_323758" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;americanhistory.si.edu&#x2F;collections&#x2F;nmah_323758</a>

That&#x27;s a very interesting game mechanics.<p>It wonder if it can be adapted for playing with paper cards. One variation can be this one: shuffle a 40-card deck, discard 5 face down, it guarantees that there will be an unknown short suit (with 8 to 5 cards), the goal suit will have from 7 to 10 cards. Deal the remaining 35 cards, and start trading. With 4 players one player will be one card short, so they need a compensation like being able to reduce ante by some amount.<p>The balance of the game with 35 cards and random suit length will probably be different but the trading mechanics should be able to address that. So ante and payout per goal card may have to be changed.

It&#x27;s interesting that they say skill is about finding good trades -- my perception from playing a few times is that there&#x27;s a lot of subtlety in how many of what you offer, and how the information that you have those cards changes others views about which suit is the goal suit. A successful strategy I&#x27;ve pursued playing with other friends who have never played before is just selling all my cards for &gt;=$5 and making a small, consistent profit.

The images show cards with just the suits on them. Is that how the game is usually played?<p>It seems that playing with a normal deck (suits and ranks) would change the gameplay considerably. For example if you see the A-2-3-4-5-6 of one suit, trade them away, and later see the 7-8-9-T-J, you can be certain it&#x27;s the 12- card suit. Or more realistically you can do a probabilistic version of the same reasoning by seeing some cards and asking other players questions like &quot;do you have the 8 of diamonds&quot;.

Is this playable with physical cards in practice? It seems that there is a lot of handling of money, more than cards, which would be impossible to do with any speed.

These seems close to the game Pit.

How do you figure out which suit is the goal suit?