Recycling the Deck

Once in a while, a half-inning drags on long enough that the draw pile runs out of cards. It's distracting, but when that many cards have turned over for a single side, it means there's been a heck of a lot of hitting. How many cards does it take to use up the entire draw pile?

Here's the Deal

Each half-inning (or "hand" if you prefer the card term), starts with twenty cards dealt to players, and 32 cards remaining in the draw pile. The shortest possible sequence is three consecutive flyouts on the first pitch to each of three batters. In this rare scenario, only four cards would be drawn from the pile: one for the pitcher and one for the fielder after each of the first two hitters.  (On the third out, no more cards need to be drawn.)

In another "three up, three down" scenario in which three batters strike out, eight cards are drawn: three for the pitcher for each of the first two hitters, and only two for the third hitter. (On the last strike of the third out, a card does not need to be drawn.)

Drawing the Pile Out

The most cards that can possibly come off the draw pile for any given at-bat is six. This occurs when a batter hits the third pitch: the Pitcher draws a new card for each of this three pitches, and a new batter gets three new cards. With 32 cards on the draw pile at the start, it will thus take until at least the sixth batter before the draw pile will run out. Under "normal" circumstances, it takes longer.

Mechanics of Recyling

Collect up all the discarded strikes and the "out" piles and shuffle thoroughly to create a new draw pile. Do not include any cards that scored runs during that hand — leave those face up in front of the offense or on/near home plate.  The fact that these cards are now missing from the draw pile adds yet another interesting opportunity for Lady Luck to visit you (or the other guys!)

Proper Dealing

For some reason, it has taken a long time to figure out the best way to deal the cards in Kardball.  To be honest, we never much cared.  But as the game becomes more and more serious, little things like the order in which the cards are dealt become quite contentious.  We have to set a standard.

We have finally established a convention for dealing a Kardball half-inning.  This will work equally well for teams of any size.  In an unofficiated game, the Pitcher will deal the cards, one card at a time starting with the first batter, then the fielder(s), and so on.  The Pitcher will receive the last three cards dealt (or drawn from the draw pile).  In a game controlled by an umpire, the order is the same, but the umpire deals the cards.

The following diagram shows the order in which cards should be dealt out.

That's that!  No more confusion.  Look for this detail to be added to the Official Rules in a future revision.