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Sabacc

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a card game played in most every casino, sabacc used a standard deck of seventy-six cards. The deck was split into four suits and a set of face cards. The four suits were represented by sabres, coins, flasks, and staves; each suit had eleven regular cards numbered 1 through 11 and four ranked cards - the Commander, The Mistress, the Master, and the Ace. The ranked cards were valued from twelve to fifteen. The face cards - which some players considered to be a separate "suit" - were split into two groups of eight cards, with pairs having positive and negative values. Among the face cards were The Idiot (value zero), the Queen of Air and Darkness (positive or negative 2), Endurance (positive or negative eight), Balance (positive or negative eleven), Demise (positive of negative thirteen), Moderation (positive or negative fourteen), the Evil One (positive or negative fifteen), and the Star (positive or negative seventeen). Note that Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu defines a sabacc deck of seventy-eight cards, while Galaxy of Fear 4 - The Nightmare Machine claims there are only 72 cards in a sabacc deck. Non-standard sabacc decks have included such face cards as Chance, Hazard, the Satellite, The Wheel, and The Destroyed Starship. Additionally, a ranked card known as the Legate was sometimes used, with a value less than that of the Commander. The object of each hand was to come as close to positive or negative twenty-three as possible. A score of greater than twenty-three, less than negative twenty-three, or zero was known as a "bomb-out." In a sabacc match, there were multiple rounds played, and wagering occurs in each round. The winner of each hand won the contents of the hand pot, while the sabacc pot was kept separate for the winner of the entire match. According to most gaming experts, there were five major forms of sabacc played across the galaxy. Many beings, Lando Calrissian among them, claimed to be able to tell fortunes with a deck of sabacc cards. The various cards were used like tarot cards, and Lando considered the Commander of Staves to be a representation of himself. The Ryn nomad Droma claimed that the Ryn were the original inventers of the sabacc deck, but they used it as a spiritual training device: in other words, to tell fortunes Each suit represented an aspect of the individual's being - staves represented spiritual enterprise, flasks represented emotional states, saber represented mental pursuits, and coins represented material well-being. The ranked cards indicated individuals of specific inclination, and the face cards represented specific events or actions.