Cabbages and Kings is a trick-taking game played with a 44-card deck. There are four suits, each numbered 1-11: kings, cabbages, ships, and shoes.
The deal will generally not come out evenly: extra cards are set aside and given to the winner of the first trick. Before the first trick each player passes three cards to the player on their left.
Play is standard trick-taking: players must follow suit and may play anything if they cannot. There is no trump.
Player start with 50 points and they gain or lose points based on cards taken. Kings are worth 2 and cabbages -1. In addition the "big ship" (apparently the 10) is worth 10 and the "old shoe" is worth -10. The first player to reach 100 points wins.
The theme of the game comes from a Lewis Carroll poem, 'The Walrus and the Carpenter', wherein the main characters talk of many things, including: shoes, ships, sealing-wax, cabbages, and kings.