Components
- 1 standard 52-card deck, no Jokers
- Pen and paper for scoring
Objective
Score the fewest penalty points across all rounds. A round normally ends when one player has no cards in hand and no stuck cards in front of them. Play a number of rounds equal to the number of players; lowest total score wins.
Setup
- Shuffle and deal 7 cards to each player.
- Place the rest face down as the draw pile.
- Flip the top card face up to begin the discard pile.
- The player left of the dealer begins. Dealer rotates each round.
Stuck cards are face-down cards in front of a player. Do not look at them while face down. A player may have at most 3. They are not in hand, but must be cleared before going out.
Turn Overview
Compare your hand to the current face-up card and make one legal play:
- Play one or more cards matching its rank.
- Play exactly one matching-rank card, then any number of cards matching that played card’s suit.
- Play exactly one card matching the current suit.
- If you cannot play, draw one card and place it face down in front of yourself as a stuck card. If you already have 3 stuck cards, draw it into your hand.
The last card played becomes the new current face-up card.
Matching Rank
After playing one or more matching-rank cards, draw one card and stick it face down in front of another player. Give only one stuck card total. You may not give one to a player already holding 3; if every opponent has 3, skip the bonus.
One Matching Rank, Then Same Suit
Play exactly one card matching the current rank, then any number of additional cards matching that card’s suit. Then give one stuck card as above.
Matching Suit Only
Play exactly one card matching the current suit. No stuck card is given.
Draw Pile
If the draw pile runs out, leave the current face-up card in place and shuffle the rest of the discard pile to make a new draw pile.
Emptying Your Hand & Stalled Rounds
When you play your last hand card, if you have stuck cards, pick all of them up as your new hand. If you have no hand cards and no stuck cards, you immediately go out and end the round.
If every player takes a turn in sequence without playing any card, the round ends immediately. Reset that stalled-round count whenever anyone plays one or more cards.
Scoring
A player who goes out scores 0. Every other player scores 1 point per hand card plus 2 points per stuck card. If the round stalled, everyone scores by the same rule. After one round per player, lowest total score wins.