Play Time Cards Games

I used to travel a lot for work, and got into the habit of carrying around a pack of playing cards - for downtime at a bar, or when stuck waiting out yet another train cancellation. The playing cards have seen plenty of daylight at home and during family gatherings too!

The card game I’m about to tell you about has to be my favourite. I won’t disclose what I call the game - it’s a naughty word - but I will share how to play the game because I’ve had so much fun with it over the years.

The Game

Setup

The setup is a little long-winded as far as card games go, but stick with me and hopefully you will enjoy the fruits of your labour.

• A deck of cards is shuffled (without Jokers).
• Each player is dealt 3 cards face down.
  • The dealer deals cards to themselves last.
  • Players are not allowed to view these cards.
• Each player is then dealt a hand of 7 cards.
• The remaining cards are placed face-down in the centre of all the players, we’ll refer to this set of cards as “the stack”.
• Each player selects 3 cards from their hand to place face-up on top of their face-down cards.
• Each player should have 4 cards remaining in their hand.
  • These should be kept hidden from other players.

Once you’ve completed the above steps you should see something like this in front of you:

Gameplay

Before we play, it’s important that you understand:

• Suits don’t matter.
• An Ace has the value of 11.
• Royals (Jack, Queen, King) all have a value of 10.

I should also tell you about the “power cards” and their mechanics. A power card can be played at any time, allowing you to display complete disregard of the card played before your turn. Relish the moment.

I’ll list the power cards and their impact here:

Now that you have the knowledge, it’s time to exert your power! This is the flow of a player’s turn:

• Player who received a card from the dealer first, goes first.
• Player picks up a card from the stack, if it still exists.
  • The player doesn’t need to reveal the card they picked up from the stack.
• Player places a card from their hand, face-up, next to the stack.
  • We’ll call this pile of cards “the heap”.
  • If there’s a card already on the heap, the player must place a card that is of higher value than the card at the top of the heap, or a power card.
• If the player has no cards in their hand, they should play any one of their face-up cards.
• If the player has no cards in their hand and no remaining face-up cards, they must play any one of their face down cards, without viewing it.
• If the player doesn’t have a card they can play, or their face-down play doesn’t beat the card on top of the heap, they must add the heap to their hand.
• Next player’s turn, dealer goes last.

The first player to have no cards left is the winner. The remaining players continue to play until there is one player remaining. That remaining player is the loser.

Please shout if I need to elaborate on how to play this game. And do let me know if you play this game, how you enjoyed it, and what you’ve decided to name it.

Do you have a favourite game to play with a deck of playing cards?