A Card Game

This post explains the rules of a card game that I used to play at school with my friends. We called it Blackjack, although it’s not at all like the game usually called Blackjack.

I’m not sure where the game came from originally – probably it was based on some other game, but we added several of our own rules to it over time. I think it’s a little like Uno, conceptually, although I’ve never played Uno.

Brief Overview

The aim of the game is to be the first to get rid of all of your cards.

In one turn you may play some cards according to the rules listed below. In a turn you can play a potentially large number of cards, and can also do things that cause other players to pick up new cards.

Setup

Each player is dealt cards from a shuffled deck, until there are no cards left.

Like most card games, the players should sit in a circle-like formation around a table.

An arbitrary player goes first. It doesn’t matter at all, but it’s common to pick whoever is to the left hand side of the dealer.

To begin with, turns proceed clockwise around the circle. Note that this direction can change later in the game.

Structure of a Turn

Picking up cards

At the start of your turn, first consider whether the last player’s turn caused you to pick up some cards. This can be the case if they ended their turn by playing a pick-up card (a 2 or a Jack). If you don’t, simply skip this step.

If you do have to pick up some cards, you can play an Ace to cancel this, thereafter playing your turn as usual as if starting normally with this Ace. Alternatively, you can play one or more other pick-up cards (following the normal rules of playing cards) to prevent picking up anything yourself, but adding to the amount of cards to pick up for the next player.

Failing either of these, you must pick up the correct number of cards. Your turn ends immediately after doing so.

Playing Cards

This subsection describes the basic rules of playing cards. It ignores most special cases caused by playing power cards, which are described later.

Play a card which matches the suit or rank of the last card played. If you can’t, you have to pick up a new card and end your turn now.
You may end your turn here, or play more cards. If you want to play more cards, you have to start by playing one or more cards of the same rank as the card you played in step 1.
If you decided to play more cards, you must now go back to step 1 in order to play at least one more card. This is called “capping off”.
- Capping off your turn is not required after playing Jacks or 2’s. This is to facilitate ending your turn on pick-up cards, since they otherwise have no effect.
- Notice that this allows you to loop potentially many times, playing lots of cards. Importantly, it also means that you cannot end a turn playing exactly two of some rank (without picking up a new card), but can with three or more (because the third, etc., can count as the additional card played in step 1 after looping.)

Winning

To win the game, you have to get rid of all your cards so that you have an empty hand.

You cannot win by playing a power card as your final card. In this case, you have to pick up one new card.

Power Cards

Some cards act differently when played. They’re known as Power Cards. They are: Ace, 2, 3, 8, J, Q, K.

For each Power Card, the corresponding operation occurs at the moment that it’s played (during a turn). Some Power Cards have additional rules about when they may be played.

Ace (Choose new suit)

Can be played on top of any card in step one of the instructions.
- It cannot act as just any rank, when it comes to step two. This means that you couldn’t play 3h Ah Ac as a turn.
When played, you can specify any suit. This card now acts as if it is that suit, for the purposes of cards being played on it in step one.
As mentioned previously, if played first in a turn it can negate picking up cards from previous pick-up cards.

Two (Pick up 2)

Add two to the number of cards that the next player must pick up.
As with all pick-up cards, it’s only effective if played as part of a consecutive run of pick-up cards at the end of a turn.

Three (Must play something valid)

You must immediately play any matching (suit or rank) card on top of it.
- (Or pick up one)
You can think of this as resetting the turn back to step 1.

Eight (Skip a person)

Skip the next person who would have had a turn, this round.
Multiple eights can be played in one turn, in which case several people can be skipped.
- You can skip so many people that it’s your turn next. This can lead to interesting scenarios.

Jack (Pick up)

Add something to the number of cards that the next player must pick up.
- If it’s a red Jack, add 3.
- If it’s a black jack, add 5.
As with all pick-up cards, it’s only effective if played as part of a consecutive run of pick-up cards at the end of a turn.

Queen (Must play anything)

You must play some card on top of it. You’re allowed to play anything.
Similar to the Three, it effectively jumps to step 1. The difference between the Three is that you can play any card on top of the Queen.

King (Reverse direction)

Reverse the direction at which turns progress, flipping between clockwise and counter-clockwise.
- This can interact with Eights in a strange way. Eights skip in the current turn direction, which can change during the course of a turn.

Notes for Playing

Moving Cards from the play pile to the deck

At the start of the game, there is no deck from which to draw new cards, since all of the cards are in the players’ hands. Of course, at some point, such a deck will be necessary, so that players can pick up cards when they are required to.

To facilitate this, it’s necessary to occasionally remove all but the top card of the play pile and shuffle it into the deck.

Still, there could be a situation where a player must pick up more cards than are in the deck and that are available to move into the deck from the play pile. In this case, you can either:

Pick up as many cards as possible, exhausting the deck and play pile or
Do as in option 1, but remember how many cards you still need “in debt”, and pick them up as and when they become available.

I can’t remember which option we used when we played. Probably 1, since 2 sounds like a hassle…

Example Turns

If I’m playing first in a game (i.e. the play pile is empty), then here are some simple turns which do not result in the player having to pick up any extra cards themselves.

Example 1. 9h (9 of hearts)
Example 2. 9h 9c 4c
Example 3. 9h 9c 3c 4c
Example 4. Js Jc Jh

And here are some examples which, due to not “capping off” the turn, the player must pick up one card from the deck after playing.

Example 5. ø (no cards played)
Example 6. 9h 9c

Here are some moves which utilise power cards, showing how different ones interact with prior pick-up cards. In the following set of examples, the previous turn was 9c 9h Jh, hence three cards are to be picked up, and Jh is at the top of discard.

Example 7. ø <pick up three cards from deck>
Example 8. Ac
Example 9. Jc

Here’s an example of a particularly long turn.

Example 10. Ks Kc 6c 6h 6d 6s Qs 8h 8d 3d 4d 4h As Ac Ad Ah Jh Jd Jc Js

To clarify some points about example 10:

Two kings are played at first. This switches next-turn direction twice, so it’s unchanged.
Two 8’s are played, thereby skipping the next two players. This takes effect after this turn.
Four Jacks are played at the end, forcing the next player whose turn it is to pick up 3+3+5+5=16 cards if they’re unable to cancel it with Aces (which they can’t, since all the Aces were played in this turn), and unable to add to the pick-up with at least a 2 of spades.

Written 22 Jul 2024 by Jacob Garby

Jacob Garby

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