Also a
card game, played like this:
Deal each player four cards face down next to each other. They may not look at them. Then, deal each player a hand of seven cards, which they may look at. Each player then places four of his cards face up on the table, one on top of each of his face down cards.
Theoretically, you take your four highest/best cards for this purpose, but you can use whatever you want.
So, at this point, each player has four face down cards, each covered with a face up card, and a hand of three cards. Place the remaining deck in the middle of the table. Play begins with the dealer, and continues around.
The first person who has a three in their hand plays. (When I said "Play begins with the dealer, I meant that they have the first chance to play if they've got a three.) If no one has a three, then the first four starts, and so on.
Once a play has been made, the next player has to match or beat that card. If he can, he takes the card from his hand, and puts on top of the pile, and the next players has to beat that. Also, if you have more than one of a card, you can play both (if you want to, and if it's a valid play.) If I've got 2 sevens in my hand, and a 5's on top of the pile, I can play one or both sevens.
If you cannot play a card, you must pick up all the faceup cards. Whenever you play cards, if you have less than three cards in your hand, you must draw your hand up to three from the deck (while it lasts.)
Aces are high, and 2's and 10's have special rules. You can play a 10 or a 2 on anything. a 2 "clears" the pile--it's put off to one side, completely out of play for the game. A 10 just "resets" it--the cards stay there, and will eventually get picked up, but now any card, even a three, could be played. If you play a 10 or 2, you play again, not the next guy. As noted before, you can play cards equal to the card on top, and if all four cards of a number get played consecutively (For example, if I play 2 5's, the next guy plays another, and guy after that plays the last one) then it counts as if a 2 was played--the pile is cleared.
When the deck is empty and you run out of cards in your hand, you start playing from your face up cards. Same rules apply, everyone can just see your cards. As before, you can play more than one if you've got two of the same value.
When you run out of face-up cards, you play your face down cards, one at a time--and you can't look at them first. You just flip one over, and if it's valid, it stands--if not, you pick up.
The winner is the first guy completely out of cards--no hand, no faceups, no face downs.
It's quite a fun game. I admit, the strategy is not very complex, and with the amount of luck involved, I would not recommend betting on it. However, it is fun to play at parties/on trips/etc. As written, you could play with 2-4 players, though four would be pushing it--you need a good deck. You can play with more people by cutting the face-downs to only 3 cards, or similar.