Egyptian rat screw is a card game. It is also known as Egyptian war or ERF, which stands for Egyptian Rat.. well, you get the idea.

It is a social game, and it is best played with 4+ players. The only limit to the number of players is how many you can fit around a table. If you are playing with a large group, you might want to shuffle in another deck of cards.

The cards are dealt out evenly to everyone until all the cards are gone. A few people might have an extra card, that's ok. All players must hold their deck face down, and ey are not allowed to look at eir cards. The object of the game is to get all of the cards.

Play begins with the player to the dealer's left playing eir top card face up on the center of the table. The next player plays eir top card face up on top of the previous card. Play continues like this, in a circle, until the game is over.

A few conditions exist that allow a player to take the whole pile:

If two cards of the same rank are on top of each other, anyone may slap the pile to win all of the cards. The person who slapped it first is the winner. Even if you are out of cards, or are joining late, you can "slap in" the game and join if you slap successfully.

If a player plays a Jack, Queen, King, or Ace, the next player has a certain number of turns to lay down another J, Q, K or A, (A "special card") depending on which card is played. A Jack gives the next player 1 turn, Queen 2, King 3, and Ace 4. If the next player does not lay down another special card, the player who played the special card takes the whole pile. If the player does play a special card, play continues.. So that now, the player after that must lay down a special card.

If that doesn't make sense, here is an example.

Play goes around in a circle.

The pile looks like this:

8 2 4 9 8 2 5 7 Q

Bob laid a Queen. This means Suzy (who goes after Bob) has two turns to lay down a special card. She lays down two cards.

8 2 4 9 8 2 5 7 Q 4 2

She didn't make it. Bob grabs the whole pile, and plays a new card.

3

Suzy plays a card.

3 A

Suzy now has 4 tries to play a special card.

3 A 8 3 J

She made it! Now Jane (who goes after Suzy), has one try to play a special card.

3 A 8 3 J 5

Suzy takes all the cards.