The Game

The Game is Steffen Benndorf’s classic cooperative card game. One to five players work together to play all 98 cards. There are no individual points.

Lay out two 1 starting cards for ascending piles and two 100 cards for descending piles. Shuffle cards 2–99. Deal 8 cards solo, 7 each with two players, or 6 each with three to five players. The rest forms a face-down draw pile. Choose a starting player together, then take turns clockwise.

Play at least two cards on your turn, then refill your hand. Ascending piles go up and descending piles go down. A backwards trick allows exactly 10 lower on an ascending pile or exactly 10 higher on a descending pile.

Lay out two 1 starting cards for ascending piles and two 100 cards for descending piles. Shuffle cards 2–99. Deal 8 cards solo, 7 each with two players, or 6 each with three to five players. The rest forms a face-down draw pile. Choose a starting player together, then take turns clockwise.

Play cards individually on any piles. You may exceed the minimum, even emptying your hand. End your turn and draw back to your initial hand size, limited by the cards available. With an empty draw pile, the minimum is one card and players with empty hands leave the rotation. Backwards tricks may be repeated. Discuss strategy, but never disclose or ask for exact values in hands.

Play at least two cards on your turn, then refill your hand. Ascending piles go up and descending piles go down. A backwards trick allows exactly 10 lower on an ascending pile or exactly 10 higher on a descending pile.

The game ends as soon as the active player cannot play the required minimum. Playing all 98 cards is a shared victory; otherwise the team loses and counts remaining cards. Players must declare a blockage because the assistant does not know hidden hands.

Expert: play at least three cards per turn while the draw pile exists. For a further challenge, also reduce hand sizes by one: 7 solo, 6 with two players, 5 with three to five. The minimum becomes one when the draw pile is empty. On Fire, Extreme and Quick & Easy are excluded.

The collective result is the number of unplayed cards: every hand plus any draw pile cards. Fewer than ten remaining is an excellent result. There are no individual points or winners.

End of game

The game ends as soon as the active player cannot play the required minimum. Playing all 98 cards is a shared victory; otherwise the team loses and counts remaining cards. Players must declare a blockage because the assistant does not know hidden hands.