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Goal

Score the most points over 3 rounds. Everybody starts with 5 points. Lay clues, win the tricks that bury them, and avoid plot holes.

Cards

Use a standard 52-card deck and both Jokers, 54 cards.

Ranking

In each suit the Ace is highest and the 2 is lowest. Hearts ♥ are trump. An Alibi (Joker) has no rank and no suit, and it never wins a trick unless every card in the trick is an Alibi.

Starting hand

Shuffle all 54 cards every round. Deal each player the number of cards below, and set the rest aside face down. Nobody looks at them.

The first player moves one seat to the left each round.

Play

1. Lay clues. Starting with the first player and going to the left, each player either lays one card from their hand face up in front of them as a clue, or passes. A pass is final. You can lay up to the clue limit, and an Alibi can’t be a clue. Each clue is a promise to win a trick that matches it. Planning ends when everybody has passed.
2. Recant. While nobody has passed yet, a player who has laid clues can recant instead of passing: take every clue back into your hand. That counts as your pass, so only the first player to pass can ever recant.
3. Play tricks. The last player to pass leads the first trick. The round lasts as many tricks as the smallest hand holds, and the cards left in bigger hands aren’t played.
4. Follow suit if you can. If you can’t, play any card. An Alibi can be played at any time, even when you could follow suit. If an Alibi is led, the first other card played sets the suit to follow.
5. Win the trick. The highest heart wins. If no heart was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. A trick of nothing but Alibis goes to the first one played. The winner leads the next trick.
6. Bury a clue. The winner puts the trick under one of their own clues that it matches. A clue matches when it has the same rank as the winning card, the same suit as the winning card, or the same suit as the suit led, even if the winning card isn’t of that suit. If several clues match, the winner chooses one. A buried clue is finished.
7. Or keep a plot hole. A trick that matches none of the winner’s unburied clues is a plot hole. It stays face up beside the winner’s clues. A trick of nothing but Alibis is always a plot hole.

Scoring

At the end of each round, add up your points:

• +2 for each clue you buried.
• −1 for each plot hole. A clue left unburied is a plot hole too.
• +5 if you have no plot hole at all. This is the perfect crime.

A player with no clues, including one who recanted, is snitching. A snitch who wins no tricks scores 10 and nothing else. When a snitch wins no tricks, nobody scores the perfect crime that round, and every plot hole costs 2 instead of 1. A snitch who wins a trick scores like everybody else, and every trick they win is a plot hole.

A total never goes below 0. After 3 rounds the highest total wins. A tie goes to whoever of the tied players scored the most in the last round, and if that ties too the win is shared.

Playing with your own deck

You need paper and a pencil to keep score.

How this version differs

• The deck is a standard deck plus both Jokers. This version uses those 54 cards at every table size, with hearts as trump, 2 Alibis, and the deal and clue limits above. The published game has its own 60-card deck of four suits numbered 1 to 15, removes the high cards at smaller tables, and has 4 Getaway cards.
• Recant and the Alibis are always in the game. In the published rules they’re optional variants, Double-Cross and the Getaway cards.

Open the rules page