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Goal

Exchange cards with a face-up center row over several phases, then build 5-card poker hands from the cards you kept. Your strongest hand is compared with everybody else’s strongest, and so on down. The player with the most points wins.

Cards

Use a standard 52-card deck and 2 Jokers, 54 cards in all. Every card is dealt. What a Joker can do is set out under Hand rankings.

Setup

The number of players sets the shape of the game.

• 2 players play 3 phases. Each phase deals 5 cards to each player and 8 to the center. Each player takes 3 turns a phase and builds 3 hands at the end.
• 3 players play 3 phases. Each phase deals 4 cards to each player and 6 to the center. Each player takes 2 turns a phase and builds 2 hands at the end.
• 4 players play 2 phases. Each phase deals 5 cards to each player and 7 to the center. Each player takes 3 turns a phase and builds 2 hands at the end.

Play

1. Deal a phase. Deal each player their cards face down, then deal the center row face up.
2. Take turns to the left. The first player starts phase 1, and the start moves one player to the left with each new phase.
3. Exchange or pass. To exchange, take one center card into your hand and put one card from your hand face up in its place. To pass, keep your cards. Passing doesn’t end the phase, and you still take the rest of your turns.
4. Exchanges are open. Everybody sees the card you take and the card you give. The cards you were dealt stay secret.
5. End the phase. When everybody has taken their turns, discard the center row and set your hand aside. Those cards are now locked, and no later exchange can touch them. Deal the next phase from the rest of the deck.
6. Build your hands. After the last phase, everybody builds at the same time and in secret. Make your 5-card poker hands from your locked cards. With 3 players you have 2 cards left over, and they’re out of the game. Then everybody shows their hands.

Scoring

Put your hands in order from strongest to weakest. Compare everybody’s strongest hands, then everybody’s next strongest, and so on.

• In each comparison, the strongest hand scores 1 point fewer than the number of players: 1 point with 2 players, 2 with 3, and 3 with 4. Each place below scores 1 point fewer, down to 0 for the weakest hand.
• Equal hands each score the points for the better place, and the places they fill are used up. With 3 players, two hands tied for strongest score 2 each and the third scores 0.

The player with the most points wins. If players tie on points, the one whose weakest hand is stronger wins. If those hands are equal too, the tied players share the win.

Hand rankings

Hands rank from strongest, at the top, to weakest.