Juggling Act

Goal

Empty both of your hands before anyone else, and take cards into your score pile along the way. Each card in your score pile is worth 1 point, and each card still in your hands when the round ends costs 1.

Cards

One standard 52-card deck, with no Jokers.

Starting hand

Each player gets a hidden hand, which only they see, and a face-up hand laid out in front of them for everyone to see.

• 2 players: 9 hidden and 8 face up. 18 cards stay out, unseen.
• 3 players: 9 hidden and 8 face up. 1 card stays out, unseen.
• 4 players: 7 hidden and 6 face up.

Both hands stay in the order they were dealt. You may not sort them. Preparing is the only way to change the order.

Play

1. On your turn, throw or prepare. Then the player on your left takes a turn.
2. With nothing in play, you must throw. Any throw is valid.
3. To throw over the throw in play, yours must beat it (see Throws). Take the cards you beat face down into your score pile. Your throw is now the one in play.
4. To prepare, move 1 card from either of your hands to any other place in either hand, even a new place in the same hand, or move none (the Pass button). Then whoever owns the throw in play takes its lowest card face down into their score pile. You can prepare only when a throw is in play.
5. The owner is no exception. When your own throw is in play on your turn, you beat it or prepare like anyone else, and when you prepare, you take its lowest card yourself.
6. What’s left is what you must beat. Each time a player prepares, the throw in play loses its lowest card: a pair of 7s becomes one 7, and 5, 6, 7 becomes 6, 7. When its last card is taken, nothing is in play and the next player must throw.
7. Catch your throw back. When your own throw comes all the way back to you, because every other player prepared, you may catch it instead of throwing or preparing. Every card still in it goes back into your hands, each at any place you choose in either hand. Nobody scores a card, and the next player must throw.
8. The round ends the moment a player empties both hands. They take the throw they beat, but their own last throw is set aside and counts for nobody.

Scoring

• Each card in your score pile: +1.
• Each card left in your two hands: −1.
• 1 round plays one round. 1 round per player plays one round for each player, and the starting player moves one seat to the left each round. Scores add up.
• The highest total wins. A tie at the top is a shared win.

Throws

A throw is 1 or more cards next to each other in one of your hands, read in that hand’s order. It comes from one hand only, never both. Suits don’t matter.

• Single 1 card
• Set 2 or more cards of the same rank
• Run 2 or more consecutive ranks, all going up or all going down

The Ace is high only, and runs don’t wrap: Q, K, A is a run, and K, A, 2 isn’t.

To compare two throws, check these in order:

1. Length. More cards always beats fewer cards.
2. Kind, at the same length: a set beats a run.
3. The highest card.

A tie doesn’t beat: 5, 6, 7 doesn’t beat 7, 6, 5. You may beat by any margin, so a run of 5 can beat a single.

Examples

Each row shows your throw, then the throw in play, faded.

• Beats More cards beat fewer, so a run of 3 beats even a pair of 9s.
• Beats At the same length, a set beats a run.
• Beats Two runs of 3, so the highest card decides: the 8♦ beats the 7♠.
• Doesn’t beat Same length, same kind, and the same highest card. A tie doesn’t beat.
• Beats More cards beat fewer by any margin, so a run of 5 beats a single King.

A round for 3 players, near its end. Player 3 has just thrown a pair of 5s , and it’s Player 1’s turn. To keep the count simple, every score pile starts empty.

Each turn shows the throw in play after it.

1. Player 1 throws Three 9s from the face-up hand. A set of 3 beats a pair, so Player 1 takes the 5♣ and the 5♦.
2. Player 2 prepares Moving the 6♣ between the 5♥ and the 7♦ makes a run of 4. Player 1 takes the 9♠, the lowest card of the throw.
3. Player 3 prepares Moving the K♥ into the hidden hand beside the K♠ makes a pair. Player 1 takes the 9♥.
4. Player 1 prepares Player 1’s own throw is back, and the owner is no exception. Moving the 8♣ to the face-up hand beside the 7♥ makes a run of 2. Player 1 takes the 9♦, the last card, so nothing is in play.
5. Player 2 throws With nothing in play, Player 2 must throw, and throws the run of 4.
6. Player 3 prepares A pair can’t beat a run of 4, so Player 3 prepares without moving a card (the Pass button). Player 2 takes the 4♠.
7. Player 1 prepares Moving the 6♠ to the face-up hand beside the 7♥ makes a run of 3. Player 2 takes the 5♥.
8. Player 2 catches The run has come all the way back, so Player 2 catches it: the 6♣ and the 7♦ go back into the face-up hand. Nobody scores them, and nothing is in play.
9. Player 3 throws With nothing in play, Player 3 must throw. The pair of Kings empties both hands, so the round ends. The pair is set aside and counts for nobody.

Each player scores the cards in their score pile minus the cards left in their hands.

Variants

Solo performance. Choose 1 player:

• Two hands of 10, a top hand and a bottom hand, both face up and in the order they were dealt. The other 32 cards stay out of play.
• You start with 2 Jokers face up, set to the side.
• Each turn, do one thing: throw, prepare, catch your throw back into your hands, or discard one card from the game.
• Any throw is allowed, whatever is in front of you. The cards in front of you leave the game.
• At the start of each turn after the first, the lowest card of your throw leaves the game. If nothing is then in front of you, that’s a dead space: turn a Joker face down (your clown colleague stepped in to distract the audience). A throw of 1 card and a catch each cost a dead space next turn. So does preparing or discarding when the current throw is less than 2 cards.
• You win the moment both hands are empty, and your score is the Jokers still face up: 2, 1, or 0. You lose at your third dead space, when no Joker is left to turn.

Playing with your own deck

Use a standard deck, with its 2 Jokers set aside. Keep each player’s score pile face down beside them, and score on paper, one line per round. For a solo performance, lay the 2 Jokers face up beside you, turn one face down each time a turn after the first starts with nothing in front of you, and lose the third time, when none is left to turn.

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