👑 President

👑 The idea

Everybody is dealt the whole pack. Get rid of all your cards and you finish first. Where you finish decides what you are called next hand — and what you have to hand over.

🔢 The order is not the usual one

Low to high: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A 2, and the joker above everything.

The 2 is the highest ordinary card, not the lowest. That catches everybody once.

🃏 Playing

Lead any number of cards of the same number — one 7, two 7s, three 7s. Everybody after you must play the same number of cards, of a higher number, or pass.

Passing puts you out until the pile is cleared. Even if you could play later, you have to wait for the next pile.

⚡ The two rules that win games

Fewer 2s beat more of anything. Two 2s beat three aces. One 2 beats four kings. The counts do not have to match when you are playing twos.

A single joker beats absolutely anything — and nothing beats it, not even the other joker. The pile is cleared straight away and you lead the next one. There are only two of them in the pack.

🎖️ Titles

First out is the President, second the Vice-President, last is the Loser and second to last the Vice-Loser. With three players there are no Vices — just President, Neutral and Loser.

There is no score. What you are called is the score.

🤝 The exchange

Before every hand after the first, the Loser gives the President their two best cards and the President gives back any two. The Vice-Loser and Vice-President swap one each the same way.

You do not get to choose what you hand up. You do get to choose what you hand down.

🧹 Two house rules

The Loser deals and clears. It is a chore and it goes to whoever is behind.

Play starts to the President's left, so where you sit relative to the top changes every hand.

🙂 Levels

🌱 Sprout: two opponents who always play their lowest cards.
🧭 Scout: three opponents who save their 2s for when they matter.
🏆 Ace: four opponents who hold a joker back and watch who is nearly out.

A level changes how well they play, never what they can see.

🤖 Auto

Tap 🤖 Auto above your hand and the game plays your seat too, at the same pace as everyone else — handy when you need to put the phone down for a minute. Tap it again to take your hand back; the game finishes the move it is on and then waits for you.

It plays exactly like an opponent at your level, and it sees exactly what you see — your own hand and the pile, nothing more. While it is on the button stays lit and your buttons go quiet, so it is never a mystery who is playing.

📚 Where these rules come from

President is our own arrangement of the public-domain climbing-game family also called Scum, Daifugō or worse. The two catch-up rules and the fewer-twos rule are how this house plays it. Written up in docs/president-spec.md.

📜 The rules

🖨️ A card for the table

Print the rules on one sheet, fold it into a card and keep it in the deck box. One side, no scissors. Open the printable rules card

🔎 What everything means