Introduction: Seven - Card Game

Since I was young my father and his friends were playing this game. They made so much noise when they played, and they seemed extraordinarily enjoy it . After a few years my twin sister and I grew up a bit (around age 8) and my dad taught us this game. Since then we spent hours around the table and played the game at the end of each Friday dinner with my father's girlfriend and her daughter.

Each game is composed of rounds, and each player's total score is updated after each round. The goal of the game is to keep your score to a minimum. Players with more than an agreed maximum, for example 150 points, drop out of the game, which is then continued until there is only one player left.

Step 1: Players and Cards

double card deck are used - without jokers. each player get 8 cards and the rest of the pile located at the center of the table.

Turn over the top card of the Draw Pile and place it face-up next to the Draw Pile. The top card of the Draw Pile is called the Leading Card.

The youngest player goes first. Each player, in turn (going clockwise), plays a card by placing it over the leading card, in one of the following ways:

1. By matching its suit.

2. By matching its number or figure.

3. By playing a '8' Card.

A player who cannot play any of his cards must draw a card from the Draw Pile and may only use it on the next round.

Each card in the deck has a value: cards 2-10(not including 8!!) are worth their face value; pictures (J, Q, K) are worth 10 and 8 is worth zero.

Each ace except of spade is worth 10, and spade ace worth 15.

Special cards:

2 - if a player drop 2, the next player must drop 2 as well, or take 2 * n cards from the draw pile, where n is the number of consecutive 2.

7 - if a player drop 7, each player in his turn can drops only 7, the last player that drops 7 can drop any card he wants.

8 - Change suit, a player can drop 8 without referring to the leading card. This card allows the player to determine the suit to be played by the next player. This card can be played at any time, except after the cards +2 and 7, or spade ace which are still active.

10 - Reverses the direction of play.

J - The next player loses his turn.

Spade ace - if a player drop spade ace, the next player must drop spade ace as well, or take 5 * n cards from the draw pile, where n is the number of consecutive spade ace.

Step 2: Ending Round

The first player to get rid of all his cards is the winner of this round.

A player must declare that he has a single card. If he did not do so and his turn passed, and the other players noticed, he must take 4 cards from the pile.

If the drawing deck is empty and no one has yet ended the play, all the cards of the dump pile except for the leading card are shuffled and stacked face down to make a new drawing deck.

Step 3: Scoring

The goal is to score as few points as possible, and in particular to keep your cumulative total below 150.

When the round is ended, all players immediately reveal their cards. All players score the points they have in their hands. The player's total scores are kept from round to round. Any player who has more than 150 points is eliminated from the game, which then continues with the remaining players, until only one survives. If a player's score is exactly 150, it is reduced to 0.

Step 4: Tricks and Tips

  1. Try to save 8 cards to the end of the game. This card score is 0 and you can drop it whenever you are stacked and cannot play any of yours cards.
  2. Try to throw the spade ace when the player next to you is about to finish the game, but remember that the score of this card is 15 points.
  3. Note that you are always trying during the game to throw the highest-scoring cards you have in your hand.