Goal
You win when you draw the last card in your deck, or leave your opponent with no legal moves.
Setup
Split a shuffled 52 card deck in half (26 cards each) and give one to each player, this will be your deck.
Both players draw a starting hand of 5 cards.
Set any token (like a joker) aside; this is the Pigeon.
Start of the game
Player 1 places 1 card face up as a new stack.
Player 2 places 2 cards face up as a new stacks.
Player 1 places 1 final card face up as a new stack.
Both players draw back up to 5 cards.
Player 2 takes the first turn.
Player 1
Player 2 (plays first)
Playing on a stack
Cards placed on an existing stack must be exactly one higher or one lower than the top card (suit/colour does not matter).
Ace is low, king is high, king cannot be placed on an ace and vice versa.
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Actions
After any action (once the start of game is over), draw until you have 5 cards in hand.
Set
Play any number of cards that are the same number on an existing stack.
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String
Play a string of cards on an existing stack. A string is a sequence of cards where each sucessive card is one higher or one lower than the card before, every card in a string must be the same colour.
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New Stack
Play a Set or a String as a new stack. This is allowed when either:
-> The bottom card of your play is a 7 or 8.
-> There are less than 3 stacks in play.
Sweep
If a player has three aces or three kings in their hand, they may discard them and clear all stacks in play.
This does not grant the Pigeon.
Forceplay
If you have a maximum hand size of 5, you may play a Set or String on top of any stack, ignore the playing on a stack restriction, but permanently reduce your hand size to 4.
Forceplay may be your only option, and if you only have a maximum hand size of 4 and cannot play otherwise, your opponent wins.
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The Pigeon
The pigeon is often represented as the joker, there is only ever one pigeon, at the start of the game it is set aside.
After you play on an existing stack, if the top card is an ace or a king, complete that stack (remove stack from play) and gain the Pigeon.
When you gain the Pigeon, take it from wherever it is (including your opponent) and set it on your side. At any time, if you currently have the Pigeon and your hand size is 4 (from forceplay), discard the Pigeon and restore your max hand size to 5.
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