target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_33269a1d-3573-5c4f-ab9f-6643c96232e6.png" alt="Warning"/> If you ask for a card when you have nothing in that set, if you fail to provide a card when you’re asked for it, or if you fail to put down a set as soon as you can, you must give one set to the player to your left — a pretty severe charge!
When you run out of cards — because other players picked your hand clean or because you’ve made your hand into sets — you’re out, and the game continues without you until all the sets have been completed and no one has any cards left. Whoever has the most sets at the end wins.
Cheat
Children love Cheat (which is also called I Doubt It) because it gives them the opportunity to develop their deceptive powers in a way that their parents approve of. Most children master the art of lying convincingly and looking guilty when telling the truth very early on.
Three or more players: You can play with up to 12.
A standard deck of 52 cards: You normally play Cheat with a single deck of cards for up to five players. With 6 to 12 players, use two decks.
The object of Cheat is to get rid of all your cards as quickly as possible. To do that, you play your cards face-down, announcing what you put down — but you don’t have to tell the truth.
The dealer deals out all the cards one at a time, face-down and clockwise, and the players pick up and look at their cards. The player to the left of the dealer is first to play.
The first player puts down cards onto a central pile on the table, squaring the cards up so that other players can’t see precisely how many cards they have put down. They then make an announcement about their play, along the line of “three 6s” or whatever they consider appropriate. The statement can be false in more than one way. They may put down more or fewer cards than they claim, or they may put down cards unrelated to what they claim. The players who follow put their cards on top of theirs.
If no player challenges the claim (and anyone can do so), the turn moves clockwise to the next player. The next player also makes a play face-down, and they have three choices:
To make a challenge, someone calls out “Cheat,” and the player accused has two options:
They can concede (gracefully or otherwise) by picking up the entire pile.
They can turn over the cards they just put down to demonstrate that they were telling the truth, in which case the challenger must pick up the whole pile.
The player who picks up the pile from the center gets to start the next round with whatever number they want.
If no one has called “Cheat,” then the next player has to pick up from the last set put down. They have three choices as to what to play.
They can claim to be playing the same rank as the previous player: If the first player claims to lay three 6s, the next player can take this choice by putting down a number of 6s.
They can claim to be playing cards of one rank higher: If the first player claims to put down 6s, “cards of one rank higher” means as many 7s as they want.
They can claim to be playing cards of one rank lower than the previous move: If the first player claims 6s, any number of 5s works for the next player.
The second player can’t pass. They put their cards face-down on the table, on top of the previous play. Of course, they may be lying!
The next player has exactly the same set of options (play the same rank as the previous player or one higher or one lower), and play continues until someone makes a challenge.
The winner of the game is the person who succeeds in playing all their cards first. A player can go out by withstanding a challenge on their final turn or by going unchallenged before the next player makes a play. In practice, someone always challenges a player going out, but if you can conceal that you have no cards left on your last play (not easy to do!), you may avoid a challenge.
Old Maid
Old Maid allows you to keep card strategy and psychology simple, making it an ideal game for younger children.
At least three players: There is no real upper limit, if you have enough decks of cards.
One or more standard decks of 52 cards, with three queens removed: Use a single deck of cards for up to six players. For seven or more players, use two decks, but take care that the decks have the same markings. You can play the game with special commercial decks, too, with animal faces on the cards and just one Donkey in the deck. You can also play with a special Old Maid deck, with one ugly Old Maid card.
The object of Old Maid is to get rid of all the cards in your hand without being left with the one unmatched card, the solitary queen, or Old Maid.
The dealer deals out all the cards, one by one and face-down, in a clockwise rotation. You start by removing every pair of cards that you have (a pair can be two 5s or two kings, for example). You set these cards aside face-up on the table so that everyone can see how many pairs you have.
After the removal of pairs, the player to the left of the dealer fans out their cards face-down on the table, and the player to their left takes one card. The player who’s offered the cards must take one of them, and then they look at it to see whether it forms a pair with another card in their hand. If it does, they discard the pair onto the tabletop.
Whether the card they draw forms a pair or not, the second player spreads their cards face-down and offers their hand to the player on their left, who must then choose a card.
The game continues, with players dropping out as they get rid of all their cards. Eventually, one player gets left with the lone queen, and other players torment that player with taunts of “Old Maid!” until a new hand starts.