Setup

Create a deck from all Playing Cards. Create a separate deck of Bid Cards.

Grab a pen and paper (for tracking score) and pick anyone to be Dealer.

Example of game setup and the different components.

Objective

The game works with quick rounds that you play over and over.

You can keep playing rounds as long as you like, but a recommended target is 500 points: if someone reaches that, they win.

Gameplay

Every round has three simple phases: preparing, dealing and scoring.

Preparing

Draw Bid Cards from the deck until there are 6 faceup bids on the table. They should be easy to reach and read for all players.

Also place all Bid Tokens (with unique numbers 1–6) faceup on the table.

Finally, Dealer moves clockwise to the next player.

Dealing

Repeat the following cycle until all players have 6 cards.

Give all players a single card.
Also place one more card, faceup, in the center of the table.
Now players may bid. If you choose to do so,
- Grab the Bid Token showing your number of hand cards.
- Then grab the Bid Card you want. (These show a pattern that you expect to complete.)
- Once you’ve bid, you can’t change your mind.
If multiple players want to bid at the same time, only the one closest to the Dealer (in clockwise order) may do so.

Example of how to deal cards and take bids.

Scoring

Once all cards have been given, players score themselves.

If you can achieve the pattern on your bid, by combining your cards and the faceup cards on the table, you get its point value divided by the number on your Bid Token (rounded).
If you fail to achieve your bid, you get -10 points.
If you hadn’t claimed any bid, nothing happens.

Write down the scores on the paper. Next round!

Example of how to score the final bids and results of players in a round.

Expansion

This expansion adds some extra material (Bonus Bids and Bid Token 10) and fun wrinkles to the rules. It mostly allows players with a very unlucky hand to still score, or players who think they have a very lucky hand to risk it all for even more points. (Or, if it goes wrong, nothing at all.)

Below are the changes made to the original rules.

During the preparing phase,

There are three “BONUS BIDS” that must always be included. (This is marked in the top left of the card.)
Don’t shuffle them into the deck; they’re simply always available, every round, on top of the regular bids.
These bonus bids are extra scores you can get, before division. Failing them has the usual penalty of -10 points.
- Win All: you get this if your score for this round is higher than anyone else.
- Win None: you get this if your cards don’t match any of the bid cards (either from players or still in the market).
- Match Together: instead of combining with the cards on the table, you pick another player with whom you combine your cards (before everyone reveals what they have).

During the dealing phase,

When you make a regular bid, you may grab a BONUS BID as well. (If one is still available.)
You may only have one BONUS BID.

During the scoring phase,

Scoring goes in clockwise order, one player at a time.
Players who have no bid card may still grab one just before calculating their score.
But they must also grab Bid Token 10. (Which severely lowers the number of points you score.)