Prediction Card Game

If you are like me then you might prefer to play strategy games without the random chance of the roll of dice or the shuffling of cards. Games like Chess or Checkers. But a deck of playing cards is a lot more portable than a board game. So I created a no shuffling card game where every player starts out with an even opportunity of winning. I call it "Prediction" because each player tries to predict what their opponent will do.

How To Play

The Deck: A standard 52 card deck is used.

Number of Players: 2 to 4 players with 1 deck or 5 to 8 players with 2 decks

Rank of Cards: Ace (High), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (Low)

Objective: The objective of the game is to get the highest score by winning the most number of tricks. Each trick is worth 1 point. The game ends when one player scores 50 or more points. The game is called "Prediction" because each player tries to predict what card the other players will lay down. Predicting the cards becomes easier when there are fewer tricks left.

Dealing: First sort the cards in the deck by suit. Then give one entire 13 card suit to each player. Each player should keep his cards hidden from the other players.

Playing

1. The player to the left of the dealer goes first by laying face down in front of himself any card from his hand. The player to his left then lays down any card from his hand face down in front of himself.
2. After each player has taken turns to lay one card face down from his hand then each player reveals their cards at the same time by flipping them face up. The player that laid down the highest value wins the trick and one point. He takes the cards in the trick and lays them face up in front of himself. The player that won the trick starts the next trick. If two or more players play a card with the same rank then the player that played the highest card first wins the trick.
3. When all 13 tricks have been played then each player counts how many tricks they won and the score is kept track of. Then the cards are sorted by suit again and the next hand begins. The player who won the most tricks in the last hand plays first. The first player to win 50 tricks or more is the winner of the game.

1. Bidding Variant: At the beginning of each hand players try to predict how many tricks they will win for that hand by bidding on how many tricks they think they will win. If they win the exact number of tricks they bid on then they receive an extra 10 points at the end of the hand.
2. Team Bidding Variant: Players are divided into teams. Partners sit across from each other. Partners combine the number of tricks won for a team score. At the beginning of each hand partners try to predict how many tricks their team will win for that hand by biding on how many tricks they think they will win. If they win the exact number of tricks they predicted then their team receives an extra 10 points at the end of the hand.
3. Bidding with Penalty Variant: Same as the variants above but if the players do not win the exact number of tricks that they predicted then they lose 5 points at the end of the hand.

I hope you enjoy playing the game. You might discover that trying to predict things can be very difficult.

Copyright 2020 Jeff Baker

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