player: 4-7, materials: 52 card deck, pencil and paper for scoring

Introduction

President is a climbing game — your plays are determined by whether you can beat the previous player’s card. Each play must equal or outrank the previous one. The peculiarity of President is that it isn’t obvious whether you should play at all on your turn, and if you do, what card you should put down.

Preparation

The dealer for the first round, selected at random, deals out all the cards in the deck face-down, clockwise, and one at a time. For subsequent rounds, the dealer depends on the results of the previous round.

Due to the number of players at the table, some people may get an extra card, but this doesn’t really present a problem. Because these players are the first to play, the inequality evens out.

Play Game

The player to the dealer’s left plays first, putting one, two, three, or four cards of the same kind face-up on the table. After a player lays the initial card, the opportunity to play progresses in a clockwise direction. However, for any other player to put down a card, she must put down the same number of cards as the previous lay down — for example, if the first player puts down three cards, all subsequent players must put down three cards. And to make it even tougher, the cards you put down must have a higher rank than the cards already played. At each turn, you can follow with the same number of cards of a higher rank, or you can pass.

When you play a card (or cards) that nobody can or wants to top, the round is over. You sweep the cards away, and whoever played last on the previous round starts the new round of plays again, playing whatever card or cards he wants to play.

You can pass even if you have a legal move — and you may well want to. For example, say that someone leads a single card, and you have a high pair and a low card. If you would have to split up the pair to play, you should pass. The logic is that if you get to play your high pair later on, you may force everyone else to pass. You win the round, and you can get rid of your awkward low card by leading it on the next round. Playing just one of your high cards reduces your chance of winning a round. Also, as a separate tip, when you’re the player lead- ing to the round, letting go of your lowest cards first is almost always right.

End Game

The card-playing continues as normal until one player runs out of cards. (If a player goes out when he’s the last to play on a round, he obviously can’t lead to the next round, so the player to his left starts up the next round.) Whoever runs out first wins and becomes the president on the next game.

But play doesn’t end at the first person out; you continue until only one player is left holding cards. The unlucky cardholder becomes the scum. The finishing order determines who plays first, second, third, and so on for the next game. After the scum surfaces, the scoring kicks in. The winner, and president for the next game, gets 2 points, and the runner-up, or vice-president, gets 1 point. The scum, or beggar, loses 2 points, and the second-to-last player, the worker, loses 1 point. All players in between (which are not used in a four-player game) score nothing and lose nothing.

Before the new game starts, the poor scum’s humiliation increases. The scum must give the president his two highest cards and receive any two cards from the president’s hand in return. Similarly, the worker must give the vice-president his highest card and receive any one card in return. No one else exchanges cards.