Pairs

Designed and contributed by Alan Gilfoy

Deck: 104 cards (2 standard packs)

Deal: Shuffle the two decks of cards thoroughly. Deal a 3x3 square of cards, face up.

Play: Look at the 3x3 square. Remove a pair (two of a kind) or triple (three of a kind) if you see any. As soon as you remove a pair or triple, deal cards to the 3x3 square to replace the cards you've removed. Keep all of the removed sets separate from each other. Repeat this process until you have matched up all of the cards or until you cannot remove a pair or triple from the 3x3 square (all nine ranks are different). Score your pairs and triples as follows:

• Pairs: 3 points
  Exception: A pair of identical cards (example: 2 Fives of Diamonds) is worth 7 points.
• Triples: 15 points (if two of the cards in the triple are identical, score 21 points)
• Using all cards: 104 point bonus

Object: Get as high a score as you can.

Don't forget to use decks with different backings so you can easily separate them after the game.