Suits Me

Contributed by Seth Williams

Object

The object of the game is for all 7 cards in your hand to be of the same suit. With constant attacks from your opponents, this can get tricky!

Setup

You will need

• 1 regular deck of 52 playing cards (remove jokers)
• 2-6 people

Shuffle the deck. Then, select a dealer, and have him/her deal each player 7 cards. Place the rest in a face down pile in the center, called the Draw Pile. Take the top card of the draw pile and put it in the middle of the draw pile (to prevent dealer from cheating). Now take the next top card, and place it face up next to the draw pile. This face up pile is called the Discard or Discard Pile. Play begins with the player to the left of the dealer.

Gameplay

First off, have each player look at their cards. You want to decide what suit you'll be going for (note that this does not have to be announced, and can change as much as you want). You'll probably want to select the suit you have the most of (or a suit you have tied for the most of).

Trade round

Once everyone has looked over their cards, trade commences. Trade happens at the end of each discard round. simultaneously, each player selects one unwanted card from their hand, and passes it face down to the player to their left. Each player will also of course receive one card from the player to their right. Look at the card you just got. Whether it's a suit you're going for (yay!) or a suit you didn't want (d'oh!), a discard round now begins.

The player to the left of the dealer begins this. The top card in the discard pile always determines how many cards you will discard.

2 through 10	- Discard 1 Card
Face Cards	- Discard 2 Cards
Black Ace	- Discard 3 Cards
Red Ace	- Discard 5 Cards (usually after a red ace, your target suit will change, so look over your new hand)

Discard the appropriate number of cards face up on the discard pile. The other players are entitled to see all the cards you discard, after which they can be stacked. The last card you put down will determine how many cards the person to your left will discard, so consider this. Draw however many cards you discarded from the Draw Pile, add them to your hand, and now it's the person to your left's turn.

After a round of discarding has ended (all players have discarded once). It's back to a round of trading. The trade/discard cycle continues until someone gets all their cards to be one suit. As soon as your hand is complete (all same suit), Immediately say you've won, and show all players your hand. Mix up all the cards again, deal, and repeat the game as many times as you want.

Ties

If in a round of trading, two or more players complete their hand at the same time, determine the winner by high card. If you still tie, try the 2nd highest, 3rd highest, etc. If you are still tied, flip a coin!

Empty Draw Pile

If the draw pile is empty after a lot of draws, take the top card from discard, shuffle the discard, and place it face down as the draw pile! The top card you took forms the new discard pile.

Strategy

Below are some strategy tips for playing...

1. Try to figure out what the person to your left is collecting, to avoid giving him/her cards he/she needs. Watch what suits the player discards. If they never seem to discard a certain suit, you can safely assume they are collecting it. Also, try not to give away what you're collecting to the person to your right. Try to fool them into thinking you're not collecting, say, clubs, even though you are collecting clubs, and that player will act almost as a card factory for you. And remember, it's likely your opponent's goal will change when they have to discard 5 via a red ace.
2. Near the start of the game, it's better to have to discard more cards, so try to top the discard with 2-10 cards so your opponent can only discard one. On the contrary, later in the game you want to discard fewer cards, so try to play aces on your opponents.
3. Red aces can be very annoying, use them wisely. If you notice that an opponent keeps discarding/trading the last card they got, they are probably 1 away from a completed hand, so use an ace on them to mess them up. Much of the strategy of the game comes from topping the discard with a select card to force your opponent to discard more/less cards.