Blindsided

Contributed by Sally Webb

This game is played with one or more standard 52-card decks without jokers. One deck will provide enough cards for up to 5 players.

Deal 4 cards to each player.  Place remaining cards in center of table as a face down stack, turning up the top card and placing it face up next to the stack to start the discard pile.

Each player must choose one card from his/her hand, laying it face down in front of the player to his/her left.  This card is known as the Blindside Card. Players will now have three cards remnaining in their hands.

The player to the left of dealer begins play by drawing the top card either from the stack or from the discard pile.  From his/her hand, the player places one card face down to begin their Keeper Pile, which is kept in front of them, separate from the Blindside Card. The aim is to have the highest scoring keeper pile, so players will store their highest card there. The player then discards one card face up on top of the discard pile to end his or her turn, and play moves to the left.

Play continues clockwise around the board, each player in turn drawing one card, keeping one and discarding one, until everyone has had three turns and is therefore out of cards.

All players now turn over their Blindside Card and whoever has the highest Blindside Card receives a token from each player.  In case of a tie, those players are “BLINDSIDED” and the owner of the next highest Blindside Card wins. Rarely it will happen that all Blindside Cards are tied - for example five players have 5, 5, 3, 3, 3. In that case no one wins.

Next, all players turn over their Keeper Pile and add the values of the cards in it to the value of their Blindside Card. Whoever has the highest total receives a token from each player.  If high score is a tie, those players are "BLINDSIDED" and next lower score takes the tokens.

The card values are:

• 2 through 9 = face value,
• 10, J, Q, K = 10 points,
• Ace = 11 points

Variation:  Everyone is dealt 4 cards, and the Blindside Card is not passed. Instead the dealer deals a fifth card to each player to serve as their Blindside Card. In this variation, everyone has four turns of play.