Box

A game for any age group, contributed by Richard Bradley

Players: Four

Object: To not lose all the cards in your box

Cards: standard 52-card deck without jokers ranking from high to low: A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2.

How to Play

During the game, each player will have up to three separate groups of cards: hand cards, from which plays are normally made, box cards, which are kept face down, and extra cards, which are kept in a separate face down pile. To start the game, each player draws eight cards from the shuffled deck and and without looking selects four of them. These four cards are placed in a box, face down in front of them, and are not seen until they are played. The remaining four cards are the player's hand: the player looks at them, but does not show the other players. The players start the game with no extra cards.

The first player starts a round by playing a card face up to the center of the table and play continues clockwise. The first card played in every round must be the player's highest card. Going in a clockwise direction, each player in turn may play any card they hold that is equal to or lower than the previous card that was played. The first person who doesn't have an equal or lower card is stuck. They must randomly choose a card from their box. Also, a player who has no cards in their hand when it is their turn to place a card must draw from the box.

• If the card drawn from the box is equal to or lower than the previous card it is played, and play continues.
• If the card drawn from the box is higher than the previous card, it cannot be played. It is given instead to the player who placed the last card and is placed in this player's pile of extra cards. This ends the round; the winner of the round is the player who played last and received the extra card.

After a round is won, players draw cards until they all have four in their hand. Also if a player drew from his box and was able to play, he may draw a card to replace the lost one. [The winner of the previous roung then starts a new round by playing his highest card.]

A player who loses all cards in their box is out of the game. The game can end at that point with this player as the loser, or can be continued until only one player survives.

Special Rules:

If two cards of the same number (2-2) are played in succession, the order of play is reversed (clockwise to counterclockwise or vice versa).

Since players are given a card when they place the lowest card, when a player collects three extra cards, and has one or more cards missing from his box, he may trade in the three cards to draw a new box card.

Finally, when a player loses all his box cards, he has an option he may choose. If the player wishes to, he may state he is going to resurrect. The player will put all remaining cards into the deck, shuffle, and remove four. He can look at all of them. He will choose one card to put face down in his box, and then will play the rest of the game with no more than three cards in his hand. He is able to collect three cards and trade them for more box cards, but can never regain the fourth card in his hand. A player can resurrect only once - when he loses all his box cards a second time he is out of the game.