Flushed

Contributed by Michael Velker

Flushed is a game for 3-4 players in which the object is to be the first to get rid of all of your cards.

4 player game

To begin, 13 cards are dealt to each player in a face down stack. Then each person draws the top 5 of their 13 cards, to form their hand, which they look at. During the game, you must keep 5 cards in your hand when possible, so each time you play a card you must draw a new one from the top of your stack. The only time you can have a hand of fewer than 5 cards is when your stack is empty. You cannot draw replacements, so you continue playing with the cards you have.

The person to the right of the dealer starts by playing any card to start a central face up pile. This card is the suit of the first flush. Subsequent players in turn have to continue it by playing a card of the same suit on that pile. If you don't have any cards of the required suit to play at your turn, then you have to pick up all the cards in the play pile and skip your turn. The next person will decide the suit of the next flush by playing any card in their hand, and so on... When you pick up the play pile from the centre you must put all the cards at the bottom of your stack. If your stack was empty, these cards form a new stack and you draw cards from the top to bring your hand up to five cards again.

Aces and face cards have special abilities

• An ace (which can be played at any time, irrespective of suit) changes the suit of the flush to the suit of the ace .
• A king (which can be only be played when its suit matches that of the current flush) forces the next person to pick up all the cards in the center play pile, and that player has to skip their turn.
• A queen (which can be only be played when its suit matches that of the current flush) changes the entire play pile to neutral and allows the next person to play a card to choose the suit of a new flush
• A jack (which can be only be played when its suit matches that of the current flush) changes the direction in which you take turns. For example, the game is initially played counterclockwise, starting with the player to dealer's right. The first jack played changes the direction to clockwise, the second back to counterclockwise and so on.

The game is over when one person runs out of cards in their stack and hand and thereby wins the game.

3 player game

The 3 player game is played basically the same way, except that you start by dealing 17 cards to each person. The last card is put in the middle to start the first flush.

Optional Rules

Doubles - if you have doubles, triples, or quadruples of a card (i.i several cards of the same rank, such as three 7's) and one of them is in the suit of the current flush, you can play all of those cards at once, so long as the card of the current flush suit is placed on top. You then draw sufficient cards from your stack to bring your hand up to 5 cards.

Flush - if your entire hand is one suit (e.g. all hearts) and they follow the suit of the flush, you can drop all five cards in the middle on your turn, and draw 5 new cards from your deck (or your whole deck if it has fewer than 5 cards). You cannot play a flush if you have to play a card to choose the suit of the flush - for example if the previous player played a queen or picked up the pile).