Pain

Contributed by Clay Brandenburgh, who writes: "I am not the inventor of this game, I am just passing it along to the general public. (I am not for certain who invented it, although it may be "Nic Lamphear".)

Setup:

(For 2 to 52 players, works best with 6 to 12) Game is played with a traditional deck of 52 cards. Deck is shuffled, and a card is dealt to each player face down.

The game:

Once cards are dealt, a countdown is initiated (i.e. 3,2,1...) And at this time, all players flip their card over. Cards are compared with rules much like those of WAR. Ace is high 2 is low. Now the fun part.

Fun Part:

Once cards are compared, the player(s) with the highest card punches (in the shoulder) the player(s) with the lowest card. For example, player A has a Jack, and Player b has a 3. (Assuming these are the high and low cards, respectively) player A now goes over to player B and Punches him in the shoulder.

Rules and Technicalities:

If two players tie for the high card, then both punch the player with the low card. On the same token, it 2 players tie for the lowest card, then the high player(s) punch both of them. In the most extreme case, you could have 4 players getting punched once by 4 other players. Also, if a player wants to quit the game, he recieves a punch from everyone else in the game. That is unless he has the high card for that hand, therefore he gets out free. If he wants to get back in, however, he must also recieve a punch from every player.

Variations:

One interesting variation is the JOKER rule. The jokers (2) are added to the deck. If a player recieves the colored (high) joker, he gets to punch all other players regardless. If a player gets the uncolored joker, he recieves a punch from all other players. The last variation is the finger slap variation in which the player with the highest card gets to choose between punching the shoulder, or slapping the underside of the forearm with a licked or unlicked finger. ( It leaves a fine mark and hurts quite a bit too, if done right) And thus ends the rules of this fine game!