Two Away

Invented by Katie Adams and contributed by Tony Jenkins

This is a game for two, three or four players. Deal out one card at a time to each player until the whole pack has been dealt. Players do not look at their cards but hold them in a face-down stack and play them as you would Beggar My Neighbour.

The player on the left of the dealer takes the top card from his or her stack and lays at face up on the table. Continuing in a clockwise direction the next player lays a card face up and so on. The second card is placed beside the first card, and subsequent cards are piled face up on top of the second card.

If you lay a card whose rank is not more than two away from the first card, you capture all the face up cards from the table (the first card and the face up pile) and add them face down to the bottom of your stack.

For example if the first card was a seven, the second player has to lay another seven or a five, six, eight or nine to win both cards. If the second player's card is not a winning card, players continue to lay cards on top of the second player's card until someone matches or is not more than two away from the first card that was laid.

After the face up cards have been won, the next player lays down a new "first card", the player after that lays another beside it, and the game continues until someone plays a card that is not more than two away from the new first card.

In this game Aces are low: if the first card is an Ace the face-up cards can only be captured by an Ace, Two or Three; if the first card is a King they can only be captured by a King, Queen or Jack. If the first card is a Two, they can be captured by an Ace, Two, Three or Four.

The player who wins all the cards is the winner.