Canny Minds Blog

Racing Demon

Posted on 08. Jun, 2009 by Jenny in Card Games, Games Room

Racing Demon requires speed of thought, concentration, some strategic thinking and fast hands!

No. of players:

Multi-player

Aim of game:

The players have to race each other to clear their ‘waste piles’.

How to Play:

Each player needs one pack of cards that are distinguishable from each other. To start the game, deal out thirteen cards face up so that you can see only the top card (this is called the ‘waste pile’) Then, alongside the waste pile, deal out four other cards, also face up so you can see each card. Once everybody has completed this preparation, the game begins. You are then left with the remaining cards.

Turning over three of the remaining cards at a time, players race to clear their waste pile. This is done in two alternative ways. If a player has an ace uncovered in any pile, he/she puts it out face up between the players and anyone can now add a two of the same suit, then a three and so on. If two players are ‘racing’ it is always the first player to get a card down who takes precedence. Eventually all the suits should be ’in play’ and a suit is only ‘closed’ when the jack, queen and king have been placed on top of the ten. The other way to ‘lose’ your waste pile is by building a sequence of cards below the four ‘column’ cards displayed at the start. Each player can only build this sequence on his/her own cards. The sequence is made in descending order and by opposite colour. Therefore a red eight follows a black nine. Cards can be moved individually or in sequences from one column to another.

Only the top card on the waste pile can be used so sometimes a player can get stuck, unable to access the cards underneath until another player opens up the game again.

The winner?:

The first player to get rid of their ‘waste pile’.

Then the game is ‘scored’. The person out first gets ten points, the others lose points for each card remaining in their waste pile. Additionally the cards, which are in play between the players(the piles built by suit from the aces) are counted and each card scores one point, with the kings worth ten points each. The highest scorer wins.

Photo courtesy of Twaize

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Tags: Card Games, racing demon