FIVE card game rules

Objective

• Get rid of all your cards: first your hand, then your face-up cards, then your face-down cards.
• The last player with cards loses.

Setup

• Everyone gets 6 cards in hand and 3 face-down. Pick 3 of your hand cards to lie face-up on top of your face-down cards.
• While the deck lasts, you draw back to 3 cards after every play.
• Seats are shuffled every game. The lowest card of 5 or higher starts; a tie is decided at random.

Your turn

• Play one or more cards of the same value that equal or beat the card that rules the pile (3s are see-through).
• If you can't play — or a face-down card you flip can't be played — you take the pile and play again at once.
• Face-down cards are played blind, one at a time: tap one to flip it.
• Once the deck is gone, a play that empties your hand can take your face-up cards of the same value along as one set.

Special cards

Showdown

• Everyone still playing submits one card or a set of the same value, from their hand (or face-up cards if the hand is empty). With only face-down cards left, you pick one of them without seeing it.
• The lowest takes the pile and all showdown cards, then plays next. Ties for lowest repeat with only the tied players.
• A Joker counts as 14, like an Ace. When two Jokers meet (the one that started the showdown counts), the showdown goes on as normal and both Jokers leave the game at the end. One Joker is red and one is black: after a J, only the Joker of the called colour can be played.

Taking the pile

• You take the whole pile into your hand, then play again at once. You may also take it on purpose.
• When you are on your face-up cards, one face-up card (or a set of the same value) goes into your hand with the pile.
• You can't take the pile during a showdown. If you still have a legal play, FIVE asks you to confirm.

Loops

• If the same position comes up 5 times (or nothing moves forward for 300 turns), the game is stuck in a loop.
• Only the card causing it is burned (with any cards of the same value on top of it); 3s, 4s and the rest stay on the pile.
• Then the player with the lowest card above it starts, for example 8 or higher after a 7. A tie is drawn at random.

Ending & ranking

• Finished players are skipped. Standings follow the order players finish in.
• The game ends when one player still holds cards: that player is last.
• Out together: when a showdown empties several hands at once, the higher card you went out on gets the better place. Out on the same value? That is a dead heat: everyone in it cuts a card from a fresh deck (no Jokers). Higher cut, better place; equal cuts cut again. When nobody is left holding cards, the lowest cut is last.
• Out already? With the House rule "Players who are out see all cards" on (the host sets it in the lobby), you watch the others with all their cards open. Friends with the invite link can watch live too.

Card colours

• Red suits (♥ ♦) and black suits (♠ ♣) look like real playing cards.
• Prefer something else? Settings → Suit style has a four-colour deck and a monochrome deck where red suits are drawn hollow.