For 2 to 4 Players Ages 10 & Up

to a total of four community piles in the center of the table; two piles for Hearts on one side of the draw pile, and two piles for Spades on the opposite side of the draw pile, as shown in the diagram. Play: If youre left of the dealer, you go first, and then play goes to the left around the table. On your turn, you may play any card or cards, in any combination, from your hand, from the top of your stockpile, or from your discard piles (if you have any). You play these cards onto either of the community Hearts piles or community Spades piles in the center.

Contents: 164 Cards Object: Score the least points by being first to exhaust your stockpile.

Set Up: Get acquainted with the cards. Youll see that there are only Hearts Diagram and Spades, numbered 1 through 5, and Wild cards. Player 1 Youll need a pad of paper and 4 pencil to keep score at the end of each hand. Shuffle and deal 20 cards, one at a time, to each player. Players should Hearts Spades Stockpile Discard Pile gather and stack these Discard Pile cards (without looking at 2 them) in front of themselves and turn over the top card and place it on top of the stack. This Hearts Community Piles Draw Pile Spades Community Piles stack is called your 1 stockpile. Then deal 5 more cards, one at a time, to each player. Everybody hold these cards in your hand so only you can see them. Hearts Spades Stockpile Discard Pile Discard Pile Place the remaining cards in the Player 2 center of the table to form the draw pile. Community piles must be built At the beginning of play, no starting with the number 1 and discard piles or community card building consecutively to number 5. piles yet exist, but during play, Wild cards can be played in place players will make their own discard of any card of matching suit. piles, one for Hearts and one for If there are no Hearts or Spades Spades, next to their own community piles in the center, you stockpiles, as shown in the may start a pile by playing a 1 of diagram. that suit. The next card you can Also during play, there can be up
2 1 4

play on that pile is a 2 of the same suit, followed by a 3, then 4, then 5 which completes the pile. Once a pile is completed, place it to the side, out of play. A new pile can then be formed in its place, beginning with 1, and so on. If you run out of cards in your hand, immediately draw 5 more from the draw pile, and continue your turn. Each time you play the top card from your stockpile, turn up the next card. You will want to try and play cards from your stockpile as often as possible, as your goal is to be first to get rid of your entire stockpile. You can also play the top card from either of your own discard piles at any time during your turn, until your discard piles are gone, if you wish. Your turn lasts as long as you have playable cards that you wish to play. When you are no longer able to make a play, or do not wish to make another play, you must discard one card onto either your Hearts or Spades discard piles, thus ending your turn. (Your own discard piles need not be built in order of 1-5.) When play comes back around to your turn, draw from the draw pile until you have 5 cards in your hand. If the draw pile is exhausted, thoroughly shuffle the cards that were set aside from the previously completed piles and place them in the center to form a new draw pile. Scoring: If youre first to exhaust your 20-card stockpile, you score zero points. All other players should then count up the number of cards they have left in their

own stockpiles, which becomes their score for the hand. For example, if you have 7 cards left, you score 7 points. Keep track of the scores on a piece of paper. Shuffle and deal the cards as before to start a new hand. You will most likely have to play several hands to complete a full game. Winning: When one player reaches a score of 30, the game ends. The player with the lowest total score is the winner. Team (Partner) Play: You must have four players, and the players sitting opposite each other are partners, for example, players 1 & 3 versus players 2 & 4. All rules remain the same except the following: During your turn, in addition to playing from your own cards, you get to play from your partners stockpile and discard piles (but not from your partners hand). When one partners stockpile is exhausted, the two partners continue normal play until the other partners stockpile becomes exhausted, thereby ending the hand. Keep score by teams instead of individuals, by adding the total number of cards of both partners stockpiles together. For a Quicker Game: If you want to play a quicker game, deal 15, or even 10 cards to each player for their stockpiles.

Copyright 2005 Patch Products, Inc., Beloit, WI 53511 USA. All rights reserved. Big Deal, Hearts & Spades and The Best Two-Suited Card Game are trademarks of Patch Products, Inc.