Go for it!: an original card game

If you've ever played Bravado, aka Chicken Out!, you may recognise this as a close relative. The main difference is that, whereas those are adding-up games, this one is based on making card combinations.

Cards and deal

Take a 52-card pack ranking KQJT98765432A in each suit and deal them all out as far as they will go. Hold your cards in a pile face down so you can’t see what’s coming next.

Object

To be the first to play our all your cards and (hopefully) to have won most cards.

Play

Dealer’s left-hand neighbour starts by playing the top two cards of their pile to start a row of overlapping cards. They may then decide whether to add one or more cards or to pass. If they pass the next in turn continues to add one or more cards or to pass. This continues till either everyone passes or somebody wins all the cards by making a winning combination as described below. If everyone passes without such a win, the last person who played to it must either continue play or take up all the cards of the row and add them to the bottom of their pile. In the latter event their turn ends and the next in turn starts a new row.

Winning cards

If the card you play forms one of the following combinations, taken in conjunction with the immediately preceding card or cards, you win all the cards in the row and start a new one. The winning combinations depend on the number of cards in the row, including the one you have just played, as follows:

2 pair (both of the same rank)
3 flush or run (three in suit or sequence)
4 prime (one of each suit)
5 colour (five red or five black cards)
6 number (six different numerals, no face cards)
7 none of the above - you win all seven cards of the row

Pairs

Pairs have additional properties. If the card you play pairs with

the first or last card of the row: you win all the cards of the row.
any intermediate card: you add the whole row to your hand and end your turn.

If you make a low combination that can, with luck, convert with further play into a higher one, you may forgo it and continue adding to the row instead. For example, if your first two cards are a pair, two more cards might convert it to a prime, or three into 'colour'. Similarly, a three-card flush might convert into a five-card 'colour' or a six-card 'number'.

End and score

The game ends when one player plays their last card, whereupon they add any cards remaining in the row to their winnings. Everybody then scores the number of cards they have won minus the number they have left in hand.

Jokers (optional)

When three, five or six play, add as many Jokers as necessary (maximum three) so that everyone is dealt the same number of cards. When you play a Joker, you add all the cards of the row to the bottom of your hand except for the Joker, which goes to the bottom of your left-hand neighbour’s hand.