IDIOT
In the game Idiot, there’s only one person who loses; nobody wins. The objective is to avoid being the last player to get rid of all the cards in their hand. You can play cards by matching the number on the discard pile or by playing a card with a higher rank. The unfortunate soul who can’t empty their hand becomes the loser and has to wear a silly hat until someone else takes on the title or until the night is over.
SETUP
To prepare for the game, you’ll need to shuffle all the decks together. Keep in mind that for every 2-3 players, you’ll need a standard 52-card deck. Then, deal out three cards to each player, repeating this process three times.
To get started, I want you to deal out three cards face-down in front of each player. This will create three separate piles. After that, deal three more cards, one on each pile, face-up to each player. Finally, give each player three more cards to the side face-down.
Here are a couple of visual examples of what the cards might look like:
These last three cards will become their hand. Players can exchange cards from their hands with the face-up piles in front of them. The key strategy here is to put high cards, 2s, and 10s on the face-up piles. It’s important to note that in this game, the Ace is always considered high, and the suits don’t matter. Only the numbers determine the rank.
Once all of us have traded our cards, we put the rest in the middle as a draw pile. Now we can start the game.
How to Play
To begin, if I have a 3 card, I can play it. But if I don’t have one or don’t want to play it, the next person can try. And if they have a 3, they can play it. If we go all the way around and nobody plays a 3, then we move on to 4s. We keep going like this, playing the next highest card if it hasn’t been played yet, until finally, someone plays the first card.
After the first card is played, I draw back up to three cards. We always draw up to three cards until the draw pile is empty, and then we skip that step.
When it’s my turn to play, I have an important rule to follow. I can only play a card that is equal to or higher in rank than the card on top of the discard pile. This is how I get rid of my cards and move closer to winning! But what if I don’t have a card that matches or beats the top card? Well, then I have to pick up all the cards in the discard pile and add them to my hand. It’s like starting over again!
If you have multiple cards of the same rank in your hand, you can play them all together. And if you draw a card that matches the rank of the one you just played, you can play it too and draw a new card.
When the draw pile runs out and you’ve played the last card from your hand, you start using the cards in front of you. First, you play the face-up cards, following the same rules as the cards in your hand. After that, you play your last three face-down cards.
The face-down cards are played blind, which means you don’t know what they are until you discard them. The same rules apply to them as the previous cards. If you make a mistake and play a card incorrectly, you’ll have to pick up and play all the discarded cards before you can continue playing your face-down cards.
SPECIALTY RULES
Let’s talk about some important aspects of the game: 2s and 10s.
When you have a 2 in your hand, you can use it to reset the number in the discard pile. To do this, you simply discard the 2 and the number you want to change it to.
Now, let me explain what 10s do. These are special cards called burn cards. When you have a 10, you can use it to burn the entire discard pile. This means that all cards, including the 10 itself, are permanently taken out of the game. The next player can then start the discard pile with any card they want.
There is one important rule regarding the discard pile: if it ever has four or more cards of the same number on top, the entire pile is moved to the burn pile and removed from the game forever. However, there’s an exception for 6s. If there are three or more 6s on top of the discard pile, you should still burn the pile.
Finally, there’s a special rule for playing your last card. If the last card in your hand matches a card in your piles, you can also play it in front of you.