Club Fight

Goal

Clear every card from the grid and the grid deck before your 13 clubs run out. Each turn spends 1 club, so you have at most 13 turns.

Cards

Use a standard 52-card deck plus Jokers. The 13 ♣ are the clubs deck. The other 39 cards plus 1 Joker, or 2 Jokers for a harder game, are the grid deck.

Ranking

An Ace is worth 1, a number card its number, a Jack 11, a Queen 12, and a King 13. A Joker has no suit and no value, so only Any and Line can clear one, and it never counts toward a block.

Setup

Shuffle both decks. Deal 9 cards from the grid deck face up into a 3×3 grid. Draw 4 clubs.

Play

1. Discard exactly 1 club from your hand and take one of the six actions below with its value. An action must clear at least one card.
2. Refill the grid. Fill the empty spaces from the grid deck, left to right, starting with the top row. Cards already in the grid stay where they are.
3. Draw back up to 4 clubs while any remain in the clubs deck.

Three actions can always be taken.

• Match. Clear every card in the grid with the club’s value.
• Sum. Clear any cards whose values add up to exactly the club’s value.
• Any. Clear any one card, a Joker included.

Three actions are blocked while the grid holds 3 or more cards of one suit, and all three can be blocked at once.

• Line. Clear a whole row or column that holds a card of the club’s value, Jokers included. Blocked by 3 or more ♦.
• Up/Down. With a 2–7, clear every card lower than the club. With a 7–Q, clear every card higher than it. A 7 can go either way. Blocked by 3 or more ♠.
• Run. Clear cards that form one unbroken sequence with the club, one card for each value and none of the club’s own. Suits don’t matter, and a King doesn’t wrap around to an Ace. Blocked by 3 or more ♥.

Variants

Two players, cooperative, by Annabel Fieldman. The grid, the six actions, and the 13 turns are the same, and you win or lose together.

1. Split the clubs. Make two decks of 6 clubs, one each, and turn the 13th face up as the display. Each player draws 3 from their own deck. Decide who goes first.
2. Play a club. On your turn, play one of your clubs or the display club, and take its action as usual.
3. Give one to the display. Of the clubs you have left, which include the display club if you didn’t play it, put one face up as the new display and keep the rest. Then draw back up to 3 from your own deck. On the turn you play your last club there’s nothing to give.
4. Keep your hand hidden from your partner until both decks are empty. From then on both hands are face up.

You lose together when the player whose turn it is has no club to play.

Open the rules page