How to Play the Card Game "Cat and Mouse"

"Cat and Mouse" is an extremely easy card game where players are given their own personal deck of 20 cards and then given an additional 5-card hand to play from. In turn, players create piles of cards in sequential order starting with the ace and moving up to the queen. Your task is to try to eliminate your personal deck, but this is done one card at a time. Only the top card from the deck (or one from your hand) can be played on the piles. The first player to rid their playing deck of cards is considered the winner of Cat and Mouse.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 2 decks of cards
• 2 players

1. Incorporate both decks into one by shuffling them together thoroughly. You may want to use two decks that have two different back so separating will be of greater ease.

2. Deal out the double deck until each player has a total of 20 cards in front of them. Do not look at or arrange your cards in any way, they will each act as your own separate playing deck. From this playing deck, turn over the top card and place it atop your deck.

3. Deal out 5 cards to each player from the remainder of the deck. This will act as your actual hand for play. The unused portion of the deck is then placed between the two players, making sure that it is within reasonable reach of both, and will be used as the draw pile.

4. Lay a card from your hand or playing deck, starting with the ace. You and your opponent will create four piles of cards on which to play between the two of you. This is your mutual playing board. Each pile must begin with an ace. Subsequent cards must be in sequential order—A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J and Q.

5. Continue to lay cards from your hand or playing deck until you are no longer able (see Tips section for further instructions). To indicate the end of your card, take a card from your hand and lay it in front of you.

6. Draw cards from the common draw pile to bring your hand back up to 5 when your turn comes around again. Lay cards on the mutual playing board as described before (from your hand or personal playing deck). You are trying to rid your playing deck of cards—when possible, play from there.

7. Win the game of "Cat and Mouse" by being the first player to rid your playing deck of cards.

Tips & Warnings

• When you lay a card from your playing deck on one of the four piles, simply flip over the top card of the playing deck to reveal the next card. If possible, you may play this card on your turn. On a single turn, it is completely normal to alternate play between your hand and your playing deck as you continually reveal the top card of your playing deck as one is played.
• Kings are wild and may be played in place of another card.
• Suit is irrelevant in Cat and Mouse. You simply need to play cards in sequential order.