How to Play Freestate

The Freestate Card Game has players compete to get rid of the cards in their own hand before their opponents do the same thing. Players can play cards from their own hand if they match the suit of the card played before them. Players are penalized when they fail to match the suit of the previous card, or they play a card bringing the total of the playing pile above 15.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Deck of playing cards

1. Organize a home card game night, and include the Freestate Card Game. The minimum number of players for the Freestate Card Game is three, and the maximum is six. The ideal number is either four or five.

2. Deal five cards face down to each player. Each player may look at his own cards. Place the remaining pile of cards in the center of the table, face down. This becomes the drawing deck.

3. Choose a player to take the first turn. That player may play any card she wishes from her hand of five cards, and does not have to draw any additional cards on her first turn.

4. Proceed in a clockwise fashion around the table, having the person to the left of the first player taking the next turn. That player must match the suit of the previously played card. If he has no card of that suit in his hand, he can play a card from another suit, but then must draw a card from the drawing deck as a penalty card.Place the cards as they are played next to each other so a running point total can be maintained. Face cards all count as zeros and have special abilities described in the step below. All other cards count as their face values, with aces counting as a one. If a player plays a card that results in the total of the cards played increasing above 15, that player must take all the cards from the pile of played cards into her hand. The next player starts a new playing pile by playing a card from her hand.

5. Playing the Jack and you can determine who will take the next turn. Playing a Queen requires that the next player must draw a card from the drawing deck and is not permitted to play a card on that turn.Playing a King requires the next player to take all the cards in the playing pile.

6. Continue playing until one player is out of cards. That player is declared to be the winner.

Tips & Warnings

• Use your face cards strategically to prevent the player sitting to the left of you from winning the game.
• If the drawing pile is depleted, the game continues, but you can not assess a penalty for having to change the suit of the play pile due to being void in the suit played by the previous player.