President

How to play

The whole deck is dealt out, so at three or five players somebody holds an extra card. Whoever has the three of clubs leads the first round.

The leader plays one, two, three or four cards of a single rank. Everybody after them must play the same number at a higher rank, or pass.

Pass and you are out of that pile until it is cleared. When everybody but the last player to lay has passed, the pile is swept away and they start a fresh one.

As hands empty, players take their places. First out is President, last is Scum, and the last player does not bother playing their cards out — there is nobody left to beat them.

The order

This is the one rule to learn, and it is not the usual one:

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A 2

Worst to best. A three is the weakest card in the game, the ace sits above the king, and a two beats everything. Suits never break a tie — two kings are simply equal, and equal does not beat.

The three house rules

• Revolution. Four of a kind reverses the order for the rest of the round — threes become the best card and twos the worst. Four of a kind again turns it back.
• Clear on two. A two sweeps the pile immediately and whoever laid it leads again. It is what makes a two worth saving rather than simply worth playing.
• Card exchange. From round two, the Scum hands their two best cards to the President with no say in it and gets back any two the President does not want. At four players or more the Vices swap one each the same way.

All three are on by default. The House rules preset lets you turn any of them off, and keeps its records separately — a game without the exchange is a different game, not an easier one.

Modes

Three players

The tightest table: one President, one Citizen, one Scum, and nobody swaps a single card. Every trick comes back to you quickly.

Four players

Vice-President and Vice-Scum appear, so four of the five roles swap cards and the whole table has something at stake in the exchange.

Five players

A full table with a Citizen in the middle who swaps nothing. You wait longer between turns, so the hand you keep matters more than the card you lay.

House rules

Turn revolution, clear-on-two and the card exchange on or off and see what the game becomes without them. Kept apart from the other records, because it is not the same game.

Daily deal

Five rounds at a table of four, the same cards for everybody today, and all three house rules on so the challenge is the same game for everybody.

The opponents

They weigh up how many plays would empty their hand, whether a set is worth breaking, how hard a card is to beat given everything already played, and how close anybody is to going out. Every weight was settled by playing thousands of deals against a fixed reference player — one that simply lays its lowest legal set — rather than against another copy of itself.

Casual

Lays whatever it can and thinks no further, so it will break a pair or spend a two to answer a five. Good company, not much of a threat.

Steady

Keeps its sets together and its high cards back, and would rather pass than spend a two on something small. It does not keep track of what has already gone.

Sharp

The same reading, acted on every time — and it counts what has been played, so it knows the moment its king has quietly become the best card left in the game.

Against that reference player, and with every deal played from every chair in turn, Casual comes first about 40% as often as its fair share, Steady about 110% and Sharp about 150%. Two copies of the reference player come out exactly level, which is how those numbers are known to mean anything. At three players the top two levels are close enough to be hard to tell apart; at four and five the gap is clear. They never differ in what they are allowed to see.

A few things worth knowing

• Count your plays, not your cards. Twelve cards in four ranks empties in four turns; six singletons takes six. That is why breaking a pair to answer a single so often costs more than passing.
• Keep the cards that take the lead back. A two is worth more than the trick it wins, because whoever wins a pile starts the next one and can choose the size.
• Watch what has gone. Nothing recycles here, so once all four twos are out your ace is the best card in the game — and the page shows you every card already played.
• Leading is the only time you choose the number. A hand full of pairs is worth much more when you have the lead than when you are answering singles all round.

Privacy and local play

Your hand, your settings and your record are stored on this device and nowhere else. There is no account, no sign-in and no gameplay request to any server. The reset button clears this game’s data and leaves every other Zerdly tool alone.

Questions

Why is a three the worst card and a two the best?

Because that is President. The order runs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace, two — so the ace sits between the king and the two, and the two beats everything. It is the one rule nobody guesses, and it is why every card in your hand carries a small ladder up its edge showing where it sits.

Why will it not let me play a single on a pair?

You must always play the SAME number of cards as the pile, at a higher rank. Two pairs do not beat a pair either, and a king cannot be beaten by another king — equal is not higher. Whoever leads a fresh pile chooses the number, and everybody else has to match it.

Does the suit matter at all?

No, never. No suit beats another and there is no tie-break, which is why tapping a rank picks the whole set for you rather than asking which two sevens you meant. The suits are drawn as distinct shapes anyway, so three sevens read as three separate cards rather than one smeared shape.

I passed and now I cannot play. Is that a bug?

No — that is the rule that makes passing a real decision. Passing takes you out of the current pile until it is cleared, even if the turn comes round to you again. When everybody except the last player to lay has passed, the pile is swept away and that player starts a fresh one.

What happens if somebody wins a pile with their last cards?

The lead moves on to the next player still holding cards. That single case is the whole difficulty of this game to implement: the winner of the pile is gone, so the lead can go neither to them nor to nobody. It is checked here by a soak that plays thousands of rounds at every table size with every combination of the house rules and asserts that each one ends on its own.

The exchange feels unfair. Is it meant to?

Yes. Coming last means handing your two best cards to whoever came first, with no say in which, and getting back whatever they do not want. That is the engine of the whole game — climbing out of it is the point, and a match is five rounds precisely so a bad first round is recoverable. You can switch it off entirely in the House rules preset.

Does the exchange make the winner run away with it?

Measurably, no. Over 300 four-handed matches the strongest bot won or shared 36.7% of them with the exchange switched on and 36.7% with it off — the same number. It feeds the President, but it also takes two cards off them and hands the Scum a fresh pair, and across five rounds those cancel out.

What is revolution?

Playing four of a kind turns the whole order upside down for the rest of the round: threes become the best card in the pack and twos the worst. Four of a kind again turns it back. The table says so in words, and the strength ladder on every card fills from the other end — a ladder that kept pointing the old way would be lying at the exact moment you most need it.

Can the computer see my cards?

No. It is given one player's view of the table, and that object has no field for another hand. It knows how many cards you hold and which cards have already been played — both of which you can see too, because nothing recycles in President and every card laid stays face up. It knows nothing about which unseen card is in which hand.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The rules, the shuffle, the scoring, the opponents, the sounds and your saved game all run in your browser. There is no account, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool untouched.

More Zerdly Interactive

• Four in a Row — The other game everybody already knows the rules to.
• Reversi — Sixty-four squares and a board that can turn over in one move.
• Nine Men’s Morris — Mills, and the double mill that wins the game on its own.
• Mancala — Sow the stones, and take another turn if the last one lands right.