Underdog

A card game for 2-5 players

You Need:

• 2-5 Players
• One deck of cards shuffled

Each Round:

Deal five cards to each player. Players examine their cards, turn face cards and tens face up in front of them, and place one other card face down in front of them. (This other card is called your Underdog card.) All remaining cards are placed in one big pile in the middle of the table with everyone else’s extra cards. This pile is the “Big Dog.” (So you have your 10s, Jacks, Queens, and Kings in front of you, along with one other face down card of your choice. All the rest of your cards go with everyone else’s in the Big Dog pile.)

Each player must then say whether they think “Big Dog” or “Little Dog”  will win this round. Big Dog wins if the pile in the middle of the table totals higher. Little Dog wins if all the players’ face up cards plus your Underdog card totals higher.

All cards are turned face up, and the Big Dog and Little Dog are totaled.

• Face cards and 10s are worth ten points
• Aces are worth one point
• All other cards are worth their printed number

Note: Since your Little Dog is equals everyone’s face cards plus your Underdog card, it is possible that one player’s Little Dog may beat the Big Dog, and another player’s may not.

Scoring:

• If you correctly guessed the Big Dog would beat your Little Dog, you win points equal to the Big Dog.
• If you correctly guessed your Little Dog would beat the Big Dog, you win points equal to your Little Dog.

Bonus Points: Compare the suit of your Underdog card to the suits of the cards in the Big Dog. If your Underdog suit is the least common suit in the Big Dog, or if there are no cards in the Big Dog with a suit matching your Underdog, you win points equal to five times the number of people playing.

Next Round:

Shuffle all the cards and play again. Play for at least three rounds.

Note: for the first few rounds, while you are learning the game, it may be helpful to put all the face up cards together in a second pile. That way you are guessing whether the face down Big Dog pile is the strongest or the face up Little Dog pile plus your one hidden card is the strongest. In playtesting, this decreased the new players' confusion.