Complete Rules Reference
What Do You Need to Play?
Well, you and your opponent each need your own deck of 60 cards, a coin to flip, and some counters to mark damage to your Pokemon. You can use pennies or whatever else you want if you run out of counters.

What's the Pokemon Game Like?
You and your opponent are Pokemon trainers, battling it out to see who's the geatest Pokemon trainer of all time! You and your deck of cards (those are your Pokemon and the abilities you have as a trainer) will fight against your opponent and his or her deck.
You'll have one Pokemon, called your "Active Pokemon," fighting for you. You can have other Pokemon waiting behind he Active Pokemon on your "Bench." If your Active Pokemon loses the fight by getting Knocked Out, then you pick one of those Pokemon on your Bench to be your new Active Pokemon.

Object of the Game
You win if you Knock Out 6 of your opponent's Pokemon. You keep track of this with Prize cards that you put aside at the start of the game. Each time you Knock Out one of your opponent's Pokemon, you take one of your own Prizes (not your opponent's!) and put it into your hand.
# You win when you take your 6th Prize (this shows you've Knocked Out 6 Pokemon).
# You also win if your opponent's deck is out of cards at the beginning of his or her turn.
# You also win if your opponent has no Pokemon on the Bench to replace his or her Active Pokemon, and his or her Active Pokemon gets Knocked Out. That means there's no one for your Pokemon to fight against, so you win!