Loser

A sneaky card game
for 4 or 6 players

Overview

Players will pick up and lay out cards, attempting to match four or five cards of the same value. If a player manages to do so, and secretly communicates it to his partner, they win the round. If the player is caught with four or five of a kind by the opponents first, his team loses the round. Each time a team loses, they get one or more letters. When they get enough to spell “LOSER”, the other team wins.

The cards

The deck consists of 63 cards. There are five sets of numbered cards, 1-12. One of each set is marked “Bonus!”. Also, there are three special cards numbered with four numbers each: 1-4, 5-8, 9-12.

A PDF file of the necessary cards and penalty "chips" can be found at the link below:

losercards.pdf

Note: To view or print the above file, you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can get it at www.adobe.com.

Preparing to play

These rules will be for the four-player game. Rules follow below for the six-player version.

Players will play in teams of two each. First, partners must meet secretly and decide on their signals for the game. Any number of non-verbal signals may be agreed upon. They may be used to communicate any information the players choose. Most importantly, though, is a signal (or perhaps a couple signals) used to communicate that important message: “Call ‘Winner!’”

When both teams have chosen their signals, they may gather back at the game table and the game can begin.

Playing the game

Choose a dealer. The dealer gives each player two cards. He then lays out four cards on the table and says, “GO!” Players may immediately grab a card from the set for their hands. In case two players try to take the same card, the player who touched it first gets it. The idea is to try to get cards you want and to watch what the other players are taking. This is repeated two more times until everyone has five cards. It’s important to try to get an idea what your partner is going for and what your opponents are trying to get.

After everyone has five cards, the dealer lays four more cards face up in the middle of the table and calls “Go” again.

This time players again begin picking up cards from the table just as before. Now, after picking up a card though, a player must discard a different one from his hand and place it face up on the table with the others. Once on the table, the card may be picked up like any other, by any player.

After a number of exchanges, it will come to a point where no one wants any of the cards on the table. The dealer must push those cards aside and deal four more face up on the table. Once he says “go”, players may again begin picking up cards. This continues until someone calls “Winner” or “Loser”

Calling “Winner”:
At this point the round comes to an end. The partner of the person who called “winner” must reveal his cards. If he has at least four of a kind, the other team gets a penalty. If the partner does not have at least four of a kind, that team gets the penalty.

Calling “Loser”:
Players call “loser” when they suspect the other team has a scoring set. Again, this ends the round. This time both players in the opposing team must reveal their cards. If either one is caught with four or five of a kind, that team gets a penalty. If it turns out neither player has a set of four or five of a kind, the player who called “loser” earns a penalty for his team.

Penalties
Normally a penalty is one chip with a letter from the word “loser” on it. A team first takes an “L”, then an “O” and so on each time they are penalized.

If, however, the cards are revealed as described above and a player is found to have a set of four matching cards with one of them being a “Bonus” card, the penalty becomes two chips (to whichever team is getting penalized).

Furthermore, if the cards are revealed and it’s found one of the players has five matching cards, the penalty becomes three chips going to the penalized team!

Note: The special wild cards count as any of the numbers printed on them. So, for example, if a player has three “6’s” and the “5-8” special card, this would count as a four of a kind.

If a round ever continues to the point that the deck is exhausted, the dealer can shuffle the cards he’s pushed aside back together and use that as the deck. Play continues as normal.

The player to the left of the dealer should deal for the next round. Play continues until one team has enough chips to spell “LOSER” and thus loses the game.

The six-player rules

The game is played exactly as above, except there are three people on each team. If a player calls “winner”, both of his teammates reveal their cards. At least one of them must have four or five of a kind to avoid penalty.

When a player calls “loser”, all three players on the opposing team must reveal their cards. If any of them have four or five of a kind, they are penalized.

Variations

Agree before the game begins that teammates can get together at other times during the game to discuss new signals. Some options might be:

Players have the option after every round to meet.
Players may discuss new signals one time at any point between rounds, but only once during the game.

Allow verbal signals as well.
Introduce other penalties for things like discarding to the table before taking a card or for picking up cards before the dealer says “go”. Penalties could be losing a random card (and replacing it from the top of the deck) or having to stop taking cards until the next time the cards are cleared away.

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Last updated 12-3-01.