Stand Off

Created by C. Scott Davis and Mark Davis

Stand Off is a simple memory/strategy card game for two players.

It is played with a standard 52-card pack (jokers removed).

The object of the game is to be the first player to get five cards of a matching suit.

Rules

Both players are dealt five cards, three face-down and two face-up, and the remaining cards are placed to one side, as shown here:

Players are not allowed to look at the face down cards.

The player who didn't deal, plays first.

One each turn, a player may do any one of the following:

Discard any card in their hand (face-up or face-down) and draw a new card.
Turn any one face-up card face-down, and any one face-down card face-up from their hand, thus revealing that card to both players.
Exchange one face-up card from their hand for one face-up card from the other player's hand. Cards taken in this way, become "blocked", which should be indicated in some way (such as placing a coin or other small token on one corner of the card). Blocked cards can not be exchanged again until that same player's next turn (at which point the token should be removed).

At any point that a player believes that all of their cards (face-up and face-down) are of the same suit, they may choose to "declare". Having declared, they then turn all of their cards face-up.

If all of their cards are of the same suit, they win that hand.

If any player declares and doesn't have five cards of the same suit, they lose (see "Scoring" for exceptions).

The player who wins deals the next hand.

Example

In the following example, it is Player 2's turn:

Player 2 may make any one of the following moves on this turn:

Turn the Ace of Clubs face-down and turn any one of cards 1, 3 or 4 face-up.

Turn the 3 of Spades face-down and turn any one of cards 1, 3 or 4 face-up.

Discard the Ace of Clubs or the 3 of Spades to the discard pile and replace it with the top card from the draw pile, face-up.

Discard any one of cards 1, 3 or 4 to the discard pile and replace it with the top card from the draw pile, face-down, without looking at the new card.

Exchange either the Ace of Clubs or the 3 of Spades with the 4 of Hearts from the opponent's hand. Both cards would remain face-up and the 4 of Hearts would become blocked until Player 2's next turn.

Player two may not make any of the following moves:

Exchange any face-down card for any of the opponent's cards. This is never allowed.
Exchange any card for any of the opponent's face-down cards. This is never allowed.
Turn any card face-up, without turning another card face-down. Each player must always have exactly two cards face-up and three cards face-down.
Exchange any card for the top card on the discard pile. Once a card has been discarded, it is out of play.
Exchange any card for the opponent's 7 of Clubs card. This card is blocked until Player 1's next turn.

The actual move that Player 2 would choose to make would depend on what their (and their opponent's) face-down cards are, and how well they remember them.

Scoring

In its simplest form, there is no scoring. Players simply win or lose individual hands.

Games can also be scored, in any of the following ways:

Players play for a predetermined number of hands (say 9 or 15 - odd numbers work best), and the player who wins the most hands, wins the game.
Players get one point for winning a hand, and play until someone gets a predetermined number of points, at which point the player with the most points wins.
Players are awarded points, based on the following:

10 points if all five cards are of the same suit and consecutive (ie. a "straight").
5 points for having all five cards of the same suit.
1 point for each number card (2-10) of the dominant suit.
2 points for each court card (J-K) of the dominant suit.
3 points for an Ace of the dominant suit.
-7 points for declaring and not having all five cards of the same suit.

In this variant, both players receive points for card values in their dominant suit (The dominant suit is whichever suit that player has the most of). The highest possible score from a single hand is 25 points (for 10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit) and the lowest possible score from a single hand is -5 points (for declaring with only two cards of the same suit).

The highest possible score for a player who declares without actually having five cards of the same suit is only 2 points (9 points for J, Q, K, A of the same suit, and -7 points declaring without having five cards of the same suit).

Playing with other (non-standard) Packs

Stand Off can also be played with other packs, such as the six-suited Deck6 , the five-suited Wild Suit Playing Cards , the 60-card Zero Mod Playing Cards , or multi-colour Kalosi cards.

Stand Off for 5+ Suits

Game play should be identical to the standard four-suit version, with the only real difference being in points for a scored variant (see above). Since there are more than four suits, it is possible for a player to have no dominant suit (ie. five cards, all of different suits). In this case, that player's score would be 0 for that hand (or -7, if they declared).

Stand Off (colour-enhanced variant)

Game play should be identical to the standard version, with the following differences:

The object of the game is to get five cards of the same colour, rather than suit.
Jokers may be included or left out. If included, Jokers can count as either of their two colours.
The Scoring variant should be based on colour, not suit.

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