Object of the game
The object of the Nash
card game is to guess the value of one of three face-down cards. The Nash
card game is played with a single, regular pack of playing cards and can be
played with two or three players.
The Nash card game is a
test of genius. To win the game requires sound judgement of probability, good
memory and only a small amount of luck.
How to play the game with two players
1. Take a pack of
cards. Remove all jokers, remove all face cards (jacks, queens and kings),
remove one entire suit. You should now have three suits containing ace to ten. In
the Nash card game, aces are low and suit is unimportant: cards are judged on
their value (1-10) only.
2. After thoroughly
shuffling the remaining cards, place the top three cards face-down in the
centre of the table. Be very careful that neither player sees any of these
three cards – the object of the game will be to guess these cards’ value.
3. Deal five cards to
each player.
4. Deal the remaining cards
into three stacks of five cards; once this is done there will be two cards
remaining, which are then added to the first of these three stacks. You will
now have three stacks of cards, these are the draw stacks. The first draw stack
has seven cards, the second and third draw stacks each have five cards.
5. You are now ready to
start playing. Select one player to start on the basis of attractiveness.
6. To begin the game,
the starting player (Player A) takes
one card from the top of the first draw stack and adds it to their hand.
Player A then asks the other player (Player B) if they have any cards of a value of
their choice (for example, A might
ask B: “Do you have any fours?”). If
B has any cards of this value, they
must immediately place ALL the cards they hold of this value face-up on the
table in front of them. A then picks
the face-up cards up and adds them to their hand.
However, if B does not have any cards of the value
requested by A, B then takes ONE of A’s
cards. Cards taken this way are chosen at random (no player is ever able to see
the other player’s hand) and added to the player’s hand without first being
placed face-up on the table.
A’s turn is
now over and B can start their turn.
7. B’s
turn is exactly the same as A’s –
they start by taking one card from the top of the first draw stack and adding
it to their hand. They then ask A if
they have any cards of a value of their choice (e.g.: “do you have any nines?”)
and either collect face-up cards, or, if A
does not have any cards of this value, surrender one of their cards, chosen at
random, to A.
8. The players continue taking turns in
this way, until all the cards in the first draw stack have been taken into
their hands.
When
the final card is taken, the player who has taken it still completes their turn
by asking the other player if they have any cards of a value of their choice.
9. At this point the player whose turn is
next does not take a card from a new draw stack. Instead, after considering the
cards they have in their hand and the cards they remember passing to the other
player, they guess the value of one of the three face-down cards in the centre
of the table. After they have declared their guess, the other player then
guesses the value of the same card – and may not guess the same value.
10. The face down card that the players
have attempted to guess the value of is then turned over. If one player has
correctly guessed its value, they win the game instantly.
However, if neither player has correctly
guessed the value of the card, the player who has made the closest guess (e.g. if
the card is an eight, a guess of seven is closer than a guess of five) takes
THREE cards from the top of the second draw stack, before continuing the game,
as before, by asking the other player if they have any cards of a value of
their choice.
If
the players’ guesses are equally close to the value of the card (for example,
if A guesses four and B guesses six, then the card is
revealed to be a five), then the player who started the game (A) takes TWO cards from the top of the
second draw stack and the other player (B)
takes ONE, then continues their turn by asking A for a card of a value of their choice.
12. Once all the cards in the second draw
stack have been picked up, the players will again attempt to guess the value of
one of the remaining cards, following the same rules as before, with the game
either being won or the player who made the closest guess taking three cards
from the third draw stack.
13. Once all the cards in the third and
final draw stack have been taken the players will guess the value of the final
face-down card. The player whose turn it is guesses first.
At the
end of the game the players are allowed to guess the same value. Thus the game
can end with both players winning, both players losing, or one player winning.
How to play the game with three players
The Nash card game is played in almost
exactly the same way with three players as with two. The only differences are:
1. All four suits are used, instead of only
three (the deck therefore comprises of four suits containing ace to ten). The
draw stacks will be slightly different sizes – the first draw stack should have
eight cards, the second and third draw stacks should have seven cards each.
2. When a player asks for cards from the
other players, they ask both players simultaneously (for example, they might
ask: “Do either of you have any fives?”). Both the other players must surrender
all of their cards of the value asked for, laying them face up on the table – so
all the players can see them – before the player who asked takes the cards into
their hand.
If neither player has any of cards of the
value asked for, BOTH other players take one card each from the asking player’s
hand.
If
one player has cards of the value asked for, but the other does not, the asking
player takes the face up cards and does not have to surrender any cards to the
player who had no cards of that value.
If
the Nash card game is too easy for you…
The Nash card game is fun to play but most
players will struggle to win more than 50 percent of their games.
If, however, you are fortunate enough to be
blessed with significant mathematical ability and have mastered the basic Nash
card game, play can be made more difficult by the addition of the face cards (jack,
queen and king). The game will become progressively more difficult as more
cards are added.
Feedback
I would be very interested to hear your
opinions of the Nash card game, to answer queries, to receive suggestions and
to have faults pointed out. Please email me at edtobynash (at) yahoo (dot) co
(dot) uk.
Design
The Nash card game was invented by Ed Nash
and perfected with the assistance of Gemma Donovan.
