(2-player game -- click for larger image)

Nines

Players: 2-8

Equipment: 1 to 4 decks (jokers optimal)

Object: To end the game with the fewest points.

Deal: Each player is dealt 9 face-down cards in a 3x3 grid. The deck is placed in the middle, and the first card is flipped face-up into the discard pile.

Play: Eldest starts, and play rotates counterclockwise. On their turn, a player draws a card from the deck or from the top of the discard pile, and then either discards it or replaces any card in their grid with it. Replaced cards go face-up on top of the discard pile.

Sweeps: If 3 cards of the same rank (including, in a 2+ deck game, Jokers) occupy the same row or column, then the cards are removed from the board and placed underneath the top card in the discard pile.

End and Scoring: The round ends when all of the cards in a player’s grid are face-up at the beginning of their turn. All cards in other grids are flipped face-up, and points are tallied as follows: A-10 are worth 1-10 points, respectively. Jacks and Kings are worth 10, and Queens are worth 0. Jokers, if included, are worth -2.

Game: The game ends when one player reaches a predetermined score: 50 or 100 are reasonable endpoints. The player with the lowest score wins.

Author unknown -- variant of Golf
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