The idea
Twelve face cards hide face down in a 3×4 playground, one Jack, Queen and King per column, each column a different suit. You place guesses around the edge, and when you reveal a hider, matching guesses in its row and column score. Every reveal tells you more about the rest, so the question is always: guess now, or wait for better information?
Setup
- Deal the 12 face cards into 4 piles of 3, so no pile has two of the same rank or suit. Don't think too hard about it.
- Turn the piles face down, shuffle each pile, and shuffle their positions. Wait a minute so you forget what went where.
- Lay each pile out as a column of 3 to make a 3×4 grid — the playground. Every column has a Jack, Queen and King of different suits, but you shouldn't know which.
- Around the grid there are 14 guess spaces: one at each end of every row and column. Leave room for a discard pile and a score pile.
- Shuffle the other 40 cards into a deck and turn it face up. You may only ever see the top card.
How to play
Do exactly one of these
- Guess: put the top deck card in an empty guess space.
- Reveal: turn a hider face up. Any guesses in its row and column that match its suit go to your score pile (up to 4). Non-matching guesses stay.
- Withdraw: discard the top deck card along with a placed guess of the same suit. This is the only way to clear a space.
Winning, losing and score
- You win
- Score 20 or more cards — half the deck.
- You lose
- Finish with fewer than 20.
- Score
- Cards in your score pile. The game ends when you reveal the last hider.