How to Play Egyptian Rat Screw

Egyptian rat screw is a matching/war, fast-paced game. Similar to beggar my neighbor, but with hectic slapping rules

Egyptian Rat Screw Rules

| Players: 2+ | Type: War | Supplies: 1 Deck |

Objective

The objective of egyptian rat screw is to collect all the cards.

Deal

Deal out the entire deck, one card at a time, to each player. Some players may have one more card than others, this is ok. The cards are not looked at and remain face down in each player's hand in a card stack.

Game Play

Game Play The player left of the dealer is first to play. The player flips the top card of their stack into the middle of everyone face up. If the card is a numbered card (2-10), play continues to the next player clockwise.

If the card played into the middle is a face card or an ace, the next player has to play a face card or an ace as well. Depending on the card played, the next player gets a number of changes to play a face card or ace. The number of chances are as followed:

Ace - four chances to play a face card or an ace
King - three chances to play a face card or an ace
Queen - two chances to play a face card or an ace
Jack - one chance to play a face card or an ace

If a face card or ace is played within the allowed number of chances, that player stops playing cards and the next person has to play a face card or ace based on the most recent face card or ace played. This continues until no face card or ace is played. Once this happens, the middle pile is taken by the last person who played a face card or ace and is added to the bottom of the players card stack.

Slaps

During game play, anytime the following card combinations are played into the middle, the pile can be slapped. And the pile of cards in the middle go at the bottom of the stack of the first player to slap them. Keep your hands on the pile until it is determined who won the pile.

-Doubles: If the two cards on the top of the pile have the same rank
-Sandwich: A double is on top with only one card between them. For example: the top card is a 7, the card under it is a 9, and the card under that one is a 7. The 7s being the double and the 9 being sandwiched in between.
-Top Bottom: If the top card of the pile matches the card at the bottom of the pile.
-Marriage: If a king and queen are played on top of each other. It does not matter which one is on top.

Additional Rules

-If a card is played on top of a combination that could have been slapped, the chance to slap that combination has passed and is no longer valid.

-If a player mistakenly slaps the pile, they must put a card from their stack to the bottom of the middle pile.

-When a player runs out of cards, they are not out of the game. They are still allowed to slap the pile to win cards.

-If a player mistakenly slaps the pile in the middle and they do not have any cards, they are out of the game.

Winner

The player who collects all of the cards into their stack is the winner.