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Slapjack

Slap the jack, but make sure not to slap anything else in this energetic card game!
By: Trish Kuffner, author of The Children's Busy Book

Slapjack


Materials

  • Deck of playing cards

Directions

  1. This game is best played with three or four players at a small table.
  2. Deal the cards facedown evenly among the players. Stack any extra cards in the middle of the table.
  3. Each player should stack his cards facedown in front of him.
  4. The player to the left of the dealer turns over a card and drops it faceup on the middle stack (in a way that lets everyone see it at the same time). The next player to the left does the same.
  5. Play continues in this way until someone turns over a jack.
  6. Players slap the jack to win the pile of cards.
  7. If more than one player slaps the jack, the player whose hand is at the bottom of the pile wins.
  8. The winner places his new cards facedown under the others in his stack. Then play continues.
  9. If a player slaps a card that isn't a jack, he must give the top card facedown from his stack to the person who played the card he slapped.
  10. If the false slapper has no cards left, he's out of the game.
  11. When a player has turned over all his cards, he can still watch for the next jack and try to slap it to get more cards. If he misses, he's out of the game.
  12. The game ends when someone wins all the cards.

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