Egyptian Ratscrew - Card Games That Don't Suck

~FOLLOW US AROUND, WHY DON'T YOU~

[Gnalistair]

All snap variants can be made better (worse?) by requiring every slapper to first hit their own forehead

[Merlandese]

Burning the cards at midnight makes this the first Legacy game.

[lazybookworm]

I absolutely love this game, but I have found that when introducing people to it, I have to make it so we start by only slapping on doubles and sandwiches, otherwise they get overwhelmed and don't want to play. Also, instead of automatically slapping on a Joker, we pick a "magic number" before the game starts and that is what we automatically slap, that way people who have been playing the game for years don't have as much of an advantage (and it's really funny to see them automatically slap the joker out of habit and then have to do the penalty). I also never thought about slapping players hands if they are hovering, that is hilarious and would definitely solve that problem I often have with certain players!

[testoftetris]

when I first learned this game, it was with an "exploding" payment system. If someone plays a face card, you have to pay them the normal amount, but if you reveal one of your own face cards while paying, then you're "safe, " and the next player in turn order has to start paying *you* for the face card that you just flipped. (Naturally this can continue on across several people). You get some of the best moments when everyone is eagerly watching to see if someone is going to receive their payout from a long chain of face cards, and then someone across the table just slaps the pile and claims the whole thing on a pair that nobody was even looking for.

[IvanSensei]

I can totally imagine someone hovering their hand right above the pile, and as soon as someone tries to force-slap it down, they move it out of the way xD

[derekrucker]

Teacup-to-elbow proximity alarm is on full alert here

[magnusthereddidnithingwrong]

This was THE game of my High School. We usually kept it simple with slaps only on doubles, and sometimes sandwiches. That way it's less about who can remember all the rules and more about who has the best reflexes or card order memory.

[rmsgrey]

"the only card game where not knowing the rules is part of knowing the rules"

Last time on Card Games That Don't Suck: a game about guessing a rule someone invented.

[theminorthirds]

Well, I never expected the day that the rules of a card game would make me feel old. But when I played this in high school, we only had the pairs rule for slaps, and a big part of the strategy was intentionally misplaying in order to “slough” cards and cycle through your deck to the cards you wanted.

[fireant]

This game was THE game of my middle school to high school years. Things got really intense with all sorts of slaps and what have you. One friend even had the reputation of using his nails a bit too much with his slaps.

[feix]

When we played this as a kid, we had to tape a circle on the floor to keep our hands at a fair distance.
AND one day we played so agressively that we slapped the light off that was on the ceiling below us.

[RepOfAntarctica]

Depending on who you played it with we had varying combinations of these rules, but I've played with all of them at some point. They really glossed over the face card payout rule, so I'm not certain what they do, but for us the player won the pile if the next player did not reveal a different face card after paying out:
1 card on a jack;
2 cards on a queen;
3 cards on a king; &
4 cards on an ace.
If a new face card was revealed, the next player had to start paying out, and whoever laid the last face card when a full payout was reached won the pile. Of course, anyone could slap & steal the pile if any of the other rules occurred during this.
Jokers were one of two things, like they said:
1. Payout of 5 cards needed to win the pile; or
2. Anyone can slap & win the pile.

[ryanharner]

Played a lot of ERS at summer camp, in particular I remember one game that lasted for 3 days because we kept having different people slap in. Eventually this game taught me to count cards, just so that I could maybe remember when a pair or sandwich was coming from an Ace.

[jameswoodard]

We played this in high-school and Boy Scouts with only doubles and sandwiches. That's one fun thing about it, you can add or subtract layers of difficulty because absolutely no one can play "real" Egyptian Ratscrew well. Fun note: at church youth functions the name changed to Egyptian Rummy, so there's that option if you can't get past the name.

[cyborghuey]

I loved playing this game in high school! It's great to know that there are other rules I've never played with too. I will definitely have to introduce some of them the next time I play this! Keep up the great work folks!!

[Raveler]

ERS! We had so much fun playing this back in High School.

[mastershake]

I love this game, but these are a bunch of rules I didn't know existed. I gotta play with these rules now

[Cardsrock]

We played this game EVERY DAY in high school for 4 year. A favorite game of everyone. Never played top 'n bottom rules or 10s. Honestly, SUCH a good card game, and I love the extra rules
We didn't force slap, we did fake slaps right next to the pile, which would make the people who were ready usually slap, and they'd lose cards. So same mechanic essentially :)

[anmimc]

I love ERS. A standard of our summer church camp afternoons. This game and spoons.

[patrickgollmann]

My partner has a scar on their hand from this game when their friend's ring sliced into her hand.