Egyptian Ratscrew
| Type | Matching |
|---|---|
| Players | 2+ |
| Skills required | Speed, counting, pattern recognition |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise or Counterclockwise |
| Card rank (highest to lowest) | J Q K A (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2) |
| Playing time | 10 to 90 minutes |
| Random chance | Moderate |
| Related games | |
| Beggar-My-Neighbour, Slapjack | |
Egyptian Ratscrew (also known as Egyptian Ratkiller,Egyptian War, and by other names) is a card game of the matching family of games. The game is similar to the 19th century British card game Beggar-My-Neighbour, with the added concept of "slapping" cards when certain combinations are played, similar to and perhaps borrowed from Slapjack.
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck or with multiple standard decks shuffled together for larger numbers of players. The number of players is limited only by each player's ability to reach the central pile at an arm's length. Each person is dealt an equal number of cards; extras are distributed as would in a normal deal. As a variation, one or more Jokers may be added to ensure an even deal or to change gameplay.
Players cannot look at their cards at any time including placing a card onto the central pile. The player to the left of the dealer begins by placing a card face-up, always from the top of his/her deck, to start a central pile. When playing a card a player must reveal the card to all players at the same time, drawing to reveal the card away from themselves and then flipping face up. (This action prevents a player drawing a card towards themselves revealing the card to said player first.) Alternative to this, as hands with bad technique are more directly above the cards they place, any player can snap the hands of such players down, resulting in likely punishment for the player whose hand is on the bottom as they will likely have incorrectly snapped - see versions of this later in article. Play proceeds around the circle and each player takes turns laying down one card on the central pile at a time until a face card or Ace is played (making that player the "challenger" for that moment in play). The next player (the "challenged") then has a number of chances to play another face card or Ace, as follows: four chances after an Ace, three after a King, two after a Queen, and one after a Jack. The challenged player plays his/her cards, one at a time, until he/she either draws another face card onto the pile or exhausts all of his/her allowed chances. If the challenged player is able to play a face card or Ace, the next player after him/her must beat it; if the initial face card could not be beaten in its allotted amount of cards, the challenger who placed it takes the pile.
Any player who takes a pile is always the one to start the next pile. When taken, piles are always added to a player's deck underneath, face-down. Cards are not shuffled.
The player who collects every card in the deck wins the game.
In addition to the basic progression of play, players should agree beforehand on certain card combinations that, when played, entitle the fastest player to slap the pile and subsequently claim it. The simplest and most common combination is often the Double (any two cards of equal rank). Other common slappable combinations include Sandwiches (a double with one card of a different value between the two), Big Macs (a double with 2 cards of different value between the two) consecutive-number runs of at least three in ascending or descending order (e.g. 7, 6, 5; 10, Jack, Queen), wild cards (usually Jokers, if used in play) and Marriage (King+Queen on top of each other). In the TSRF (Transition School Rules for Fun) variant, a 69, a 6-Jack-9, and a 42 if played, are eligible slaps.
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Wikipedia