Acehole

Two or more players compete against one another to discard their cards first and avoid accumulating points. You'll want to avoid being caught by an Acehole or vie to become one yourself and cackle as your opponent draws all of the remaining cards. You'll need a standard deck of cards including 2 Jokers, for 54 cards in total.

A Quick Reference is available at the end if you're already familiar with the rules.

Starting the game:

- Shuffle the deck and deal 9 cards to each player, this is their individual hand and should be kept secret.

- Set aside the rest, this is the Draw Pile.

- Flip up one card from the Draw Pile, this is the Discard Pile

- You then play cards from your hand on top of the Discard Pile by following one of these rules:
1) Playing a card with the matching the suit and a lower rank*
2) Playing a card that matches the rank to change the suit
3) Playing the same coloured Facecard to reset the count
4) Playing the opposite coloured Ace to be an Acehole
5) Playing a Joker to reset the count and reset the suit
6) Playing the same coloured 6 to switch the counting direction and set the count to 6
7) Failing all of the above, pick up cards from the Draw Pile until you can play

- Play continues until a player empties their hand or a player needs to draw from an empty Draw Pile at which point the remaining player(s) reveal their hands and accumulate points for that round.

- The nuances of these plays are detailed in the section "Plays Explained". However if you just need a brief summary check out the "Quick Reference" section at the bottom of this document.

* - Playing a card with a lower rank is correct at the start of each round, however if the direction switches then the appropriate move would be Playing a card with the matching suit and a higher rank.

Playing additional cards:

- Pairs, triples, quadruples, and other multiples (assuming multiple decks are being used) can be played so long as the bottom card is legal.
- Runs of consecutive cards may be played as long as they all match suit and the bottom card is legal (minimum 2 cards in a run).
- Runs may only include numbered cards, or Facecards, it cannot include both.
- Numbered cards must be sequenced in whole number numeric order depending on the direction. Facecards must be arranged in some set of J, Q, K when going up and K, Q, J when going down. K, J is never an acceptable run.
- Aces and Jokers cannot be used in a run.
- Pairs/multiples and runs cannot be combined.
- In order to switch direction a 6 must be the top card in a multi-card play. If a 6 is in the middle of a run it has no effect. A 6 can be used to switch the suit if it is used as the bottom card, but it still has to match the colour of the top card of the Discard Pile.
- Multiple 6's played at once switch the counting direction only once and as above can be used to switch the suit if the bottom 6 matches the colour of the top card of the Discard Pile.

Accumulating Points:

When each round ends, by a player either emptying their hand or drawing from an empty Draw Pile, the players accumulate points at the same time based on the point values of their remaining cards.

Point Values:
   2-5, 7-10 = 5 points
   J, Q, K, 6 = 10 points
   A, Joker    = 20 points

Ending the game:

The first player to accumulate 100 points loses. The player with the fewest points at this time wins. If all players accumulate more than 100 points, then they all lose. However, in this rare case, the player with the lowest score loses less.

Plays Explained:

1) This is the most common play: First check if the direction is down or up (decreasing or increasing), then find a card in your hand that has the same suit as the top card on the Discard Pile and is in the correct direction. Since each round begins with the count direction going down (decreasing) a lower card with the same suit is an acceptable first move.
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, then the 4 of hearts would be allowed but neither the 3 of diamonds (wrong suit) nor the 9 of hearts (wrong direction) would be allowed.

2) You can play a card of the same rank, which is the number or letter of the card. This changes the suit of the Discard Pile but not the count.
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, then playing both the 8 of diamonds and the 8 of spades would be allowed and changes the suit to your choice of diamonds or spades.

3) Playing a Facecard resets the count to the first (highest or lowest) value so that any card of the matching suit (except for the Ace) can be played after it. Facecards only needs to match the colour of the top card of the Discard Pile therefore they can be used to change suit as well. Facecards are the Jacks (J), the Queens (Q), and the Kings (K).
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, then the Queen of diamonds would be allowed. The count resets and the suit changes to diamonds, so any diamond (except the Ace of diamonds) can be played.

4) Playing an Ace sets the count to a special value therefore it must be followed by a Facecard of the same colour or by another Ace. To play an Ace it must be the opposite colour of the top card of the Discard pile. Although they are wild cards, 6's and Jokers cannot be played after an Ace. Be prepared for some vicious language.
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, then the Ace of spades would be allowed (not the Ace of hearts) and would need to be followed by a black Facecard or any other Ace.

5) Jokers act like Facecards (but are not Facecards) except that they also have no suit. This means that a Joker can be played on any card except for an Ace. Since they have no suit they don't change the suit to something new. When played, Jokers reset the suit and the count on the Discard Pile, so the next player can play any card.
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, then a Joker can be played and the next player can play any card of any suit and any rank.

6) Playing a 6 switches the counting direction of play, sets the suit to that of the 6, and sets the count to 6. 6's can be played without consideration for rank and only need to match colour, like Facecards, however they are not Facecards so they cannot be played after an Ace. The game defaults as going down at the start of each round, so the first 6 of a round changes the counting direction so that the players have to increase in ranks while matching suit. If multiple cards are played as a run then the 6 needs to be the last card played in order to switch direction, if a 6 is in the middle of a run it has no effect. If multiple cards are played as a run and a 6 is the first card played then the 6 does not switch direction since it is buried, however it can change the suit since 6's only need to match the colour of the top card of the Discard Pile. A 6 must match the suit of the other cards in order to be included in a run. If multiple 6’s are played in one turn only the top 6 switches the direction, meaning only 1 switch of direction since the others are buried, but the first 6 played must still match the colour of the top card of the Discard Pile.
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, then the 6 of diamonds and 6 of spades could be played together, switching the direction to up and the suit to spades, since the 6 of diamonds must be on the bottom.

7) Draw usually only as your final option. Keep picking up until you can make a play that suits your strategy. Once the draw pile is depleted and another card needs to be drawn, the round ends prematurely and all players tally the points in their hands immediately.
EX: If the 8 of hearts is face up on the Discard Pile and the direction is down, and you don’t have a Joker, a red Facecard, a red 6, a black Ace, an 8 of spades/diamonds/clubs, or a 2/3/4/5/7 of hearts then you must pick up until you draw one of these cards. When you do draw the necessary card, if it creates a run or pair then it can be used in that multiple card play. You needn't play the card immediately, but keep in mind that the objective is to discard your entire hand.

Quick Reference

On your turn you can play a card that is:

the same rank
the same suit in the correct direction
the same colour Facecard
the same colour 6
the opposite colour Ace
a Joker

Otherwise you pick up until you choose to play.

You can play runs or pairs/triples/quadruples/etc, but not combined.
You can't combine numbered cards and Facecards in runs.
Runs must be the same suit and can be any length.

Play starts each round going DOWN, with 2 as the lowest numbered value.

The point values for the cards when accumulating are:

2-5, 7-10 = 5 points
J, Q, K, 6 = 10 points
A, Joker = 20 points

Shuffle and deal 9 cards to each player.

The first player to 100 points loses.

Players alternate who starts each round after first deciding randomly who starts.