Gamehelpracetothebottom

Race to the Bottom is a climbing (shedding) game for 2–4 players, with one twist: every player plays from their own private deck of 54 cards. Cards only leave the race when you play them into a trick, so the race is literally who plays the most cards. The first player to shed all 54 wins.

Components and setup

• Each player has their own standard 52-card deck plus 2 Jokers, 54 cards in total. Decks are never mixed and never reshuffled.
• Each player draws a hand of 12 cards from their own deck.
• A starting player is chosen and leads the first trick.

The number that matters is each player's cards remaining (hand + deck). It starts at 54 and only ever goes down, and only when that player plays cards.

Melds

Only rank matters. Suits are irrelevant everywhere in this game. A meld is at most 6 cards.

Type	Cards	Definition
Single	1	Any one card.
Pair	2	Two cards of the same rank.
Run	2–6	Consecutive ranks, any suits.
Triplet	3	Three cards of the same rank.
Leap	4 or 6	Two or three consecutive pairs (e.g. 2-2-3-3, or 3-3-4-4-5-5).
Bound	6	Two consecutive triplets (e.g. 3-3-3-4-4-4).

Note that length alone does not define a meld: 2 cards may be a Pair or a Run, and 6 cards may be a Run, a Leap or a Bound. Four of a kind is not a normal meld; it is a Cheat (see below).

Jokers

Jokers are wild for all purposes. When you play a Joker you declare its rank. Jokers may be used in Cheats. A Joker may be declared as an Ace.

Aces

Aces are both high and low, depending on the meld type:

• Singles, Pairs, Triplets and Cheats: an Ace meld may be played over any rank, and any rank may then be played over the Aces. Aces reset the climb. Example: a pair of Queens, then a pair of Aces, then a pair of 4s.
• Runs, Leaps and Bounds: an Ace may be the highest or the lowest card (Q-K-A and A-2-3 are both legal), but there is no wrap-around (K-A-2 is illegal). Any run containing an Ace can be beaten by any other run of the same length, and an Ace run may be played over any run of the same length.

Playing a trick

The lead player plays any meld into the trick. The lead player must play; only a player with an empty hand may pass when the trick is open.

Each following player, in turn order, must do one of the following:

Match

Play a meld of the same type and the same length, with equal or higher ranks. (Yes, equal: a pair of 7s may be played over a pair of 7s.) The Ace rules above apply.

Cheat

A Cheat is four or more cards of the same rank, and it beats any normal meld regardless of rank:

Cheat	Cards	Beats
Smokescreen	4 of a rank	Any normal meld
Oil Slick	5 of a rank	A Smokescreen
Caltrops	6 of a rank	An Oil Slick

Once a Cheat has been played, only Cheats may be played for the rest of the trick. A Cheat is beaten by a higher Cheat, or by the same Cheat of equal or higher rank (Aces reset, as above). Five and six of a rank need Jokers, so each player can hold at most one Caltrops per race.

Pass

Passing is permanent for the trick: a player who passes is out until the trick ends. When you pass:

1. You may pitch up to 6 cards from your hand to the bottom of your own deck, in any order you choose. This is how you stack your deck for later in the race. On BGA, your pitched cards are shown to you, and only you, face down beneath your deck.
2. You then refill your hand to 12 from the top of your own deck (or as many as your deck has left).

A player with an empty hand must pass. The refill happens after the pitch, so with a short deck you can draw back cards you just pitched.

End of the trick

The trick ends when every other player has passed. The last player still in may keep playing over their own melds (each new meld must beat their previous one, exactly as if an opponent had played it, and Cheats are allowed) until they too pass. They then pitch and refill as usual and lead the next trick. In a 2-player game this is the main way to dump cards.

End of the game

A player who has emptied both their hand and their deck has crossed the finish line and wins immediately, even in the middle of a trick.

On BGA, the other players are ranked by fewest cards remaining (hand + deck).

Grand Prix (game option)

The Grand Prix is a match of three consecutive races. Each race continues until all but one player has shed out, and players score by finishing position:

Place	2 players	3 players	4 players
1st	1	2	4
2nd	0	1	2
3rd	–	0	1
4th	–	–	0

The winner of a race leads the first trick of the next race. Most points after three races wins. Ties share the victory.

Tips

• Count cards remaining, not cards in hand. Passing refills your hand but never shrinks your total.
• Cheats are the big dumps: four, five or six cards gone at once, and they answer anything.
• Pitching is the only long-game lever. Stack the bottom of your deck so a Cheat or a long Run comes back together.
• A pair of Jokers is a pair of Aces: a reset button you get twice per race.