Gamehelpboardnine

CONTENTS 54 cards numbered from 0 to 13. There are 4 cards of each value but only 2 cards with the value 0.

THE AIM

To score the least number of points in each round.

SET UP

One person shuffles the deck, then deals 5 cards face down to each player. The remaining cards are placed in a pile, still face down. The top card is discarded, face up. The player on the dealer’s left begins the game, and play continues clockwise.

HOW TO PLAY

When it is their turn, the player chooses the card(s) they want to get rid of from their hand. But they must either draw a card from the draw pile (face down) or take one from the discard pile (face up) and place it in front of them. They place their unwanted card(s) on the discard pile, in ascending order if it is a sequence. They then add the card in front of them to their hand, and it is the next player's turn. To get rid of several cards: • When a player has 2, 3 or 4 identical cards, they can discard them all at once. • When a player has a sequence of 5 cards, they can discard them all at once. The 0 point card cannot be used as part of a sequence.

IMPORTANT: When a player draws a card of the same value as the one they have just discarded, they may discard it directly, before the next person plays. If the player has no cards left in their hand, they must wait until their next turn to declare “NINE”. They will then have a score of zero.

DECLARING «NINE»

When one of the players has the total of the cards in their hand less than or equal to 9, they can declare "NINE"! Note: you can only declare "NINE" at the beginning of your turn, before playing. The round then ends immediately. All the players reveal their cards. If the player who stopped the game has a score of 9 or less in their hand and the lowest score of all among all the players, they win the round and score 0 points. All the other players score the sum of the cards in their hand. But if another player has the same score or less than the player who declared "NINE", the latter scores 25 points and all other players score 0 points. Write your scores down after each round and record the total as you go along.

PLEASE NOTE: You cannot declare "NINE" in the first round.

END THE GAME

The game ends when one of the players has reached or exceeded 99 points, at which point they will have lost the game. But if a player scores 90 points exactly, they go back down to 45 points and the game continues. As you can see, it's not enough that your cards make a total of 9 or less – you have to be the only one. But it’s difficult to know this!