My family is big into playing games and our current favorite is 6-card golf. We play the game with a deck of cards, including the two jokers. Each player receives 6 cards at the beginning of a round and placed them face down in front of him, arranged in a rectangle three cards wide by two cards deep. The remaining cards are placed in the center of the table and one card is flipped up to a discard pile. The goal of the round is to get the lowest possible score with the six cards in front of you. An ace is worth 1 point, 2's 10's are worth face value, J's and Q's are worth 10 and K's are worth nothing. Jokers are worth -2. In addition, if two cards of the same denomination are directly on top of one another, they cancel each other out. Play begins with each player picking any two of his six to turn face up. Then, going around the circle, you can either pick up an unknown card from the draw pile, or the turned up card on the discard pile. You may then use that card to replace any of your six cards or simply discard it. If you replace one that is face-down, you leave it's replacement face-up. The switched card is then placed on the discard pile. (There is no "changing your mind.") After a player had flipped up all of his six cards, the remaining players get one last turn to try to improve their hand. When the round is over, players turn up any remaining face-down cards and add up their score. Typically you play 9 rounds and the person with the lowest cumulative score wins.
The game is a lot of fun. It is possible, however, to get screwed with a really high score in the early rounds. Therefore, my family added a few rules to make it more interesting. If all of your six cards are the same suit, you get -20 points for the round. If you get a run of 6 cards in your hand, you get -20 points as well. In each of those scenarios, jokers can count as wild cards. If you get 150 points exactly, your score drops back to 0. And finally, if you get a 6-card straight flush, you automatically win the game.
If you've never played the game, i highly recommend it. A single deck will easily serve 2-4 players. When playing with more people, we like to use an additional deck.
Posted by Matthew at August 21, 2005 10:42 PM