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My all time favourite card game is Kings. This can be played with one deck up to 6 players, with two decks up to 12. Optimum playing is with five players.

1. Begin by sitting around a table. Be prepared to get up and move, at the end of each round players move seats depending on how they finished.

2. The deck is organised thus:

- One Joker, it's wild, it beats everything.

- Twos are next highest.
- Aces next and down the deck to threes lowest.

3. Seating positions are organised anti-clockwise thus:

- King, Queen, Jack, Dunce, Dunny-brush. The King and Dunny-brush are next to each other.

Shuffle the deck, and deal to Dunny-brush first, clockwise, single cards to the end of the deck. Before the round commences players must swap cards. King and Dunny-brush swap two cards, Queen and Dunce swap just one. Jack keeps his cards. The King and Queen ask for whatever they want, and must be obeyed. What they give back depends on their mood, (and once the game has gone a few rounds, how they were treated by past rulers!) The joker cannot be asked for, and should never be handed over.

4. Game play progresses as such:

- The king plays first.
- Cards are placed face up.
- The object of each round is to have the highest card(s).
- Cards are played in numbers, groups of 3's or 4's etc.
- When one card is played, 'Singles', the next player can play any number of cards.
- When two cards are played, 'doubles', the next player must play two or more cards, except in the case of the joker, where it beats everything.
- Same for 'triples' and 'fours'. No less than three, or four of a card can be played to beat them.
- Players must play the same or higher than the previous set of cards, but any higher card can be played, (for example play a pair of aces on one four).
- When the round comes to a stop, and no higher cards can be played, the cards are put aside, and the winner can begin with whatever they desire.
- If a player cannot play on a higher card, they declare 'pass'. Once passed, they cannot play until the cards clear.
- The first player to put down all their cards becomes the next King. They will move at the end of the round to their new throne. The second becomes the Queen and so on.

5. Tactics.

- Say pass when you still have cards, to keep them for later rounds when playing against the lower players. You might have one ace and one king, and know that it wont win in the first rounds, when everyone has pairs and threes of cards, but later when playing for the dunce or jack seats (anything to get out of the dunny-brush seat), you have a better chance to win with them.

Fast play is exciting play.
The more players the better.
Make up your own titles for each of the seats. I decided to maintain the 'family friendly' edition, however it's fun to create your own.
Enjoy your cards!

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