geneve

these are the rules to geneve.
i was playing it this weekend when i found that i needed faster access to the rule book.
also, this is adapted from an email i sent.


the goal of the game is to have less points than everybody else.
each card is worth its face value.
face cards are worth 11,
and
jokers are worth whatever you want, including, but not limited to 0.

you need 4 people in order to make the game any fun.
you can play with 5, but if more, you can use 2 decks.
deal 5 cards to each person.
flip top card of rest-of-deck over for possible use by the first person.
place this card next to rest-of-deck.
for the first round, the person left of the dealer goes first, but in subsequent rounds, the rules are more complex. we will get to that...

each player must discard a card AND THEN take a card to complete a turn (the order must be obeyed so as to avoid cheating and to preserve the aestheticly pleasing aspect of the game).
you may discard 1 card at a time, 2 cards of the same nominal value, or a run of 3 or more cards of the same suit.
discard cards, face-up, on the pile next to the undealt cards.
when drawing a card, a player may choose from the face-down pack of undealt cards, or the face-up pile of discarded cards.
if choosing from the face-down pack of undealt cards, a player may only choose the top card.
if choosing from the face-up pile of discarded cards, the player may only choose from the cards discarded by the previous player.
if the previous player threw down 1 card, the next player can choose that card.
if the previous player threw down doubles, the next player can choose either of those cards. however, if the previous player threw down a run, the next player may choose only the first or the last of that run.
for example, if a player throws down a run of 5, 6, joker, 8, then the next player may only pick up the 5 or the 8.

so the game goes on like this, with people hopefully getting rid of their high cards and gathering low cards; until...
if a person finds themselves with 11 or less (thus avoiding kamakaze cards) points in their hand, and feels that they have less points than everyoneelse, this person should, in their regular turn when they would make a play, display their cards while triumphantly screaming, "geneve".
at this point,all players count their cards and a scorekeeper logs these numbers.
if the person who screamed geneve had the lowest total, they get 0 points.
however, if the person who screamed geneve doesnt have the lowest score (including ties), 30 points are added to their existing score and the person who does have the lowest score is crowned the winner of the round.
the person with the highest total of theround shuffles for the next round.
the person with the lowest total of around plays first in the next round.

the elimination score can be set anywhere, but 200 has always proven sufficient. if a player gets exactly 200 points, they go back down to 150.
when a player crosses that threshold, they must shuffle for the rest of the players for one round. this is the "goodbye shuffle".
the game is played until only one person does not have 200 or more points.