Last Cardलास्ट कार्ड

Players and cards

Two to six people play with one 52-card pack and no jokers. Each player gets seven cards, dealt one at a time.

The next card is turned face up to start the pile. It only sets the first suit: if it is a two or an eight, nothing happens.

Your turn

The player at the bottom of the screen starts, and play passes to the right (anticlockwise) until a jack turns it around.

• Play one card that matches the top card's suit or rank: a 7 of hearts goes on any heart or any 7.
• Or play an ace on anything and choose the suit that must be followed next.
• Or draw one card from the deck. If it fits, you may play it at once; if not, or if you would rather keep it, your turn ends.

You may draw even when you could play, if you want to save your cards.

Special cards

• Ace: play it on any card and name the next suit.
• Two: the next player picks up two cards and misses their turn, unless they play a two of their own. Then the player after them must pick up four, or play another two, and so on.
• Eight: the next player misses a turn.
• Jack: play changes direction. With two players, a jack works like an eight and you play again.

While twos are building up, the only thing you can play is another two. An ace does not stop them.

Last card!

When you play your second-last card you must call "Last card!" as you play it: press the Last card button, then play. Everyone sees that you are down to one card.

If you play it without calling, you pick up two cards straight away. There is no catching and no arguing: the table counts for you.

Winning

The first player to play their last card wins. You may go out with any card, special or not.

When the deck runs out, the played cards, all but the top one, are shuffled to make a new deck.

How this table plays, and why

We could not find a written Nepali rulebook for Last Card, and families play many versions, so this table uses the rules most of its relatives share, and says where each one comes from.

• Seven cards each, a turned-up card that only sets the suit, aces that change the suit, twos that make the next player pick up two and can be passed on with another two, calling "Last card" or picking up two, and the first player out winning: the Wikipedia article on Last Card, the name the game goes by in New Zealand and Australia, and the article on Switch, the British form of the game.
• Eights for missing a turn and jacks for changing direction: the Switch variants Take Two, Jacks, Twos and Eights, and Irish Switch. New Zealand Last Card uses tens to skip and fives to pick up five instead; we kept the four special cards most versions share.
• Calling as you play your second-last card, with the two-card penalty taken at once, is our choice. It needs no catching, so nobody can be penalised unfairly for a slow tap.
• Playing the card you drew if it fits, and being allowed to draw even when you could play, are our choices. Both are common in the Crazy Eights family, which Wikipedia lists Last Card and Switch as part of.
• Starting to the right (anticlockwise) is how card play usually goes in Nepal, according to Cats at Cards.
• Twos that must be picked up rather than passed on, and five cards each, are options.

Five cards each

Deal five cards instead of seven for a shorter, more cut-throat game.

Twos must be picked up

A two cannot be answered with another two: the next player always picks up two cards and misses their turn.