Game Makeover: Nines – Original Rules
Submitted by John Parker on Oct 25, 2014.
Description and Rules
“Nines” is a simple set collection card game for 2 or more players played in a series of hands. The game is played with 2 or more standard decks of cards (jokers included), depending on the number of players. We play 2 decks for 2 – 3 players, 3 decks for 4 – 6 players. (I have not played with more than 6 players, but presumably the game will scale with more decks – it just won’t be fun.)
Setup
- At the beginning of each hand nine cards are dealt face down to each player.
- Each player turns over 3 of their 9 cards at random and arranges their cards into a 3 x 3 grid, putting the 3 face up cards wherever they want.
- One card of the stock is turned over to start a discard pile. The stock is the draw pile.
- The first player is the person to the left of the dealer.
Objective
- Score the fewest points by:
- Making the most sets of the same number in rows and columns of the grid. All cards in a set score 0.
- Having the lowest point total of cards that are not in sets; including some special cards that score 0 or -3.
Play
- In turn each player does the following:
- Draw one card from the draw or discard piles.
- Either:
- Replace any card in their tableau with the new card played face up and discard the card that was replaced. -OR-
- Discard the card that was drawn.
- Their turn is ended.
- Play continues until one player has all nine cards in their tableau face up. They are done.
- The rest of the players turn all of their cards face up in place.
- The final round is completed with the rest of players having one more turn.
Scoring
- The hand:
- Kings always score 0.
- Jokers always score -3.
- All of the cards in a set score 0.
- Cards not in a set:
- Jacks and Queens score 10.
- All other cards score face value.
- The game:
- Keep a running total of player scores at the end of each hand.
Winning
As soon as at least one player has reached a predetermined score (usually 100) the player with the lowest total score wins.