How to play Palace

1 player vs computer, or 2 online

Be the first to get rid of all nine of your cards — hand, face-up row and the three face-down cards you have never seen — by always matching or beating the top of the pile, or picking the pile up when you cannot.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   Each player gets three cards face down, three face up on top of those, and a hand of three. Before the first card is played you may swap hand cards with your face-up cards, then declare ready.

2. 2

   On your turn, play a card equal to or higher than the top of the pile. Aces are high; a two or a ten may be played on anything.

3. 3

   A two resets the pile — any card at all may follow it. A ten burns the pile out of the game, and you play again.

4. 4

   If the top four cards of the pile share a rank, the pile burns too, and whoever completed the four goes again.

5. 5

   Cannot beat the pile? Pick all of it up into your hand and the turn passes. After playing from your hand, draw back up to three while the stock lasts.

6. 6

   When the stock and your hand are empty, play your face-up cards; when those are gone, flip your face-down cards blind. A flip that cannot beat the pile picks everything up — including the flipped card.

Three tips that change how you play

• Put your strongest cards face up in the swap. Twos, tens and aces waiting on the table are an endgame you can see coming; a face-up row of middle cards is three future pickups.
• Spend your low cards while the pile is cheap. A six you can play now is a six you will not be stuck holding when the pile shows a king — save the magic cards for the moments nothing else plays.
• Pick up on purpose sometimes. Taking a small pile early to rescue a two or a ten into your hand is often cheaper than being forced to take a huge pile later without them.

The pickup that wins the game

Mid-game, the pile shows a jack and your hand is a five, a six and a two. You can legally play the two and reset the pile — but then your next two turns are a five and a six onto an open pile, both instantly buried by anything, and your two is gone when the pile turns ugly. Consider picking the pile up instead: it is only four cards, and two of them are nines. Now your hand is seven cards, but it plays: nine, nine builds toward a four-of-a-kind burn if the other two nines surface, the five and six go on any reset, and the two is still in your hand as the escape hatch. Four turns later the pile burns, your hand empties in a run, and you reach your face-up cards while your opponent is still queuing behind a queen. The pile is not a punishment — sometimes it is the only place the cards you need are.

Three mistakes that cost beginners the game

Burning a ten on a pile of three cards.

A ten removes the pile from the game, so its value is exactly the size of what it removes plus the escape it buys. Spent on a small pile it is a bookmark; held for the pile that has been growing all game, it is the game. Play it when you are stuck or the pile is worth killing, not just because you can.

Treating the face-up swap as optional.

The three cards you leave face up are the hand you will hold at the hardest point of the game, and your opponent plans around what they can see. Always swap your best endgame cards up — a visible two on the table changes how the whole game gets played against you.

Racing to the blind cards with a huge hand still to shed.

The blind cards are a coin flip, and every card you pick up before you reach them makes the flip matter less. The winner is not whoever gets to the blind cards first but whoever arrives with an empty hand and a pile that is small when the flip goes wrong.

Common questions about Palace