GOAL

bouncer (noun): a person employed by a nightclub to evict troublemakers.

In this 3-player, trick-avoiding card game, either a number card or Bouncer is revealed each round, and the winner of the trick must take it. You are penalized the value of the number card, so you must avoid taking the trick and/or strategically win Bouncer cards. Bouncers (Jack, Queen and King) negate the value of a number card you won...but watch out! If you collect too many Bouncers without enough number cards for them to cancel out, you'll take an extra beating: On their own, the Bouncers are the highest-valued cards in the game.

CARDS AND SETUP

All of the cards from the diamonds, spades and clubs suits are shuffled together. Then each player is dealt 13 cards from this deck.

All the cards from the hearts suit are shuffled together into a separate "point" deck. The top card of the point deck is revealed.

PLAY

Any card may lead the trick. On your turn, you must follow suit, if you can. If you can't follow suit, you may play any card. Be careful - the highest card played wins the trick, regardless of suit!

Aces are high (2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A) when played from your hand, but the BGA implementation of this game uses an "11" card in the point deck to represent the ace. It is worth 11 points.

If players tie for the trick because they played cards of the same value, the one who played their card last wins the trick.

During a round, the game will automatically "bounce" your highest-value card for each Bouncer card (J, Q and K) you've won. You won't score points for the Bouncer or the card it bounced.

Play continues until all point cards have been won. The winner of the trick starts the new round.

SCORING

After the points deck is exhausted, all players total the value of the point cards they won. The numeric point cards (2–11) penalize at their face value. The Bouncers are special:

If you have more Bouncers than numeric point cards, you are penalized 25 points for each Bouncer without a card to bounce. Bouncers cannot negate one another.

GAME END

Play continues until a player scores at least -100 points. Then the player with the highest score wins.

VARIANTS

Show upcoming points cards

The upcoming points cards arranged face-up in a row, instead of a face-down pile.

Special Bouncer abilities

The bouncers only bounce specific cards:

The K (MAX) bouncers your highest points card.

The Q (◀) bounces the previously-collected numeric points card. If there is no previous card, or it's a bouncer, it has no effect.

The J (MIN) bounces your lowest points card.

Each bouncer targets a specific card. If two bouncers target the same card, only one of them will be used.

For example, if you collected these cards in order: "3, 5, Q, K", both the Q and K target the 5, so only one bouncer will activate, and the other will be worth 25 points.