Our favourite card game!
Here are our rules for one of the best social card games, Palace!
Players: 2+
Object of the game: The first player to run out of cards wins!
Decks: 2 players = 1 Sidewinder deck, 3-5 players = 2 Sidewinder decks
The cards, ranked weakest to strongest:
3
4
5
6
7 - reverses the deck
8
9
10 -burns the deck
J
Q
K
A
2 - resets the deck, can be played at any time
Remove the Jokers
How to deal:
- Deal three cards face down to each player. No one is allowed to look at these cards, they must stay face down in front of each player.
- Deal six cards to each player, players may look at these cards in their hand.
- Players select their strongest three cards from their hand and place them face up on top of the three face-down cards that are already in front of them.
- Dealer places the remaining cards in the deck face down in the centre of the table to create the draw pile.
- The dealer flips the top card and places it next to the draw pile to create the discard pile.
How to play:
Now you’re all set up, let’s get playing!
- Players must play a card that is equal to or higher in value than the card played before them.
- The first player plays a card that is equal to or higher in value than the start card and places it on top of the discard pile. You can play multiple cards in your turn as long as they are the same value as the card your putting down (e.g. a pair)
- To finish your turn you have to pick up a card. You must always have three cards in your hand.
- You must play a card, if you can’t play, you have to pick up the discard pile and add it to your hand.
- This is where special cards come in handy!
- Any #2 card can be played at any time. A #2 card resets the discard pile which allows that player to play any card on top of the #2 card.
- Any #7 card reverses the deck, meaning the next player has to play a card equal or lower than #7.
- Any #10 card burns the discard pile. The discard pile is put off to the side and now out of play. The player that played the #10 can now put down any card they wish.
- If any 4 of the same card are played in a row (e.g. 4 Kings), by one player or multiple, it burns the discard pile. Put it off to the side, it is now out of play. The next player then gets to play any card they wish.
- Once there are no more cards left from the draw pile and you have none in your hand you can play the cards in front of you that are facing up.
- Once all your face-up cards have been played, it's time to tackle the face-down cards!
- Without looking, pick a card to add to the discard pile. If the card is equal to or higher than the card in play, you can play it! If not, you must pick up the discard pile.
- If you pick up the discard pile, you must play those before continuing to play your face-down cards.
- The first person to have no cards left in their hand or in front of them wins!
Expert level:
So you think you’re pretty good at Palace? Add rankings for each suit to really increase the difficulty.
Suit ranking from lowest to highest is:
Clubs
Hearts
Spades
Diamonds
Bonus rule:
Queen of spades trumps all! She can do anything and beat any card.
Grab some mates, some Brick Lane beers, a deck of Sidewinder cards and get playing!
