👑 How to play Kings in the Corner

Easy rules, to read aloud 🔊

1. Everyone gets seven cards.
2. Put four cards face up around the deck, one on each side.
3. On your turn, put a card one lower on a pile, in the other colour.
4. A red six can go on a black seven.
5. A king goes in an empty corner.
6. Take one card from the deck to end your turn.
7. Play all your cards first to win.

The full rules

1. Deal seven cards to each player. Put the rest face down in the middle as the stock.
2. Turn four cards from the stock face up, one on each side of it: above, below, left and right. These are the four side piles.
3. On your turn, play as many cards as you can. A card goes on a pile if it is one lower and the other colour: a black nine on a red ten.
4. A king may only go in one of the four empty corners between the side piles. Kings start the corner piles, and they build down the same way.
5. You may move a whole side pile onto another pile if its bottom card fits there. That leaves a space, and you may put any card from your hand in it.
6. When you have played all you want, draw one card from the stock. That ends your turn.
7. Keep going around the table until someone has no cards left.

How to win: The first player to play every card from their hand wins. For a longer game, the others score their leftover cards, and the lowest total when someone reaches 25 or 50 wins.

Tips

• Move a whole pile when you can: the empty space takes any card, even an awkward one.
• Hold on to a king until a corner is free, and play it before you draw.
• Count down out loud: ten, nine, eight. It helps you spot where a card fits.

What it practises

counting down, matching colours, planning a turn.

Other ways to play

• Points. Leftover cards score against you: a king is 10, every other card 1. Play hands until someone passes 25 or 50; the lowest total wins.
• Same suit. The corner piles build down in their own suit instead of red and black.