Overview :: Basic Rules :: Played Games

Ted, SusanF, and I in 2003

We played eleven hands in about two hours-- most unusual. Ted added a couple of rules to make it easier to get rid of cards. I added the rule which allowed you to give away a card if you were "lucky" when drawing, and went on to win the next four hands by giving Ted my last card. (Thanks, Ted!) Susan started the 'dumping' trend with Gin UNO and set the theme for the entire game.

  1. Dealer Deals
  2. Infinite-Finite Draw
  3. Face Up, Face Down
  4. Add A Rule
  5. Five Second Rule
    For explanations of Rules 1 - 5, please see the rules.
  6. Gin UNO (Author=Susan, Winner=Susan)
    The third person to play the third card in sequence, same color, ascending or descending, may immediately discard a card. Note: discarded cards are placed under the top card of the discard pile and are not considered 'played', so do not cause any side effects.
  7. Double Exposure (Ted, Ted)
    When playing an exposed card, you may also discard as many exposed cards that would have been playable at the same time. The excess cards do not produce side effects. Note: it was decided later that one could play a WILD DRAW 4 card while discarding all of one's cards matching the current color, provided they were all exposed.
  8. Mr. Lucky (Chris, Chris)
    When drawing a card because one is unable to play, if the first card drawn is playable and is played, that person may immediately give a card from their hand to the previous player. Note: In Magic: the Gathering, drawing the card you need, when you need it, is called a "topdeck".
  9. Two of a Kind or More (Susan, Chris)
    When you play a hidden card, you may discard any hidden cards from your hand that are identical to it.
  10. Nasty (Ted, Chris)
    You may only play your last card if it is exposed. This does not affect getting rid of your last card through other means.
  11. Freakishly Small Hands (Chris, Chris)
    Whenever you have more than three hidden cards, reveal cards until you only have three hidden cards remaining.
  12. Pumped Up (Susan, Chris)
    WILD cards function as WILD DRAW 3 cards.
  13. Red-Green Color Blind (Ted, Susan)
    RED and GREEN are the same color. Note: this makes, for example, a RED 5 and a GREEN 5 identical cards for the purpose of Two of a Kind Or More
  14. Sticky (Chris, Susan)
    The only way to get rid of non-number cards is by playing them. For example, they may not be discarded or given away. Note: Number cards are cards numbered from 0 to 9 in the four colors.
  15. Stick'em Up (Susan, Susan)
    Reveal non-number cards immediately.
  16. Fab 5 (Ted, Ted)
    All odd number cards are FIVEs. Note: With Double Exposure, you can get rid of all of your exposed GREEN, RED and odd number cards in a single play.

These were pretty quick hands due to the dumping rules, and we only reshuffled twice during the hands. We found that a running sequence of three is pretty infrequent, and only came up a few times that night. As for Mr. Lucky, while I figured it would help someone get rid of their last card, I was assuming it would only help 1/4th of the time. Instead, more than half of the games were won by this method. Also, I assumed that people would play out by discarding a bunch of like cards-- I don't think that ever happened.

All in all, a very fun set of rules we'll likely reuse someday.

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