How to play JhodThod

Three 52-card decks — 156 cards — shuffled together for 2 to 6 players. Everyone is dealt seven cards. The first player to empty their hand wins.

The shared table

Every card anyone plays goes onto one table that belongs to nobody. On your turn you may rearrange anything already on it — split a run, borrow a card out of the middle of one, break a set across two others — as long as every pile is legal again by the time your turn ends. That is the whole game: the table is common property.

Sets and runs

Every pile on the table has to be a legal group of at least three cards, and it has to stay legal. A pair or a lone card is never left sitting out.

A set — 3 or 4 cards of the same rank, each a different suit

A run — 3 or more cards of one suit in an unbroken sequence

A turn is one thing

On your turn you do exactly one of these, and then it passes on:

• Play — move cards from your hand onto the table. A play moves exactly one or exactly three cards out of your hand — never two, never four or more. The table's own cards may be regrouped as freely as you like alongside it.
• Draw — take one card from the deck. This ends your turn immediately.

Nothing is final until you end your turn. Piles turn red while they are not legal, and the End turn button tells you exactly what is still wrong.

Winning

The first player with no cards left wins the round. There is no scoring and no discard pile — you win by getting rid of everything you hold.

Jokers

A room can be opened with jokers switched on, and a joker then stands in for whatever card a set or run is missing. By default they are off.