“The Fool” is easy yet fun. You can have two, three, or four players. I will begin by explaining the rules for only two people.

First of all, you need to get rid of the twos, threes, fours, and fives. You will only need cards from six and up for this game, with aces being the highest. Thus, you will only be using 36 cards instead of 52. You deal, giving each player six cards. After that, you pull a random card out of the deck and place it on the table face up – this will be the trump suit. Then you place the rest of the deck next to it, face down. Cards of the trump suit beat any other card, with their own hierarchy within the trump suit still intact. That means that six of trump, the lowest one in the suit, can beat any card of any other suit, even kings and aces. The ace of trump is the highest card in the game, nothing beats that one.

For the first game, you will have to agree which player starts. After that, the person who had won the previous game goes first.

You attack your opponent with a card (cards) of low or medium value. It is best to get rid of them and keep higher ones for later, for your own defense or the final attack in the end. If you have a six, that’s a good starter. (Of course, I am not talking about the six of trump, you will want to hang on to your trump cards). Suppose you have given your opponent the six of diamonds. He or she now needs to beat your card by a higher one of the same suit. If they’ve got no diamonds, they can use a trump. If they have neither diamonds nor trumps, they must say “I accept,” take your card and add it to their own hand. In that case, they miss their turn, you draw another card from the top of the deck so that you have a hand of six cards again, and attack once more.

But suppose they do have a card to beat yours – say, they use the eight of diamonds. In that case, you look at your hand and check whether you have any eights yourself. If you do, you can throw them in as well, all together or one by one, and your opponent must now beat them, too. If they do, and you have no more corresponding cards, you say “Done” and move the used cards aside. You will not need them anymore, they are gone for this game. Your turn is now completed. Both you and your opponent draw more cards from the deck (you draw first; the person whose turn it was always draws first) so that you both have six cards again, and now it is their turn to attack.

If your opponent cannot beat any of your cards, they must accept them all. That is, if they have beaten the first six of diamonds, and then the eight of clubs, but cannot beat the eight of hearts, they must accept both eights and the six. Every time the person says “I accept” they lose their turn and are attacked again.

The objective of the game is to use the whole deck and be the first person to get rid of all your cards.

If you accept cards, you will have more than six in your hand, so you will not need to draw more for the next round. If you have accepted, and in the next round you cannot beat your opponent’s cards again, you must accept again, and you miss your turn once more.

When attacking, you can only give your opponent up to six cards to beat. Even if you’ve been accepting a lot and now have a whole bunch of cards to use, you can give only six. If they beat them all, your attack is over.

There are of course different strategies you can use. You might want to overwhelm your opponent with big cards and trumps; you know that if you use the biggies, they might have to accept. If you throw in the ace of trump, they will have to. Remember, however, that, even though you have made them accept and earned another turn to attack, they now have good cards to defend themselves and to attack you next. More than likely they will beat all your cards this time, and then watch out. Therefore, this strategy is not recommended for the beginning of the game, but the closer you are to the end the more chances you will have with it. If you manage to keep your opponent in the “accepting mode” until all the deck is gone and then throw at them your last few cards, you win even if they can beat those. The person left with cards in their hands loses. He is “The Fool.”

When you are defending yourself, it is up to you whether you use all your resources (big cards & trumps) or accept. If you can beat the cards but would rather not spend your trumps, you don’t have to.

The attacker does not have to use all the matching cards, either. If the opponent has played a king and you have another king, it is up to you whether to throw that king in or not.

As I’ve already mentioned, if you have several matching cards, like three tens, for example, you can use them all for your attack in one turn, either one by one or all together.

With three or four players the basic rules are the same. The game goes counterclockwise, meaning that you attack the person on your right. Whatever card you throw at them, every other player is free to match. That is, if you’ve given them a six to beat, every other player who has a six is welcome to throw it in as well, and the defendant must beat them all. If they use a seven, once again, everyone is welcome to throw in their sevens (but no more than six cards altogether; that rule still stands). If the defendant can’t beat all the cards, they must accept and skip their turn. The next person to attack will be the player on their right.

As you see, when you have more players it gets more difficult to defend yourself. With four players, it is next to impossible, since every time you’re attacked you are almost guaranteed to have to beat six cards. Unless you are lucky to have a very good hand, you will have to accept. However, you have more chances to get rid of your cards as well: as soon as the next player attacks, you can join them in the attack if you have matching cards.

That’s all you need to know. Good luck to you playing “The Fool!”