How to Play Beggar My Neighbour
Description
No decisions, pure fate. Penalty cards trigger draws, draws trigger more penalties, and eventually one player ends up with the whole deck. A classic for a reason.
Objective
Win every card in the deck.
Setup
The deck is split evenly between two players (add a second deck for four or more), dealt face down.
Rules
Players take turns flipping their top card face up onto a shared central pile.
Aces and face cards (King, Queen, Jack) are penalty cards. Play one, and your opponent has to pay: four cards for an Ace, three for a King, two for a Queen, one for a Jack.
If every card they pay with is an ordinary number card, you win the whole pile and tuck it under your own deck.
But if a penalty card turns up during their payment, the tables turn — now you have to pay that penalty instead, and the pile keeps growing until somebody's payment runs out without hitting another penalty card.
Winning
A player who runs out of cards is out.
Whoever ends up with every card in the deck wins.