How to Play Up the River, Down the River
Description
Build your hand through a prediction gauntlet, then watch the river decide who hands out forfeits and who takes them. What goes up must come down.
Objective
Build a hand you can live with, then hope it matches the top of the river and not the bottom.
Setup
A standard deck and a dealer. The river is laid out face down after the hands are built.
Agree as a table what a forfeit means before you start.
Rules
Phase one — the gauntlet. For each of your four cards the dealer asks one question in sequence: red or black, then higher or lower, then inside or outside, then suit.
A correct answer sends the forfeit to the dealer; a wrong answer means you take it. Either way you keep the card, so the hand you end up with isn't the hand you chose.
Phase two — the river. Cards flip one at a time along the river.
Winning
Up the river, a matching rank lets you hand forfeits out, and the amount climbs as the river progresses.
Down the river, a matching rank means you take them yourself. Multiple matching cards stack in both directions.
There is no winner — the game ends at the bottom of the river.