Michigan Game Rules

(In Michigan, the cards above are called the Ante cards)

Card Game Rules

Michigan is a casino type game for three or more people. The game requires a standard 52 playing card deck along with an additional Ace of Hearts, King of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds, and Jack of Spades from another deck. In Michigan, Aces are high and 2s low. The objective of the game is to win Boodle, or poker chips, off the Antes and to be the first to play all of your cards.

For more casino type games, check out our guides for Blackjack and Baccarat.

If you are looking for cards to play Michigan with, check out a standard deck here or one of our newest arrivals here. 

Set Up

Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be selected. To do so, players must choose a random card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with repeated drawings. The dealer shuffles the deck and passes out all of the cards face down to every player one at a time. While doing so, they must also pass out a widowed hand.

Antes

The additional Ace of Hearts, King of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds, and Jack of Spades are placed face up in the middle of the gameplay area. These are called the Antes. Each player, besides the dealer, must place one poker chip on each of the Antes. The dealer must place two poker chips. 

How to Play

The player to the left of the dealer begins gameplay and play proceeds clockwise. To start, player must play their lowest card in any suit. The next player must follow in suit and in increasing sequence. If a player cannot do so, play stops, and they then form a new pile with their lowest card in any suit. The same suit cannot be played twice in a row after a stop.  When a player is able to play one of the Ante cards, they then take the chips on the cards.

When a player runs out of cards, the game ends and each player must pay the winner an equal amount of chips to the number of cards remaining in their hand.

For more information about Michigan and its rules, check out Pagat's article here.

Looking for more card games to play?  Check out this article:

40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions

About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.