President Game Rules

President Game Rules

(In this card game, the first person to play all of their cards, becomes president)

(In this card game, the first person to play all of their cards, becomes President)

Card Game Rules

President is a trick taking game that requires 4 to 7 players and a standard 52 playing card deck. In President, Aces are high and 3s are low. The objective of President is to be the first one to get rid of your cards.                                           

For more trick taking games, check out our guides for Whist and Hearts.

If you are looking for cards to play President with, check out a standard pack here or one of our president themed decks here

Set Up

Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be chosen. To do so, every player draws a card randomly from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with redraws. The dealer then passes out all of the cards to each player. 

How to Play

The person who received the 3 of Clubs plays that card to begin the game. Play then proceeds clockwise. To place a card, a player must match or outrank the card previously played. Pairs outrank singles, 3 of a kind outranks pairs, and etc. If a 2 is played, the pile is eliminated and that player begins a new pile. If a player cannot match or outrank the previous card, they must pass.

The first player to get rid of their cards becomes the President. The last person to get rid of their cards becomes the Beggar. At the end of the round. The President shuffles the deck and passes out the cards. The President then sees the Beggar’s hand, takes which card they would like, and then gives the Beggar their least helpful card. The President then begins the game with whatever card they choose.

Some variations have a Vice President position and a Beggar 2 position (second to first and second to last). In this case, 2 cards are exchanged between the President and Beggar 1 while only 1 card is exchanged between the Vice President and Beggar 2. Some games allow Jokers. In this case Jokers trump all cards.

For more information on the game president and its rules, check out David Parlett's article here or 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.

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Last update date: 08/29/20

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2 comments

Jada on 2021,10,05

Me and my friends call it Prez, a lot shorter than “prezidanant” (lol)

Nikita on 2020,05,06

What if the last player had played highest card and again if he has highest card then he need to first kept the card aside and then again play the card or he need to beat his own cards?

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