(Above is the set up for the card game Spoil Five)
Card Game Rules
Spoil Five is a casino game for two to ten players. It requires a standard 52 playing card deck and poker chips. The objective of Spoil Five is to win 3 or more tricks in a round.
For other casino type games, see our guides for Texas Hold'em Poker and Seven Card Stud Poker.
If you are looking for cards to play Spoil Five with, check out a standard deck here or check out one of our more recent arrivals here.
Set Up
Before gameplay can begin, every player draws a card from a shuffled deck. The player with the highest card becomes the first dealer. Ties are broken by a redraw. The dealer then passes out five cards to each player. The remaining deck is placed to the side. Its top card assigns the trump suit for that round.
Card Ranking
When a suit is trump, the ranking is as follows from high to low:
Spades and Clubs: 5, Jack, Ace of Hearts, Ace, King, Queen, 2 up to 10.
Diamonds: 5, Jack, Ace of Hearts, Ace, down to 2
Hearts: 5, Jack, Ace down to 2.
When a suit is not trump, the ranking is as follows from high to low:
Spades and Clubs: King, Queen, Jack, Ace, 2 up to 10.
Diamonds: King down to Ace.
Hearts: King down to 2.
The Ace of Hearts is always the third best card.
How to Play
Players begin by placing an ante in the middle. The top card of the deck is flipped over to establish trump for the round. Starting with the person left of the dealer, players try to win tricks by playing the highest ranking card. Players must follow the suit of the lead card if they can.
If a player has the Ace of trump, they may exchange any card in their hand for the top card in the deck. If they refuse to do so, they must announce that they are turning down the trump.
If an Ace is initially flipped over when establishing trump, the dealer may take it after the first trick in exchange for any of their cards. They could also refuse it.
Scoring
If a player wins 3 or more tricks in a round, the player gets all of the poker chips in the middle. For the next round, every player adds one chip to the middle again.
If no player wins 3 or more tricks in a round, then the pot carries over. For the next round, only the dealer adds a chip to the middle.
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.
