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Egyptian Ratscrew

Egyptian Ratscrew card game (also known as Egyptian War, Slaps, ERS etc.) is a popular accumulating card game which possesses an entertaining and fast gameplay.

The game is originated from the mid-1970s and gained its major popularity in the middle of the 1980's. Egyptian Ratscrew is widely-spread throughout the U.S.

The main object of the game is to acquire all cards form the deck.

Gameplay

Now let's consider the principal pints and specific features of the game considered.

• Regular 52-card deck forms the game shoe;
• Players are dealt the same number of cards until the whole deck is over;
• The cards always stay unseen for the players until the moment when the player acquire his turn to act;
• So the player who sits next to the dealer starts the central pile and place the card face-up from the top (always) of his/her pack. The play then continue clockwise and players turn-by-turn place the cards face-up;
• The moment a face card or an Ace is placed on the central pile by any player, the next phase of the game starts;
• Thus the player who puts a face card or an Ace becomes a challenger and the next player after him/her becomes the challenged. The aim of a challenged player is to overcome the card placed: he/she has 4 chances to overcome and Ace, 3 chances to overcome a King, 2 for a Queen and 1 card to place after a Jack;
• If the player overcomes the challenger's card then now the next player by-turn has to overcome the pile card; if the card placed by a challenger is not beaten by a challenged one (all the chances are exhausted) then the challenger takes all the pile;
• The player who takes the pile is always the one who starts the next round;
• The take in pile cards always place face down, underneath the players pile;
• The player who possesses no cards to play is eliminated at once;
• The player who acquires all the cards in the long term wins.

Game Rules

In addition to standard card game rules, the Egyptian Ratscrew may possess the slapping rules employment. Before the players start the game they decide the number and the quality of the combinations which may be slapped. E.g. the double combination (two cards with the same rank placed consecutively) allows the fastest player to use slapping (place his card no matter whose turn is) and thus claim the pile.

The slapping combination may be of the following types:

• Sandwich - the double cards with one random card between them;
• Wild cards - any number cards which is defined by the players before the game start;
• Add-ups - two cards placed consecutively and totaling 10 (e.g. 2 and 8);
• The marriage - a King + A Queen;

In whole there are many other combinations which are determined by the players themselves.