Introduction

Golf is a card game in which the object is to score as few points as possible, similar to the sport of golf. The game is played with a standard 52 card poker deck. Each player is dealt 6 cards facedown, which are arranged into 3 columns of 2. Players attempt to improve their hands by taking turns drawing new cards to replace existing cards in their hand, until all player cards have been revealed and the score is calculated.

The Play

At the beginning of the game each player reveals 2 cards from their hand and the top card of the deck is flipped over to begin the discard pile. In turn order, each player is allowed to draw a card from the top of the deck or discard pile and replace it with any card in their hand. If the player draws from the top of the deck, they may also decide to discard the card rather than keeping it. When a player chooses to replace a drawn card with one of their existing cards, they will place the existing card on the top of the discard pile. If the card being replaced is one that is facedown, the card is revealed and placed on the top of the discard pile. Play alternates between players until one player has replaced their last facedown card, at which point the opponent will get one final turn to play. During this final turn the discard pile is frozen and the player must draw from the deck. The player can decide to keep the drawn card, swapping it with any card from their hand, or they can choose to discard it. Once the last player has played, all remaining facedown cards are revealed and the scores are totalled.

Scoring

Card values are as follows: Kings are 0, Jokers are -2 and all other cards are worth their face value with Jacks and Queens being worth 10 points.

When a player matches two cards of the same rank in a column they equal zero. For example, if a player has a Queen directly above another Queen this would be scored as 0 rather than 20, however if the player gets a Joker directly above another Joker this equates to -4 total points and adds a bonus 10 points to the opponent's score. There is another special condition for when a player has 4 of a kind with the cards positioned in two columns, also adding 10 points to the opponent's score.

How to Win

If any player reaches or exceeds a total score of 50 the game ends, otherwise play continues with subsequent hands until a winner is determined.