Gulaam Chor — don't be left with the Jack
Pairs are thrown away, one card is drawn blind each turn, and one Jack has no partner. Nobody wins. The game finds the one player left holding that Jack, the Gulaam Chor.
From Gulaam Chor (Jack Thief), an Indian card game related to Old Maid.
What it shows a designer
One loser, no winner, and almost no choices, yet real tension, carried by a single card that can never pair. It shows how a game can work on feeling more than decision.
Credits
- Made by
- Traditional
- This version
- 24 cards, so that it fits in ten minutes
- Sources
- cheettukali.com/gulam-chor/rules/
card-games.wonderhowto.com/how-to/play-card-game-jack-thief-0122351/
What you need
- a standard deck: only Ace to 5 of each suit and the four Jacks (24 cards)
How to play
- Take out one Jack. Use Ace to 5 of every suit and the four Jacks. Take out one Jack without looking at it and put it aside. Shuffle and deal all the cards.
- Throw pairs. Everyone puts down any two cards of the same rank, whatever their suits. If you have three of a rank, put down two and keep one.
- Draw blind. Hold your cards fanned, face down to the others. The player to the dealer's left starts: draw one card from the next player's hand without seeing it. If it makes a pair, put the pair down. Then the next player draws, and so on round the circle.
- Safe. A player whose hand is empty is safe and sits out.
- The thief. When every pair is down, one Jack is left. Whoever holds it is the Gulaam Chor and loses.
After playing, talk about
- Did you try to hide where the Jack sat in your hand?
- Could you tell who had it?
- How did it feel to play a game you could only lose?
Its blocks
How its blocks were checked against BoardGameGeek
- Old Maid: partly checkable, nothing against it. set collection: confirmed (Set Collection). one loser: not checkable. mostly chance: not checkable. hidden hands: not checkable. take turns: not checkable.
In boardgameBuilder, Open game puts its blocks on the canvas. Changed, the same file can come back here from Propose a game.