Rules for Norwegian Palace Variant

The full deck is used, excluding jokers. Each player is dealt three cards, and six additional cards are placed on the table. Three of these are placed face down, and the remaining three are placed face up on top of the face-down cards. Before the game begins, players may exchange open table cards with cards from their hand. The rest of the cards form a face-down draw pile.

The goal of the game is to get rid of all your cards as quickly as possible. Aces are highest and 3s are lowest. Suit does not matter. 2s and 10s are special cards that can always be played.

The player with the lowest card in hand starts the game. You must play one (or more of the same value) cards from your hand that are equal to or higher than the top card of the pile, or a special card. If you cannot play a card, you must pick up the entire pile. You may also take a risk by drawing the top card from the draw pile and playing it. If it’s too low, you still have to pick up the pile.

2s can always be played. When a 2 is played, the next player can play any card. If four cards of the same value are played consecutively, the entire pile is cleared and removed from the game. 10s can also be played at any time and will clear the pile.

If you have fewer than three cards in hand after your turn, you must draw from the pile until you have three. If you pick up a card that matches the top card on the pile, you may play it immediately, but you still must draw until you have three in hand. When the draw pile is empty, you begin playing your table cards. All face-up table cards must be played before you can play the hidden ones.

The winner is the player who first gets rid of all their cards.

• 2 can be played at any time. Since even a 3 is higher than a 2, the next player can play any card.
• 10 can be played at any time and clears the play pile when placed.
• 4 cards of the same value also clear the pile if their value is higher than the last card played.

The first player to get rid of all their hand and table cards wins the game. But the game continues until only one player still has cards. That player becomes the idiot.

There are many variants of the game, including playing with jokers, allowing an extra card immediately after a 2, and allowing sequences like 5, 6, 7, and 8 to be played together.