This is a a Poker game I invented that I tentatively name it “Gotcha”.
Prepare a set of Pokers, and discard the jokers. In this game we treat A as 1, J as 11, Q as 12 and K as 13. The suites do not matter in this game. The goal is to guess the opponents’ card correctly.
[2 player version]
Preparation: Each player is dealt 26 cards. Do not show your cards to your opponent. Arrange them in ascending order according to their face values. Each discards 6 cards of their choice. Do not reveal the discarded card.
(Variation: Each player is dealt 20 cards, arranges in ascending order)
(Variation 2: Each player is dealt 20 cards, arranges in ascending order and discard 5 cards of their choice)
Feel free to modify the rules for preparation to make the game harder/easier.
During the game: Guess your opponent’s card. You only need to name the number on the card. The guess will be like this: the x’s smallest/biggest card is y. If you guess it right, your opponent discard the card, you score according to the rule below and you make a new guess. Otherwise you score nothing and your opponent does not show the card; it will be your opponent’s turn to guess.
Scoring: If you opponent currently has N card and you guess the x’s smallest/biggest card right, the score is 3+min{x,N+1-x}. For example, Alice has 9 cards and Bob guesses the 6th smallest correctly, he scores 7 points.(The ends are easier to guess so the motivation of the scoring is to make sure people challenge themselves and face the uncertainty.)
Endgame: Whoever finishes guessing, the other player has 1 round to guess. The higher score wins.
Bonus: You can shout out “Gotcha” before the guess. If it’s not the leftmost or rightmost card and you get it correct, you score 1 more point; otherwise you lose min{x,N+1-x} scores.
{Multi-player version(3-5 people)}
Preparation: Each player is dealt the same number of cards. Do not show your cards to your opponent. Arrange them in ascending order according to their face values. Each discards 1 card of their choice.
Feel free to modify the rules for preparation to make the game harder/easier.
During the game: same as 2-player version. If you guess one correctly, you can choose to guess another player’s card. When one finishes their guess, the one anticlockwise guesses.
Endgame: When someone has no card at hand, the game immediately stops. The highest score wins.
Bonus: The same as a 2-player game.
The chess inventor is not a chess master. To be honest I don’t know what’s the best strategy to play the game. Have fun!