Macao

Goal

Be the first to play every card in your hand. The others are left holding whatever they could not get rid of.

Setup

Deal five cards to each player. Turn one card face up to start the discard pile. If it is a special card, bury it and turn another. The rest is the stock.

Play

1. On your turn, play one card that matches the top card by suit or by rank.
2. If you cannot or will not play, draw one card from the stock. If it plays, you may play it immediately. Otherwise your turn ends.
3. Say macao when you play your second-to-last card. Forget, and you draw a penalty card if anyone catches you.

The special cards

This is the set most Romanian households play. Agree on it before you start.

• 2 — the next player draws two cards.
• 3 — the next player draws three cards.
• 4 — the next player misses a turn.
• 7 — you name the suit that must be played next.
• Ace — in many houses the ace, not the seven, is the card that changes suit. Pick one or the other, not both.
• Joker, if you play with them — the next player draws five.

Stacking the penalties

A 2 or a 3 can be answered with another 2 or 3, and the penalty adds up and moves on. Three players in a row throwing a 2 leaves the fourth drawing six. Somebody eventually cannot answer, and that person draws the whole total and misses their turn.

Some families let a 4 block a penalty instead of skipping a turn. That is a real variant, but decide before, not while somebody is holding nine cards.

Scoring

Casual games end when someone goes out and that is that. For a longer match, the winner scores the value of everyone else’s remaining cards: number cards at face value, picture cards ten, aces eleven. First to an agreed total, often 100, loses, and the lowest score wins.

Questions