Pairs is the name of the game, and pairs of cards are what players want to avoid.

The game uses a 55-card deck that contains one 1, two 2s, three 3s, and so on up to ten 10s. Whoever has the lowest card is the first active player. They decide whether to "hit" — that is, be dealt another card — or forfeit the round. If they hit and is dealt a card that doesn't match a card they already has in front of them, then the next player clockwise becomes the active player; if the card does match, then the round ends, they keep one of these matching cards as penalty points, then everyone else discards their cards and a new round begins with each player being dealt a card.

There are many versions of Pairs from Cheapass Games. The base game play is identical, but the artwork (and artist) vary across the versions. Some include special game rules relevant to the theme of the deck. In general, you can find new/experimental/user-submitted rules at the Cheapass website, and many non-English versions of Pairs also include rules for additional games to play with this deck.

Game Details

• Players: 2-8
• For Ages: 6+
• Playing time: 15 minutes