Garbage, despite its name, is a game you'll want to play again and again. It is also, not surprisingly, known as Trash. Garbage is an excellent game for a wide range of players and even preschoolers who are working on number recognition will benefit from playing.
Objective:
Be the first player to line up your cards in sequence order: ace to 10
What you need:
- One deck of 52 cards for 2-3 players, an additional deck for 4 or more players.
- 2 or more enthusiastic players
1. Deal
Deal each player 10 cards. Place the remaining cards in the middle of the table. This is the "draw pile."
Each player arranges their cards in two lines of 5 cards each, face down. These lines of cards will correspond to the sequence of numbers with ace in the top left and 10 in the bottom right.
2. Game Play
Player 1 takes the top card from the draw pile. If it is a number card he places it in the corresponding place in his number line, flipping and removing the card that occupied that position. He then takes the flipped card and places it in its corresponding spot, if applicable.
For example, if player 1 draws a 5, he flips over the card from the corresponding spot in the cards in front of him and places the 5 in that spot. If the flipped card is a number, he moves it to the corresponding position, and so on.
If he turns over a jack or a queen he discards it. Jacks and queens are "garbage!"
A king is a wildcard and may be placed in any position. Wildcards can also be moved on subsequent turns
3. Play Continues
Play continues according to the game play rules above, with the exception that players can now choose a card from the draw pile or pick up the top card from the discard pile.
4. Winning
After one player has completed the ace-ten sequence, the other player(s) get one final turn in an attempt to tie the game.
Play continues as above but this time, the first player to complete a sequence wins the round and in the subsequence round everyone who completed the sequence advances to the next lower-number sequence. For example, if a player completed 9 cards he now gets 8 cards.
And so on.
Until the final round when one player completes a round with only one card to flip.