Playing Nines

We love to play games. Finding a game that everyone will like and all can play can be a bit challenging. One of those games is nines. We play it often. It requires basic math (or just remembering the good cards to get).



Here are the directions for how to play.


We use 3 decks of regular playing cards for all 6 of us to play. Deal out 9 cards to each person. DO NOT look at your cards. Arrange them into a 3 X 3 grid, face down in front of you.

The object of the game is to have the least amount of points in your 9 cards. Each card is worth the following
Jokers -- minus 2 points
Aces -- 1 point
2's -- 2 points
3's -- 3 points
4's -- 4 points
5's -- 5 points
6's -- 6 points
7's -- 7 points
8's -- 8 points
9's -- 9 points
10's -- 10 points
Jacks -- 11 points
Queens -- 12 points
Kings -- O points

So, Kings, Aces, and Jokers are the "good" cards.

All of the cards that have not been dealt are now the "draw" pile.

The first player must draw a card from the draw pile and then decide
1. Do I want to keep this card? If so (like if it is a joker) you substitute it for an unknown card (placing it face up for all to see) and discard that unknown card into the discard pile face up (for all to see).
2. If they do not want the card, then they discard it face up in the discard pile and then may turn over any one of their nine cards to reveal what that card is.

The second player (and every player thereafter) may select either the card from the discard pile or draw a new card. Then they must either keep that card and swap it for any card in their nines (either face up or face down) or discard it to reveal a hidden card.

If any row or column of cards all match then the player gets to discard the entire row.

Play continues until one player has revealed all of their cards. Once that happens each remaining player gets one more turn and then all the points are totalled.

IF, the player who went out first does not have the lowest point total then they are penalized with 10 extra points.

Enjoy!