Garbage Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• How to Play
• Variations
• Examples

Setup

Number of players: 2–3 (using one card deck) or 4–6 (using two card decks)

Object of the game: Win by being the first to replace 10 facedown cards with 10 faceup cards in order from ace to 10.

Get ready:

• You'll need one or more decks of standard cards, well shuffled, with the jokers removed.
• Players must sit at a table with enough room to have two rows of five cards in front of them.

Quick Tips: Aces are played as 1s during this game. Jacks are wild cards. Kings and queens are not playable, so they automatically end your turn. The card suits don't matter in Trash.

How to Play

1. Players are dealt 10 cards total. Cards are dealt face down in two rows of five cards each. The remaining cards form a draw pile.
2. The goal is to replace or rearrange the facedown cards so you have 10 faceup cards, starting with an ace in the upper left-hand corner and ending with a 10 in the bottom right-hand corner.
3. Jacks are wild. Kings and queens are not playable.
4. Any player can go first. They draw the top card from the draw pile.
   • If the player draws a king or queen, their turn is automatically over. The player puts the king or queen in a faceup draw pile next to the facedown draw pile.
   • If the player draws an ace through 10, they find the right spot in their rows for the card and replace the facedown card. A jack can be placed in any spot.
   • If the facedown card is the same as the card being played (e.g., if a player draws an ace and there is already an ace in the top left corner), they must discard one of the aces and end their turn.
   • If the facedown card is one the player can use in their grid, they can move it to the proper spot and pick up the facedown card in that spot.
   • Jacks are the only cards that can be moved from one space to another. This can help make room for a new card and allow players to use the jack elsewhere.
   • When the first player can no longer make any moves, they discard a card faceup, creating a second draw pile. Play moves clockwise to the next person.
5. The second player has the option of picking up a card from the facedown or faceup draw piles to start their turn.
6. Play continues until one player has replaced their whole set of facedown cards with faceup cards in the right order.

Note: If the game reaches a rare stalemate, reshuffle the draw piles into one facedown pile and resume play.

Variations

Variation: Leave the jokers in the deck as extra wild cards.

Easier Variation: Remove the kings or queens from the deck.

Examples

The printable's third page shows two examples of winning card sets (image only, no text).