My family plays this card game called "May I" that we teach to as many people as we can. We've been playing this game for generations (to be honest I have no idea who started it) and is how I learned how to add when I was little. We send literally hours playing and it's so addicting once your know the rules. There's strategy and if someone is winning, you can conspire with the other players to bring them down. Every time we had a need player, they always say they have a headache just from learning the rules, but it really is worth learning. It's really complicated so strap in, this is going to be fun.
Have you heard of Gin Rummy? Well, May I is Gin Rummy on steroids. Each player gets 11 cards (cards are dealt counterclockwise), there are 7 hands in the game, and each hand has a different goal to achieve in order to "come down" or place the cards on the table. As the game progresses, the hands get harder and harder to achieve. They are as follows:
Hand 1: 2 sets of 3 of a kind
Hand 2: 1 set of 3 of a kind and 1 4 card straight
Hand 3: 2, 4 card straights
Hand 4: 3 sets of 3 of a kind
Hand 5: 2 sets of 3 of a kind and 1 4 card straight
Hand 6: 2 4 card straights and 1 set of 3 of a kind
Hand 7: 3 4 card straights, but you cannot discard. The final card you draw must be part of your hand!
For those who don't know, this is a 3 of a kind:
And this is a 4 card straight:
You draw a card either from the deck or the discard pile (depending on if you need what another player discards) to start your turn, determine if that card will help you achieve your goal of the hand, and discard which ever card you do not need. If a player discards a card that you need but it's not your turn, you can say "May I?" and if the player who's next allows you to, you can take the card, BUT you must also take a penalty card from the deck. There are a maximum of 2 "May I?"s per hand and the person whose turn it is is allowed to deny the "May I?" if they need the card.
The main goal of the game is to have the least amount of points possible so after someone gets rid of all of their cards, the remaining players then calculate how many points they have in their remaining cards (excluding the cards they put down for the hand if they came down).
Points are calculated by the card:
Cards 3-10 are face value
Cards J-K are 10 points
Aces are 15 points
2 are wild cards and are worth 20 points.
The rules on 2s: you can use as many as you like as long as there are at least 2 natural cards in the same set. In a 4 card straight, there cannot be two consecutive 2s unless one is a natural 2 in the hand.
And that's the basics of the game! The rest of the game is strategy and watching what everyone else picks up so that you know what not to throw.
Have fun!
