How to play Septica Americana

Get rid of your cards, because when a round ends you are charged for every one you are still holding. Each turn you put one card on the pile, following the suit showing or the rank on top, and when nothing fits you take a card instead. Whoever plays their last card is charged nothing. Reaching the target loses the match: the lowest total wins it.

Șeptică Americană is a shedding game played with a full 52-card pack by two, three or four players. Some tables add the deck's two jokers, which is optional and off unless the table was set up with it. It shares a name with the trick-taking Șeptica and almost nothing else.

Everybody gets five cards. One more is turned face up to start the pile, and the rest becomes the face-down stock. If the card turned up is a seven, a two, a jack, an ace or a joker it is buried and another is turned, so a round always opens on a card that does nothing.

The player to the dealer's left goes first and play runs on round the table. Nothing here ever turns the direction back.

A turn is one action. You never draw and then play in the same turn.

1. Play a card that matches the suit in force or repeats the rank on top. A seven goes on anything.

2. Or take one card from the stock, and your turn is done. You may take one even holding something playable.

3. If a draw or a skip is pointed at you, that is the only thing you may answer.

Play your last card and the round stops right there.

One more way to follow is optional and off unless the table was set up with it: a jack goes on a two, a queen on a three and a king on a four, whatever the suits. Only that pairing, only that way round, and never on a card demanding cards off you.

The seven is the card the game is named after. It plays on any card, and playing it lets you name the suit everyone has to follow next. You may name a suit you hold nothing of.

What it does not do is rescue you. A seven changes the suit and nothing else, so it cannot be thrown at a draw waiting on you and it cannot dodge a skip. That is what keeps the twos and the aces worth holding.

Three cards are aimed at the player after you.

A two, and at a table that plays it that way a jack, makes the next player take two cards. They can pass it on with a draw card of their own, and then it is four, then six, until somebody takes the whole lot in one go.

An ace makes the next player miss a turn. They can hand it on with an ace of their own; otherwise they sit the turn out and the attack is done.

A card answering an attack does not have to match the suit.

With two players an ace comes straight back to you: your opponent loses their turn and you play again.

Optional, and off unless the table was set up with it. When a table plays with them, the deck's two jokers are dealt with the other fifty-two. They are the same card in two colours: neither is stronger.

A joker goes on any card. It makes the next player take five, and that stack grows the way a two's does. It is also the one card besides a two or a jack that can be thrown back at a draw already waiting on you.

And a joker leaves nothing to follow, because it has no suit and no rank. Once its five have been taken, whoever plays next may play any card at all.

Being caught holding one costs 50, the most expensive card in the pack.

An ordinary draw takes exactly one card and ends your turn. A draw that answers a pile of twos takes all of them at once.

The stock comes back. When it runs out, the top card of the pile stays where it is and everything underneath is shuffled face down as the new stock. If what is owed is more than the pack can produce, you take what there is and the rest is written off.

If there is nothing left to draw and nothing you can play, the turn moves on. When that has gone all the way round, the round ends with nobody out.

The moment somebody goes out, everyone else adds up what is still in their hand. The seven is the expensive one, and a joker, where a table plays with them, is dearer still.

That total is what each of them is charged. The player who went out is charged nothing.

Nobody is ever paid here, so the whole game is holding as little as possible when somebody else runs out.

A round that ends with nobody out charges everybody except the player holding the least. If two are level on that, nobody is charged.

Rounds keep coming, the deal moving one seat on each time, and what you have been charged adds up. The match ends as soon as somebody reaches the target the table was set to, 101, 301 or 501, and that player has lost it.

The winner is the lowest total at the table. So 101 is not a finish line to race towards: it is the wall you are trying not to hit first. If two players finish level at the bottom, the match has no winner.

Open the scores at the top of the table whenever you like.

Tap a card to pick it up, then use the button under your hand to play it, or tap it again to change your mind. You can also drag a card into the middle of the table, or sideways in your hand to reorder it. An illegal card will not stick to the pile.

Play a seven and the table asks which suit you want before the card lands. The suit in force is shown beside the pile from then on, which matters because it is not always the suit of the card lying face up.

The buttons only offer what the rules allow: taking a card, and taking what is waiting for you, appear exactly when they are your move.

A practice match runs entirely on your device against bots, with no connection needed. A bot sees only what any opponent could see: your hand and the stock order stay hidden, so it cannot cheat.

Online, a bot steps in for a player who has gone quiet, so the table keeps moving.