Kings in the Corner
2 Players, Ages 6+
Kings in the Corner is a tableau-building 2-player playing card game. The goal is to deplete all the cards in your hand before your opponent to end the round.
In this game, players build on a shared tableau of foundation piles with opposite-color cards, in descending order, similar to many solitaire games such as Klondike.
Cards
| A | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | J | Q | K |
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This game uses a 52-card French-suited playing card deck. Aces are ranked as 1.
If you’re using a Junior Playing Cards deck, be sure to set aside its extra cards.
Setup
Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player. Place the remaining deck in the center. Flip over the top four cards in the deck to each side of the deck to begin the tableau foundation piles.
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Gameplay
Goal
The goal of Kings in the Corner is to shed all cards from your hand by playing them onto the foundation piles.
Your Turn
When your turn begins, draw one card from the deck. Then, play as many cards from your hand as you’re able, from the following list of actions.
- Place a card of the next-lowest rank and opposite-color suit onto any foundation pile.
- Place a King into the “corner” between foundation piles, thus creating a new foundation pile.
- Move an entire foundation pile onto another, where the bottommost card is the next-lowest rank and opposite-color suit of the topmost card of the receiving foundation pile. Any card may then be placed in the resulting empty spot.
Refer to the following table as an example of an in-play tableau.
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After playing all the cards you can, your turn is over. Now it’s the next player’s turn.
Continue until either player has shed all their cards from their hand.
Ending
When either player forms has shed all their cards, the round ends.
Scoring
At the end of the round, the player who ended the round scores 1 point for every remaining card in their opponent’s hand.
Series
Games are best played in a series of 3, 6, or 12 rounds. The player with the highest total score at the end of the series wins!
If the players have identical scores, rejoice in the shared victory!
Strategy
In this game, look for every opportunity to dispose of your cards. Merge foundation piles whenever you can to free up an empty spot. You can plan ahead by placing an optimal card for your own advantage, even beyond this turn.
By choosing what to play and when, you can lay off more cards than you take each turn.
