The rules

The goal

Be the first to empty your hand. Places go by the order players finish; the last one left takes nothing. 2 to 4 players sit at a table, with a 52-card deck plus two jokers.

The deal

Five cards each. One card face up starts the discard pile, and it’s never a special card; the rest is the draw pile. The first player is drawn at random, and play goes counter-clockwise.

Your turn, step by step

1. Look at the top card

   Its suit and its rank are what you can match. If there is an open attack or a skip, that comes first (sections 5 and 6).

2. Play a card that matches

   Same suit or same rank. Several cards of one rank go down together.

3. Or draw one

   Draw from the pile. If it fits, play it now; if not, your turn ends.

4. One card left? Macao!

   A play that leaves you one card calls Macao!, and the app makes the call for you.

You have 30 seconds a turn, 35 when you could play an ace. When time runs out, the app takes the attack, sits out the skip or draws for you; after three timeouts you leave the table.

The special cards

+2+3Sit outCancelsAny suitJOKER+5JOKER+10

Attacks stack

When a 2, a 3 or a joker lands on you, you answer with one of your own and the total grows — +2 becomes +5 becomes +15 — or you draw the total and your turn ends. A 7 cancels the whole total; nobody draws.

The 4 and the ace

A 4 makes the next player sit out a turn. They can pass it on with a 4 of their own; the skips add up. An ace goes on anything and names the suit the next player has to follow — another ace can rename it.

Calling Macau

A play that leaves you one card has to call Macao!, or you draw 5. The app makes the call for you, so only bots ever pay it, about one time in twenty at public tables.

The end and the points

A player with no cards is out and places. The game continues for the remaining places; after 150 turns, whoever is still playing is ranked by the cards left. At a public table, points and seeds go by place; friend tables, private rooms and tournaments pay neither. At four seats:

At three seats it’s 12, 5 and 0 points and 25, 10 and 0 seeds; at two, 10 and 0 points and 20 and 0 seeds (5 points for a win because the other player left).

If the draw pile runs out, the discard pile is shuffled into a new one; the top card stays.

The fair shuffle

Every deal comes from a seed the server commits to before the first card, mixed with a seed from every player’s app. After the game the seeds are revealed and the app checks the deal against the cards you were dealt: tap Fair deal on the result for the proof, and run it again yourself on Check a deal. How we shuffle explains it.