Welcome!

Pairs is a simple press-your-luck card game, using an unusual “triangular” deck. The deck contains the numbers 1 through 10, with 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, and so on. You can play many games with your Pairs deck, but let’s start off with the basic rules.

The Basics: Pairs has no winner, just one loser. Players will take turns drawing cards, until one person either folds or gets a pair. Either of these scores points, and points are bad. The first player with too many points loses:

Target Scores Players: 2 3 4 5 6+ Losing Score: 31 21 16 13 11

(The formula: Take 60, divide by players, then add 1.)

Penalties: If you like, you may choose a penalty for the los-er. The loser could tell a joke, buy a round of drinks, make a funny noise, or whatever is appropriate for your group.

Playing the Game

Getting Started: Shuffle the deck and burn (discard) five cards, facedown, into the middle of the table. This is the start of the discard pile. Each time you shuffle, you will burn five cards again. This makes it harder to count the cards.

To start each round, deal one card faceup to each player. The player with the lowest card will go first.

On Each Turn: On your turn, you have two choices: You may hit (take a card), or fold. If you catch a pair with a hit, or if you fold, the round is over and you score points. If not, play passes to the left.

Hitting: When you hit, you’re hoping not to get a pair (that is, any two cards in your stack with the same rank). If you pair a card, you score that many points. For exam-ple, if you catch a pair of 8’s, you score 8 points. Keep one of those cards aside, faceup, to track your score.

Folding: You can surrender (fold) instead of taking a card. When you do this, you take the lowest card in play and keep it for points. You may choose this card from all players’ stacks, not just your own.

Folding can be better than hitting, depending on the odds of catching a pair, but it’s up to you to decide when to do it.

Ending the Round: As soon as one person pairs up or folds, the round is over. Discard all the cards in play, face-down into the middle, and deal another round.

Players keep their scoring cards aside, faceup. These cards will not return to the deck until the game is over.

Reshuffling: When the deck runs out, shuffle the discards, and resume dealing where you left off. (Remember to burn five cards off each new deck.)

Losing the Game: There is no winner, just one loser. The game ends when one player reaches the target score. For example, in a 4-player game, the loser is the first player to score 16 points. (See the Target Scores chart on the left.)

Keep Playing! We hope you’ll enjoy playing Pairs. Please visit playpairs.com for more games.

Who Should Deal? One player can deal for the whole game, or the role of dealer can pass around the table. The dealer’s position doesn’t matter, since the starting player is always determined by the low card.

Ties for Low Card: If there is a tie for lowest card at the start of the round, deal an extra card to the tied players, and use those cards to break the tie. (You might have to repeat this.) If any player catches a pair in this step, you discard the paired card and deal a replacement. You can’t lose by catching a pair on the deal.

Variation: Continuous

Continuous Pairs is almost the same as basic Pairs, but it is played in one long round, instead of several short ones. When a player pairs up or folds, only that player’s cards are discarded. Everyone else keeps their cards, and that player is still in, with an empty stack.

Here are a couple of rules adjustments for Continuous:

1: When you fold, you may take any card in play, not just the lowest. (Sometimes it’s strategically better to take a higher card.)

2: When you have no cards, you always hit.

Continuous Pairs can be a great change of pace for players looking for just a little more strategy. Try it out!

A New Classic Pub Game™

by James Ernestand Paul Peterson

CreditsPairs was designed by James Ernest and Paul Peterson, with help from Joshua Howard and Joe Kisenwether. Deadfall was created by James Ernest and Nora Miller. Lord of the Fries artwork by Brian Snōddy. Playtesters include Adam Sheridan, Ahna Blake, Bob De Dea, Boyan Radakovich, Carol Monahan, Cathy Saxton, Daniel Solis, Debbie Mischo, Don Flinspach, Hal Mangold, Jeremy Holcomb, John Mischo, Jonathan Fingold, Kenneth Hite, Mike Selinker, Na-than Clarenburg, Nora Miller, Owen Jungemann, Rick Fish, Shawn Carnes, Tom Saxton, Patrick Nickell, and many others. Edited by Carol Monahan, Cathy Saxton, and Mike Selinker. Pairs and the Pairs fruit logo are © and ™ 2015 James Ernest and Hip Pocket Games, Seattle WA: hippocketgames.com. For rules, variants, alternate decks, and more, please visit us at:

www.playpairs.com

About the Lord of the Fries Deck:

Lord of the Fries is a card game from Cheapass Games, designed by James Ernest and illustrated by Brian Snōddy. The setting is Friedey’s, the Fast Food Restaurant of the Damned, where a cadre of Zombies are racing to fill customers’ orders with hands full of random food.

This deck features art from the 2015 edition of Lord of the Fries, with one ingredient from each of ten different restaurants.

Game Variant: Deadfall

Deadfall is a Pairs game similar to Liar’s Dice. Players take turns playing cards from their hands. When you play a card, you are claiming that the rank is not yet “dead.” To win, you must trap another player, or catch someone in a lie.

Players: 2 to 6 You Need: A Pairs deck and coins or chips for keeping score, about 60 per player.

Each Hand: Each player antes 1 coin. Shuffle the deck and deal a hand of 6 cards to each player.

Door Cards: Each player chooses one card from his hand, called the door card. These cards are revealed at the same time. The lowest door card will take the first turn.

If there is a tie for lowest card, everyone plays another door card. Choose the lowest card from the second round, with ties broken by the card from the first round. This can sometimes continue to a third round and so on.

Each Turn: On your turn you have two options: you may play another card, or you may call another player.

If you play a card, stack it atop the cards you have played so far, so that each card is visible but the last card is clearly on top.

If you call, you are choosing another player’s top card, and claiming that card is dead. “Dead” means there are no more cards of that rank in any player’s hand, including your own. If you are right, you win. If you are wrong, you lose. Either way, the hand is over.

Restrictions on Calling: You may normally call any player’s top card. But if there are multiple top cards of the same rank, you may choose only the one that was played most recently (that is, the one closest on your right). You will see why this is after you play a few hands.

Play Lord of the Fries!

Lord of the Fries is a simple, fun card game about assembling meals from hands of random ingredients. It was the 1998 sequel to our 1997 game, Give Me the Brain. Check it out at: www.cheapass.com/games/LotFHere you’ll find links to the various expansion decks, extra menus, and even a custom menu designed for this deck!

For consistency, this restriction is in force even for door cards, which were technically played at the same time. In the example below, Player A will go first, and may call any player’s door card except player B, who is sitting to the right of player D, and therefore played “earlier.”

The Showdown: When one player calls, all players reveal their hands. The calling player is claiming that no more cards of that rank are in anyone’s hand, so if she is correct, she wins, and if she is wrong, she loses.

Penalties: The loser pays the winner a number of coins equal to the value of the called card, and the winner also collects the antes. So, in the example above, if A calls D’s 5, the following two results are possible:

1: 5’s are dead. A is correct, and collects 5 coins from D, as well as the antes.

2: Someone still holds a 5. A is wrong, and pays 5 coins to D. D also takes the antes.

ABF

CED

2 5

546

9