President is a shedding-type card game played with a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The three or more players aim to get rid of all their cards each round in order to become the President.
First, you shuffle and deal all cards as evenly as possible in clockwise direction. Then, playing starts with the player to the dealer’s left.
On each turn, a player must play a card or combination of cards of equal or higher rank than the previous player. So, if one player played three Fours, the next player may play the missing Four or one or multiple cards of any higher rank.
If someone plays a card and no following player can play in response, including the player who played the last card, that card is discarded. Now the player plays another card of their choice.
Players can also pass at any time, even if they have cards that they could play. Passing on one turn does not prevent players from playing cards on their next turn.
Play continues in this fashion until only one player is left with cards in their hand. In that process, the first player to get rid of their cards becomes President. And the last player with cards left is sometimes called the scum.
In the next round, the President leads by playing any card, and the game continues as before. In some variants, the scum must hand over their best card to the President after dealing for the next round, and the President gets to hand them any card back.
The card game President is known by different names in different countries, but it is most popular in the United States and Western Europe. It is commonly played as a social, casual card game and is enjoyed by people of all ages.
As a result, there are many local variants to playing the game, some regarding the card deck in use, others regarding the dynamics between players of different established roles based on the previous rounds. But these are the basic rules that you can use to play President as many rounds as you like.
Also, if you enjoy shedding games, we invite you to have a look at our games at the Rummy Palace or the Canasta Palace and play online!