Card Game: Drain

Another card game I thought of, when we're chilling in cafe.

What you need: A deck of poker cards

Players: 2 players (have yet to test on 3+ player gameplay)

How to play:
To set up the game, shuffle the deck and give each player 5 cards. Put the remaining deck in the middle.
The goal of the game is to take turn to guess your opponent's cards. If your opponent lose all their cards (by being guessed) you win.



For each of a player turn:
1. A player may take one card from the deck; do not merge this with your hand cards, and do not reveal them to your opponent yet.

2. There's 2 options to do with this taken card:

• you can put it face down in front of you (this will be your face-down pile), and you get 1 chance to guess a card. If your opponent has that guessed card, he has to put it down. If a player put down all his hand cards he loses.  
• you can put it face-up in front of your opponent, and you can ask whether your opponent has a card of the same suit OR the same value (numbers or AKQJ). For example, if you took an 8 of Spades and you put it face-up in front of your opponent, you can either if he has an 8 in his hand, or if he has a Spade. Your opponent MUST answer this honestly (this is not a lying game).

3. Once you're done with step 2, it's your opponents' turn.

Notes:

1. You can check your OWN face down pile at any time. 

2. If you forget whether you ask the question that you're going to ask before, your opponent does not need to remind you. This makes it largely a memory game. 

3. In the event that the deck is finished and neither player has ran out of cards, then the winner is decided my comparing card number. If they have the same number of card, then they compare values. Values are the numbers for 2-10, KQJ is 10 and Ace is 11.

Yup, this is largely a memory game, and I see two different strategies from my playtest with my friends. One strategy, of course, is to ask more questions, preferable confirming suits first. This is because if a player have no card of a suit, you can already strike out 13 possibilities, which means it's easier for you to guess. However, this means that you are revealing more cards to your opponent - you are also giving him information! The other strategy is to ask a little, and then take a lot of random(?) guess. This means more cards going into your put-down pile, and the more you have here, the more information you have that your opponent doesn't. This strategy makes it harder for you to guess your cards (take more tries), but also makes it harder for your opponent to guess yours!