Four players, one standard deck. Online, bots fill any empty seats. The game ends when the deck runs out.
The goal
Finish with the most black points in a hand that still holds at least one red card. A hand with no red card does not count.
Scoring
Black aces score 1.
Black number cards score their number.
Black jacks, queens and kings score 10.
Red cards score nothing. You need them to stay in the game and to throw.
Setup
Everyone is dealt five cards.
All-red hands
A player whose hand is all red must trade the whole hand for another player's hand.
The game calls "Put on your K faces." Every other player then tells the red-handed player how weak their own hand is. Lying is allowed.
The red-handed player picks whose hand to take.
The TUB card
The Queen of Spades is the TUB card, the best card in the deck. A hand that holds it cannot be traded. If someone reaches for that hand, the holder shows the TUB card and the trader picks again. It scores 10 like any queen.
Runaways
A hand with no red cards and no TUB card escapes to the middle of the table. Those cards are runaways and anyone can wrangle them.
Wrangling
On your turn you may throw one red card at a runaway.
Land it and you keep both cards.
Miss and the red card is gone. Miss with your last red and your hand escapes.
High cards are harder to hit.
The MD Line
The MD Line runs across the middle of the table. When the runaways fill three lines, the line closest to the wrangler is too close and cannot be targeted.
Turns
Draw one card.
Holding more than five, let one go. A black card you let go becomes a runaway.
Throw at a runaway if you want to.
The showdown
When the deck is out, everyone shows their hand and counts black points. Highest counting hand wins. Equal totals share the win.
Table talk
MD Line
The Meridian, the line across the middle of the table.