President

1. 01

   Deal

   Use a standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Shuffle and deal the entire deck clockwise, one card at a time; some players may end up with one more card than others, and that is fine. In the first round only, the player to the dealer's left leads the first pile. In every later round, the President leads after the card exchange.

1. 02

   Objective

   Get rid of all your cards before the other players. The order in which players run out of cards decides everyone's role for the next round, from President at the top to Scum at the bottom.

How it's played

1. 03

   Card ranking

   Cards rank from 3 (lowest) up through 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, to 2 (highest). Suits never matter. In this baseline a 2 is simply the highest rank and must still follow the normal rules of play; many tables instead give 2s the special power to clear the pile — that is a house-rule fork, not part of this rulebook.

2. 04

   Leading and beating

   The player who leads may play any single card, or any set of two, three, or four cards of the same rank. Each player after them, in clockwise order, must either play the same number of cards of a strictly higher rank, or pass. Equal rank does not beat the pile, and you may never change the number of cards mid-pile: a pair lead can only be beaten by a higher pair.

3. 05

   Passing and clearing the pile

   Passing skips only your current turn; you may still play when the turn comes back around to you. When every other player passes in a row after someone's play, the pile is cleared face down and the player who made that last play leads a new pile. If that player has already run out of cards, the lead passes to the next player to their left who still holds cards. Some tables instead lock a passer out until the pile clears — that is a common variant, not this baseline.

4. 06

   The card exchange

   Before each round after the first, once the new hands are dealt: the Scum gives their two highest-ranked cards to the President, and the President gives back any two cards of their choice. The Vice Scum and Vice President trade one card the same way — Vice Scum's highest for any card back. Citizens trade nothing. Tables commonly vary the number of cards exchanged; this baseline is two for President–Scum and one for the Vices.

1. 07

   Finish order and roles

   As each player plays their last card, they finish in the next open place. The first player out is President, the second is Vice President, the last is Scum, and the second-to-last is Vice Scum; anyone in between is a Citizen. With four players there are no Citizens. The round's finish order is the result that goes in the record book, and players reseat for the next round in finish order, President first.

1. 08

   Misplays

   If a player makes an illegal play — wrong number of cards, or cards that do not beat the pile — the play is taken back into their hand and they must pass for that turn. Playing out of turn is handled the same way. There is no harsher penalty in this baseline.

1. 09

   Ending the session

   A session is as many rounds as the group agrees to play, and anyone may call 'last round' before a deal. The standing record is each round's finish order; bragging rights go to whoever held President the most rounds. There is no point total in this baseline — the ladder itself is the score.