Palace

Overview

Palace — also known as Shed, Karma, Idiot or Shithead — is a two-player shedding game played with a standard 52-card deck. You are not trying to win tricks or score points: you are trying to get rid of every card you hold before your opponent does. The twist is that your last cards are the ones you chose at the very start and then forgot about, and the three underneath them you have never seen at all.

It plays fast, the lead swings constantly, and a single ten can wipe out a pile that has been building for six turns. You can play the computer or challenge a live opponent from the lobby.

The deal

Each player is dealt three cards face down on the table plus a hand of six. Before play starts you pick three of those six and lay them face up on top of your face-down cards — that row is your palace. The rest of the deck becomes the draw pile.

Choose carefully. Those three face-up cards are played last, when the draw pile is long gone and you have nothing left to fall back on. Twos, tens, Aces and Kings all earn their place there.

Card ranking

Cards rank 3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A from low to high. The 2 and the 10 sit outside that order and can be played on anything. The player holding the lowest card leads the first turn.

How a turn works

Play one card, or several of the same rank at once, equal to or higher than the top card of the pile. Then draw back up to three cards while the draw pile lasts.

Tap a card to pick it up, tap it a second time to play it, or tap several of a rank and press PLAY.

The 2 and the 10

A 2 plays on any card and resets the pile — whatever comes down next can be anything, so a 2 is your escape hatch when the pile has climbed out of reach.

A 10 also plays on any card, but it burns the whole pile out of the game. The pile is gone for good, and you lead again on nothing. Spend it when the pile is fat or when you are cornered.

Four of a kind burns it too

When four cards of the same rank end up on top of the pile — laid down together in one turn, or built up across several — the pile burns exactly like a ten, and whoever completed the run leads again. Watching for the fourth card of a rank already showing is one of the sharpest plays in the game.

Taking the pile

If nothing you hold beats the top card, you take the entire pile into your hand and your opponent leads a fresh one. You may also choose to take it rather than break up a good hand — a hand of four low cards is often worth less than keeping a 2 and a 10 in reserve.

Palace and hidden cards

Once your hand and the draw pile are both empty you start playing the face-up cards of your palace. There is no drawing back up from here: three cards, then the hidden row.

The hidden cards are played blind, one at a time. If the card you turn over beats the pile it plays. If it does not, you take it and the whole pile into your hand and start again. Plenty of games have been lost on the last card.

Winning

The first player to get rid of their hand, their face-up palace and all three hidden cards wins the game.

Strategy and tips

• Put your specials in the palace. A 2 or a 10 face up on the table is a guaranteed escape at the end, when you most need one.
• Dump duplicates while the draw pile lasts. Playing three 5s together costs you nothing — you draw straight back up to three.
• Count the rank on top. If three Queens are already showing, your Queen burns the pile.
• Do not spend a 2 on a small pile. Taking four cards back is cheap; taking fourteen is not.
• Late on, hold one card that beats a King. When the draw pile is gone your opponent will lead high to strand you.

Ways to play

Play the computer opponent, or open the lobby and challenge a live player. The browser lobby shares its matchmaking with the Android app, so a phone player and a browser player can sit at the same table.