Keep'n Swap: Is Winning Worth It? 2025

Card Values (Low → High) Ace → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8 → 9 → 10 → Jack → Queen → King Jokers have no value

Setup Shuffle the deck (without the Jokers) and deal 27 cards to each player. Remember to add only 1 Joker to each draw pile after each player gets their 7 cards. From those 27 cards, each player:

Draws 7 cards from the top of their "about to be draw pile" to form their starting hand Places the remaining cards face-down as their draw pile

Gameplay Each round, both players simultaneously choose one card from their hand and reveal it.

The player who plays the higher-value card wins the round. The winner discards the card they played, but takes the losing player’s played card into their hand. The losing player discards their played card.

If both players play cards of equal value, both cards are discarded and no special abilities activate. After resolving a round, players must always maintain 7 cards in hand, if possible, by immediately drawing from their draw pile. If a player’s draw pile is empty, they continue playing with fewer cards.

Special Cards

Ace (Lowest) — Reset If an Ace loses a round:

The player who played the Ace takes the opponent’s entire hand. The opponent first draws 7 new cards from their draw pile. The Ace player then shuffles the opponent’s old hand together with their draw pile and places it face-down as the opponent’s new draw pile. Then both the Ace and the other card played will be discarded If therr are no more draw piles, the Ace and the other card played just get discarded

King (Highest) — Claim If a King wins a round, the King player may choose one:

Take the opponent’s played card, or Take the top card of the discard pile

Exception: If the opponent recently played a King, the King player automatically takes the opponent’s played card instead.

Queen (2nd Highest) — Purge If a Queen wins a round, the opponent must discard at least 1 and at most 2 special cards from their hand, if they have any.

Jack (3rd Highest) — Burn If a Jack wins a round:

Both played cards are discarded. The top 2 cards of the opponent’s draw pile are discarded.

7 — Lucky Seven If a 7 wins a round, the 7 player takes 2 random cards (the 1st card you choose will automatically be put into your hand) from the opponent’s draw pile and adds 1 to their hand and 1 to their draw pile. Joker — Equalizer Anytime a Joker is played:

The draw pile equalizes to the lower value If the opponent has no more draw pile then their hand gets to be equalized

Special Interactions

If both players play the same card, both cards are discarded and no abilities activate. If both players play special cards (except Jack and 7), both cards are discarded and no abilities activate. If Jack and 7 are played in the same round, both abilities activate: 7 resolves first Jack resolves second 8, 9, and 10 can cancel out 7's abilities

Draw Piles Once both draw piles are empty:

No further drawing is possible Lost cards are gone permanently Ace and 7 abilities no longer apply Players must rely entirely on their remaining hands

Winning the Game The game ends when:

Both draw piles are empty, and All remaining rounds resolve naturally

The last player holding any cards wins. If both players lose their final cards in the same round, the game ends in a draw.