How to Play Six-Card Golf

Objective

Like the sport it is named after, Golf is about keeping your score down. Each hole, you try to end with the lowest possible total in your six-card layout, by swapping high cards for low ones and by lining up matching cards in the same column so they cancel out. Scores add up over nine holes.

Setup

Deal six cards face down to each player, one at a time. Each player arranges their cards in two rows of three without looking at them, which makes three columns of two cards. Place the rest of the deck face down as the stock and turn the top card face up to start the discard pile.

Before play begins, every player turns any two of their own cards face up. The other four stay face down, and you may not peek at them. The deal passes to the left after each hole.

How to play

The player to the dealer’s left goes first. On your turn, draw one card: either the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile.

You may swap the drawn card for any one of your six cards, face up or face down. Put the new card in that spot face up, and discard the card it replaced face up onto the discard pile. If you drew from the stock and do not want the card, you can simply discard it. If you took the top discard, you must swap it into your layout.

Play continues to the left. In the standard rules, the hole ends as soon as any player has all six cards face up. Everyone then turns over any cards still face down and scores their layout.

1. 1Draw from the stock or take the top discard
2. 2Swap it for any card in your layout, face up
3. 3Or throw away a stock card you do not want
4. 4The hole ends when someone’s six cards are all face up

Scoring

Score each of your three columns. If the two cards in a column match in rank, the column scores zero. Otherwise, add up both cards using the values below.

Write down every player’s score after each hole. After nine holes, the lowest total wins. A pair of 2s in a column also scores zero, so a pair of 2s is worth less than two 2s in different columns.

Variations

One last turn: many groups give every other player one final turn after someone turns their last card face up. It stops a player from ending the hole the moment they are ahead.

Eighteen holes: for a longer game, play a full eighteen holes instead of nine.

Four-Card Golf and Nine-Card Golf use smaller or larger layouts (a square of four, or three rows of three) with their own pairing rules.

Jokers: some tables add jokers at a minus value agreed before play, which makes the low end of the deck more crowded.

Tips from the table

Kings and 2s are the best cards in the deck. A 2 is worth more on its own than in a pair, so keep two 2s in separate columns if you can.

A face-up high card with a matching card on the discard pile is a gift: drop the match in the same column and the whole column goes to zero.

Watch what other players need before you discard. Throwing a queen when an opponent has a face-up queen waiting for its partner hands them ten points.

Do not rush to turn your last card. Ending the hole is good only when your total is already lower than everyone else’s.

Frequently asked