misfortune — rules

Preparations

Misfortune is played using a standard 52-card deck. Each player is dealt all 13 cards from a single suit. The game is played until the players run out of cards. Every round, each player will select one of their cards and place it face-down on the table.

The course of a round

Once the cards have been placed, Both players will simultaneously declare whether they believe their card's rank is Lower or Higher than their opponents'.

This is done through a countdown and hand-signs, typically two taps on the table, followed by a finger pointing up or down, to indicate "my card is higher" or "my card is lower" Respectively.

Bluffing is allowed and encouraged.

This will lead to one of two game-states: Conflict— when both players make the same claim. Agreement— when each player makes a different claim.

In case of conflict, The cards are revealed, and the player whose claim is right wins the round. The winner of a round takes the cards to their side of the table, as a method of keeping score. In the case of a tie, points are split equally.

In the case of agreement, players do not reveal the cards they've played. Rather, they leave them on the table and play another round, repeating until there is conflict. The winner of the next conflict round takes all uncollected cards left on the table.

When multiple stakes are collected, all cards are revealed, and each player gets the chance to memorize them before they are collected to the score pile.

Misfortune is a game of memory, calculation, and luck. The building tension of multiple agreement rounds forces each player to make cascading guesses as to which cards their opponent could have played each round.

A fool's prayer

There is a risky third option during simultaneous gambling. By putting your palms together, or by revealing your hand to your opponent, a player can claim that their card is equal to their opponents'. This is an all-or-nothing gamble. If correct, be it by brilliant calculation or incredible fortune, the game is theirs. However, if wrong— the game is forfeit. It is considered impolite to make a fool's prayer too early into a game, or too often when playing multiple games. In the unlikely event that both players pray together (sometimes called "a meeting of fools"), it is customary to order an extra round of drinks if played at a pub, or to take a short break from the games if played at home.