How to Play Egyptian Rat Screw With a Real Deck of Cards

Egyptian Rat Screw started at kitchen tables, not on screens, and it is still at its best with a real deck and a few friends. This guide covers everything you need to run a game in person, including the parts that rule sheets usually skip: how to flip a card fairly, who wins a tie, and how to keep the game friendly when everyone is slapping the same spot.

What you need

One standard 52-card deck for two to five players. Take the jokers out unless your group plays a joker house rule.
Two decks shuffled together for six or more. Patterns come up much more often with two decks, which makes the game faster and louder.
A deck you do not mind ruining. Cards get bent, creased and occasionally torn. A cheap or old deck is ideal.
A sturdy table with room for everyone to reach the middle with roughly the same stretch. A round table is the fairest.

Dealing

Shuffle well and deal the whole deck face down, one card at a time, clockwise. With three players the deal does not come out even, and that is fine: one player starts with a card more. Each player squares their cards into a neat face-down stack and does not look at them. Nobody knows what is in their own deck, and that is the point.

The player to the dealer's left goes first.

Playing a card fairly

On your turn, take the top card of your stack and flip it face up onto the centre pile. The important detail is flip it away from yourself, so the other players see the card at the same moment you do, or slightly before. If you flip it towards yourself, you see it first and get a head start on every slap. Most groups treat this as the one non-negotiable piece of etiquette.

Play moves clockwise. Keep a steady rhythm; a player who hesitates over every card slows the whole table. In this game's online version a turn clock does this job automatically.

Face-card challenges

If you play a Jack, Queen, King or Ace, the next player must answer with a face card of their own within a set number of tries:

Jack: 1 try
Queen: 2 tries
King: 3 tries
Ace: 4 tries

The defender flips cards one by one. If a face card appears, the challenge passes on to the next player with the new count. If the tries run out with no face card, the player who played the last face card takes the whole pile and puts it face down under their stack. They then start the next pile.

Count the tries out loud. It stops arguments and it helps everyone keep track.

Slapping

Whenever the top of the pile shows a valid pattern, anyone can slap it with an open hand, and the first hand to land wins the pile, regardless of whose turn it is. The classic patterns are Doubles, Sandwich, Tens and Marriage; our slap patterns guide explains each one with examples.

The bottom hand wins. When two or more people slap at nearly the same time, the hand touching the cards wins. Everyone else's hand is on top of it. This is the standard way to settle a tie and it is simple to check: lift hands from the top down.

A wrong slap costs a card. Slapping when there is no pattern means you pay a penalty card: take one from the top of your stack and put it face down at the bottom of the centre pile. Whoever wins the pile wins your penalty card too.

Slap the pile, not the person. Slap with a flat hand on the cards. Grabbing, scratching or slapping the hand of someone who got there first is not part of the game.

Running out and slapping back in

When you play your last card you are not out yet. You can keep watching and slap any valid pattern, and if you are first, you take the pile and you are back in the game. If you slap wrongly with no cards to pay the penalty, most groups say you are out for good. Some groups let you keep trying, and some limit the number of slap-ins per game. Agree on it before you start.

The game ends when one player holds every card. In practice that can take a long time, so many groups agree on a time limit and count cards when it runs out.

Keeping it friendly

Take off rings and watches before you start, and keep nails short. Most real ERS injuries are scratches from nails and rings, not bruises from slaps.
Slap firmly, not hard. The bottom hand wins regardless of force, so there is no advantage in hitting harder.
Agree on house rules out loud before the first card. Most arguments in ERS are about which patterns count. Our house rules guide lists the common ones.
Mix ages carefully. Adults usually have faster hands than young children. A popular handicap: adults may only slap with their non-dominant hand.

When you cannot get everyone together

The online version on this site plays the same rules with bots in the empty seats, so you can practise the patterns between real games. You can also open a private table and send the link to friends, which is the closest thing to sitting around a table when you are not in the same room.