President (card game)


President is a westernized version of an originally Japanese card game named daifugō or daihinmin. It is a game for three or more, in which the players race to get rid of all of the cards in their hands in order to become "president" in the following round.
President can also be played as a drinking game, and a commercial version of the game exists under the name The Great Dalmuti, with a non-standard deck.

Special titles

There may be many titles used by players during the game. Often, players move seats to sit in the order of their place, so as not to forget the order. There is generally at least a president, vice-president and scum. However, this game is usually played with up to 6 players, and if so, more titles may be needed.
The rankings for four players are as follows:
There are other titles for games with larger numbers of player with various names.
Rules regarding card passing can be changed to accommodate these two positions if desired. A large or odd number of players generally calls for having at least one "Person" role, but there can be as many as needed.
The President deals the cards, starting with themselves and proceeding in order of player hierarchy from low to high until all cards are dealt. If the Scum is the dealer, this ensures that the President begins with the fewest cards if the hands are uneven.

How to play

The rules provided are merely one of many ways known to play the game; there are many different varieties with slight twists to the rules.

Dealing

The person who is president shuffles and deals the cards. All the cards are dealt as evenly as possible in clockwise rotation.
After cards are dealt, the scum must hand over the best card in their hand to the president, and the president passes back any card they do not want.
Variations with multiple top and two bottom positions often require the scum to hand additional cards to the president, up to the number of top positions in the game. In any event, the players who receive cards from the bottom positions always hand back an equal number of "junk" cards that they do not want. They are not obliged to pass back their lowest cards.

Playing

Play in president is organized into tricks, much like in spades or bridge. However, unlike those games, each trick can involve more than one card played by each player, and players do not have to play a card in a trick. Suits are irrelevant in the game of president.
The player on the dealer's left begins by leading any number of cards of the same rank. The player on the left may then play an equal number of matching cards with a higher face value, or may pass. Note that the same number of cards as the lead must be played. If the leader starts with a pair, only pairs may be played on top of it. If three-of-a-kind is led, only three-of-a-kinds can be played on top of it. The next player may do the same, and so on.
This continues until all players have had a turn.

End of a round

When one player runs out of cards, they are out of play for the rest of the round, but the other players can continue to play to figure out the titles. A few versions hold that once a player goes out, players count remaining card values to establish titles, or simply count the number of cards remaining in each player's hand, and other versions have one player left with cards at the end.
When playing by traditional rules, once titles are decided, everyone needs to get up and move. The President is the dealer, and the players must rearrange themselves around them so that they are seated in order of rank, clockwise. Most American variants do not rearrange the seating of the players, so everyone plays in the same order each hand.
After the first round has determined player rank, subsequent hands are opened by the president.

President's choice and trading

In some variations of the game, after the president has dealt and everyone has received their decks, the players are able to trade cards with one another. In a group of four, the president gives two cards of their choice to scum, and the vice-president gives one card of their choosing to vice-scum, who responds with their very best card. In some variants, the president may choose to allow a black market, in which any player can trade with any other player. When this happens, the President usually has a poor hand and needs better cards. The president may also allow table talk, which is when two given players let each other see each other's hands.
If there are no image cards on the hands of the there will be a new 'dealing'

Variations

A variant of President exists in which some rules from the game Big two are combined with those of traditional president. See Big two#Big two president variation.
There also exists a variation where the trades between higher players and lower players are reversed. The president trades their two best cards to the scum, and the scum gives their two worst cards to the president, and the same goes with the vice president and scum. This variation is comedically known as "Communism" or "Socialism."
Some play that the holder of the lowest card of a particular suit leads the first deal.
Certain variants allow for game-changing revolutions. If a player leads out with four of a kind, the hierarchy of all the cards will be reversed. For example, if is the typical order of power, after four of a kind is played it would be the reverse of that:. If another four of a kind is played, the order would switch back. Revolutions are typically utilized in the game to create better balance and avoid having the same player remain in first position forever.

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