Shithead Rules

Objective

The goal is to get rid of all your cards. You play through three phases: cards in your hand, then visible face-up cards, then blind face-down cards. Once only one player still has cards, that player is the Shithead.

Card setup

Each player receives three face-down cards, three face-up cards and three cards in hand. The remaining cards form the draw pile. In larger lobbies, the app can use two decks so there are enough cards for everyone.

The starting player is chosen from the lowest eligible hand card. Special cards 2 and 3 are excluded from start selection, so the app looks for the lowest normal hand card.

Hand, face-up and face-down cards

You must play from your hand while you still have hand cards. After playing from hand, you draw back up to three cards while the draw pile has cards left.

When your hand is empty, you play your face-up cards. When those are gone, you flip face-down cards blindly. If a face-down card is illegal, it and the pile go into your hand.

Valid plays

You can play one card or multiple cards of the same rank. Normal cards must be equal to or higher than the effective top card, unless the 7 rule is active.

If you cannot make a legal play from hand or face-up cards, you pick up the pile. Picking up clears the pile and passes the turn.

Special cards in this app

• 2 reset: always playable and resets the pile.
• 3 invisible: always playable and transparent. The next play looks through it to the previous non-3 card.
• 7 lower rule: after a 7, the next normal card must be lower than or equal to the effective top card.
• 8 skip: not used in Classic Shithead Online. 8 is a normal rank unless a special mode changes the match.
• 10 burn: always playable and burns the pile immediately.
• Four-of-a-kind burn: if the top four cards have the same rank, the pile burns.

Burning the pile

A burned pile is removed from play. If you burn the pile and still have cards, you get another turn. The app resets the 7 lower rule after a burn.

Winning and aliases

Players finish when they have no hand, face-up or face-down cards left. The final player left with cards becomes the Shithead.

The game belongs to the same family as Palace, Karma, Shed and Zweedspesten. Drinking-game versions exist as informal adult house rules, but Shithead Online is built as a general multiplayer card game.

Questions and answers