You already know this game. You just don't agree on its name.
Someone taught it to you in a hostel kitchen, on a night train, or at a campsite in Sweden, where it probably started. Play a card equal or higher, or pick up the pile. Last one holding cards loses. It's here now, free, with private rooms and your own house rules.
The iPhone app is coming soon. Android first.
- Free, no ads
- Six minutes a round
- Bots when nobody's around
Three down. Three up.
You know the rest.
The whole game, in four rules
If you can read these, you can play tonight.
- 1
Play a card equal to or higher than the top of the pile.
- 2
Can't play? You pick up the whole pile. This is the bad thing.
- 3
Three cards break the rules. A 7 means the next card must be equal or lower. A 2 resets the pile. A 10 burns everything.
- 4
Get rid of every card. The last person holding is the Shh Head.
Probably Swedish. Definitely everyone's.
It began as Vändtia ("turn ten") and travelled the world in backpackers' pockets. When David Parlett first wrote it down in 1994, even he wouldn't print the real name. He called it Shed. Thirty years later, so do we. Sort of.
Why nobody ever plays just one round
It's been going around the planet since the eighties, passed from table to table by people who couldn't agree what to call it. Here's why it never stops.
There's no winner. Only a loser.
You don't play to come first. You play to not be last. That flips the whole table: the pressure lands on whoever's behind, and the rest of you get to watch.
The last three cards are blind.
Face-down, unseen since the deal. When your hand is empty you flip one and pray. Nothing in card games feels quite like turning a 3 over a king.
Five minutes to learn. Years to stop arguing about.
Every table has its own house rules. Does a 7 go low? Does four of a kind burn? Every player is sure theirs are right. That argument is half the fun. We let you set them yourself.
It only needs the people you're with.
No board, no scoring, no setup. A deck and two to five people. It's the game you learned from a stranger and taught to a friend, which is exactly how it got everywhere.
Someone taught you this game. Now deal it to someone else.
Play your first round tonight.
Free on Android, with iPhone coming soon. No ads, no energy timers.
The iPhone app is coming soon. Android first.