• Created by Thomas Gale, © 2004 - 2010
• All copyrights belong to the attributed creators. All rights reserved.
• Please do not redistribute in any form without permission.
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STATS

• Number of Players: 4
• Duration: 10-30 min
• Atmosphere: wagering card game
• Theme: pants

COMPONENTS

• deck of 52 cards (remove jokers)
• 4 different coins: penny, nickel, quarter, dime (1 unique coin for each player)

INTRODUCTION

Neatly iron out those crinkles in your pair of nice, new black slacks. Wager on whether your pair is higher or lower than everyone else.

HOW TO WIN

Be the first to have no cards left in your hand.

PLAY SETUP

Shuffle and deal all 52 cards among the 4 players (13 apiece). You may look at your own hand but don't let others spy.

Each player gets a unique coin. Remember whose coins belongs to whom.

PLAY

Each phase is resolved simultaneously except the scoring phase. The order of phases is the only tricky part to remember. You may want to make a cheat sheet for everyone to see.

PHASE 1 - Play first card face down.

Everyone secretly chooses a card from their hand to play. Place it face down on the table.

PHASE 2- Play coin, high or low.

Everyone secretly chooses whether they are going to go high or low. Heads is high, tails is low. All players secretly orient a coin accordingly and hold their hand over it until everyone is ready to reveal.

PHASE 3 - Reveal coins and reveal everyone's first card.

All players reveal coins and flip over all 4 first cards.

PHASE 4 - Play second card face down.

Everyone secretly chooses a second card from their hand to play. Place it face down on the table.

PHASE 5 - Choose winners and losers.

Players slide coins where they think a trick-winner or trick-loser is (depending on which side up their coins face). This is done simultaneously. Players can change their mind up until everyone agrees they are finally ready.

PHASE 6 - Flip second cards.

Reveal everyone's second card.

PHASE 7 - Score!

The winner of the trick should call out the remaining results in a consistent clockwise fashion, with onlookers double-checking.

SCORING

• Determine trick-winners and trick-losers:

  • By phase 7 all players should have 2 face up cards before them.
  • The player with the highest valued pair is the trick-winner for that round.
  • The player with the lowest valued pair is the trick-loser for that round.
  • Values as ranked as follows from lowest to highest: A, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, J,Q,K, A
  • Jack, queen and King are worth 10 points.
  • Aces are worth 1 unless they are paired with a card of the same suit in which case they are worth 11 (no exceptions).
  • Ties are not broken. There may be multiple tied winners or losers in a round.

  Determine results of coin wagers:

  • Anyone who had matched their own face-up coin with a trick-winner discards the pair played.
  • Anyone who had matched their own face-down coin with a trick-loser discards one card of the pair and reclaims the remainder back into their hand (player's choice).
  • Anyone who had matched neither a trick-winner, nor a trick-loser must reclaim both cards back into their hand.

  ONE-CARD IN HAND LEFT RULE

  If a player has only one card left in hand, the card is played as first card (i.e. during phase 1). The card stands alone. Aces are worth 1 in this case (i.e. guaranteed trick-loser).

STRATEGY

As The winners is the first to get rid of all their cards:

Note that it doesn't really matter if the pair you played is a trick-winner or a trick-loser just so long as you bet correctly on a trick-winner or a trick-loser!

OPTIONAL

You could simplify by taking out the coins and the wagering phases. Trick-winners would be able to discard their pair, Trick losers would be able to discard one card from their pair. And any who were neither would have to take back both cards of the pair played.

NOTES AND DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

VERSION 1 (1.28.2004) -You know that game where you stick a card on your forehead and try and guess if your card is higher or lower than the others? Is it you? I wanted to make a complicated version of that game. Hopefully it's not so complicated that it's not any fun. I just realized this is also similar to RoundUp. I wanted to add more bluffing and something to even out a badly dealt hand. Give a little something back to the losers. What does the title mean? I don't know it's silly and and rhymes with Blackjack. Maybe there's some connotation about checking out other people pants and comparing them to your own pair of pants. Is my pair of black slacks crappier of fancier than his or hers? It's what's hidden under the slacks that I really need to know! Nice pair of black slacks! Even if her pair is better than yours you can be a winner by complimenting them.

VERSION 2. (1.01.2010) - Transferred to new format.

Please, please let me know if you actually played this game. Email: tomgale@)yahoo.com