🃏 Joker Golf · Rules

Card Values

Lower is always better. Jokers & Kings are especially valuable.

Game Modes

Tournament Edition: Challenging - Solo

Casual Edition: Relaxed - Solo

Pass The Device: Play with Friends

Online Multiplayer: Use Independent Devices

Goal

Score as low as possible over 9 hands. The player with the lowest total at the end wins.

The Match

• Play 9 hands (like 9 holes of golf).
• Who goes first rotates each hand.
• Add each hand’s score to a running total.
• After 9 hands, the lowest total wins.

Dealing

• Use a standard 52-card deck plus 2 Jokers.
• Use 2 decks if you have more than 2 players.
• Each player is dealt 9 cards face-down in a 3×3 grid.
• Each player turns the first 3 cards received face-up.
• The 3 face-up cards are place in a row/column/diagonal, like tic-tac-toe.
• 1 card is flipped face-up to start a discard pile. The rest are the draw pile.

Your Turn

On your turn:

1. Take the top Discard or Draw.
   • Either keep the draw and replace one of your cards, or discard it.
   • If you keep the draw and trade a card, the old card goes into the discard pile.
   • If you discard the draw, then flip a card face-up to see what you got instead.

Ending a Hand

• When a player has all 9 cards face-up, they end the hand.
• Every other player gets one more turn.
• Then all remaining face-down cards are revealed and scores are tallied.

Scoring a Hand

Add up the values of your 9 cards, with one important exception:

Three of a kind in a line scores zero for the entire row.

Tips

• Prefer Jokers, Kings, low cards (A–4), or 3 of a kind.
• If you can't get a row of zero, go for a row of low.
• Building mutiple matching lines of three of a kinds is the best way to chop your points.
• Watch the discard pile for a card that matches what you already have showing.
• Kings and Jokers can kill your row, costing even more moves to recover.
• Sometimes discarding a bad draw and flipping is better than keeping a high card.
• Sometimes keeping a high card is better than going out and killing the game.
• Choose to discard wisely, because sometimes a card you receive comes in threes or more.
• Going out early applies pressure, but eye your score before you decide to kill it.