Gameplay, Scoring, and Strategies
Instructions on how to play, how the scoring goes, and strategies that should help you.
I will probably add screenshots to this section later on.
General Gameplay
NOTE: It may be helpful to start the game right about now, so it's easier to follow along.
Once you deal, you'll get a randomized board - 28 cards "in play", 23 cards in the deck, and 1 card in the discard pile. "In play" refers to any card that's not in the deck or the discard pile. The cards in the deck are face-down, along with all but the bottom row of the cards in play. The bottom row of cards and the discard pile are all face-up.
To move cards to the discard pile, they need to be "adjacent" in value to the current card in the discard pile. So, if you have an Ace in the discard pile, you can remove a King or a Two. Note that the Ace and King are considered to be adjacent. Also, the suit doesn't matter in this game. It's just there to have 52 cards altogether.
If there is no card that can be removed, a card can be taken from the deck and put into the discard pile. When a card has no cards covering it, it's flipped.
Scoring
Money is the scoring system for the game. Don't get excited; it's not real. I'm not going to write you checks for however much you win in this game. I will use the words dollars, points, and money interchangeably in this section.
When you remove a card, you get some money. The more cards you remove, the more money you get. In the game, there are "streaks", or the number of cards you remove in a row without taking a card from the deck. For every card you remove, you get that streak amount. An example: you get $1 for the first card you remove, $2 for the second, $3 for the third, and so on.
Your streak ends when you take a card from the deck. First, you'll start over with $1 for the next card you remove. Second, you'll be penalized $5 for taking the card from the deck. You can redeal before you remove all the cards or run out of cards in the deck. However, that results in a penalty of $5 for every card you haven't removed. Again, if you run out of cards in the deck, there is no penalty for redealing.
Strategies
Obviously try to go for the longest streak. Try to work the streak out in your head, especially if you have a couple of options. However, this section will focus on when you have a "choice" between two cards. A choice is when two (or more) cards will give you the same streak.
When you have a choice, always go with the card(s) that will open up more cards. This gives you more opportunity to make the streak longer. Even if it doesn't, it'll still give you more cards to make a streak with. So, if you have a choice between a card that opens up another card and a peak, don't go with the peak. Unless you only have a few cards in your deck, and don't have a big chance of clearing the board.
Also, if you have a lot of cards in your deck and just one peak to go, you may want to consider redealing right away. This only costs you $5, but you can lose a lot more if you keep taking cards from the deck and never clear the board. In addition, getting that peak will get you $30, so taking more than 6 cards from the deck is nonsense. You'll get negative profit by clearing the board.
I may add more strategies later. Or, if you have a great tip for the game, email me.