Cambio card game rules

General rules of Cambio

• Cambio is played with 2 to 4 players.
• You use a standard deck of 52 cards plus jokers.
• The goal of the game is to score as few points as possible.

Dealing

• Each player is dealt 4 cards, which are placed face down in a 2×2 grid in front of them. You may look at the two cards closest to you and try to remember them. During the game, you may not look at your cards again unless you draw a special card, more on that later.
• The remaining cards are placed face down in the center to form the draw pile. After dealing, the setup looks like this:

Gameplay

• The player to the left of the dealer starts. As in most card games, play continues clockwise.
• On your turn, draw one card from the draw pile. Only you may look at it.
• You may swap the drawn card with one of your own face-down cards, but this is optional. The card you don’t want is placed face up on the discard pile.
• The top card of the discard pile is visible to everyone. If one of your face-down cards has the same value as the card just discarded, you may place your own matching card on the discard pile. This is called “sticking” your card. Doing so reduces your total number of cards (and therefore your points), which is a good thing! Only one player may stick a card per turn. The first player to react gets to do so. Remember: you can only stick a card when another player discards a card.

Special cards

In Cambio, certain cards have special actions.

When you draw a special card, you may immediately perform its action and then decide whether to swap it with one of your own cards.

• 7 or 8. Look at one of your own cards.
• 9 or 10. Look at one of another player’s cards.
• Jack or Queen. Swap one of your own cards with one of another player’s cards without looking (a “blind swap”).
• Black King. Look at one of another player’s cards and swap it with one of your own.

Scoring

Cards have the following point values:

• Red King: −1 point
• Joker: 0 points
• Ace: 1 point
• 2 till 10: face value (e.g. a 5 is worth 5 points)
• Black King: 10 points

End of the game

If you believe you have the lowest total score, you may call “Cambio!”. After that, all other players get one final turn. Then, everyone reveals their cards and adds up their points. The player with the fewest points wins the game.

Variants

There are many variations of Cambio with different scoring systems and special-card effects. The game itself is actually a variant of the card game Golf.