99 (Ninety-Nine)
Also known as: Ninety-Nine, Get Out of 99
Overview
99 is a quick arithmetic card game. Everyone shares one running total that starts
at 0. On your turn you play a single card, add its value to the total, and
say the new total out loud. Push the total over 99 and you lose a life.
Lose all your lives and you are out. The last player still holding a life wins.
Setup
•
Players: 3-8 (3 recommended)
•
Deck: Standard 52-card deck
•
Lives: Each player starts with 3 lives
•
Running total: starts at 0
Deal four cards to each player. The rest of the deck becomes the stock.
Player 1 goes first, and play proceeds clockwise. The first player moves one
seat clockwise in each game after that, so Player 2 opens the second game.
Card Values
Every card changes the running total when you play it:
sets the total to exactly 99
+0, and reverses the play direction
The total can never fall below 0 — a -10 that would take it negative just
sets it to 0 instead.
How to Play
On your turn:
1.
Play one card from your hand face up onto the play pile, applying its
effect to the running total. If the card is an Ace or a 10, choose which
value you want before you play it.
2.
If the total goes over 99, you bust. You lose one life, the total resets
to 0, and your turn ends.
3.
Draw one card from the stock so your hand is back to four cards. If the
stock is empty, the played cards (except the one on top) are shuffled back
into it.
Play then passes to the next player in the current direction.
The Nine
A 9 sets the total to exactly 99 no matter what it was before. It never busts
you — but it hands the next player a total of 99, where almost anything is
fatal. Playing a 9 at a total of 12 is perfectly legal, and brutal.
The King
A King adds nothing and reverses the direction of play. Playing one at a total
of 95 is completely safe, and it sends the 99 back the way it came.
Elimination
Each bust costs one life. When a player runs out of lives they are eliminated
and skipped for the rest of the match; the running total keeps going. The last
player with any lives remaining wins.
Strategy Tips
•
Hoard your escapes. Kings and 10s are your outs when the total is high.
Spending a King early at a total of 20 wastes your best defence.
•
Aces are flexible. An Ace is +1 when you need to survive and +11 when you
want to push the total into the danger zone for someone else.
•
The 9 is a weapon, not a shield. It saves you this turn and threatens
everyone after you — especially the player immediately to your left.
•
Count the room. Above 88, a Jack or a Queen busts you. Above 91, so does
a face-value 8. Know your outs before it is your turn.
•
Reverse to punish. A King at a high total sends the pressure back to the
player who just squeezed you.