Chase the Tailor Game
Chase the Tailor
A game by Bela Blake
A fast, loud card game. Match, dump your hand, and make sure you’re not the one left holding the Tailor.
Players: 2 to 6, best with three or more.
The deck: 55 cards — 52 playing cards, 2 Jokers and 1 Tailor.
Setup
- Shuffle the whole deck and deal seven cards to each player.
- Put the rest face down in the middle. That’s the deck.
- Turn over the top card and lay it beside the deck. That starts the pile.
- The most stylish person at the table goes first. Play moves clockwise.
Your turn
Play one card onto the pile. It has to follow the card showing, by any one of three routes:
- Same suit. Any heart onto a heart.
- Same rank. Any seven onto a seven.
- Next door. One above or one below, any suit — a 6 or an 8 onto a 7. The run goes A, 2…10, J, Q, K and back round to the Ace, so the Ace sits next to the 2 and the King both.
Dumping several at once. Holding more than one card of the same rank? Lay them all down together. The first card has to be a legal play; the rest only have to match it.
Nothing to play? Draw one card from the deck. If it works, put it straight down. If it doesn’t, your turn is over.
The Tailor
One card, three powers:
- Play it whenever you like, on top of anything.
- You call it. Name any suit and any number — that’s what the next player has to follow.
- You pick the victim. Any player at the table picks up three.
Still holding it when the round ends? That’s 25 against you.
Jokers
Play a Joker on any card and pick one:
- Skip the next player entirely.
- Reverse the direction of play.
Say which one you’re using as you put it down.
When the deck runs out
Leave the top card of the pile exactly where it is. Shuffle everything underneath it and put it back down as a fresh deck. Carry on.
Ending the round
The round ends the moment somebody plays their last card. Everyone else adds up what’s still in their hand:
| Number cards | Face value |
| Ace | 1 |
| Jack, Queen, King | 10 |
| Joker | 15 |
| The Tailor | 25 |
Play as many rounds as you like — five makes a good evening. Lowest total wins.
Chase Mode — optional
For a rowdier table. When the Tailor is played it stays active. From then on every player draws one extra card on their turn, on top of anything else they have to pick up, until somebody plays another special card and breaks the chase.
One tip
Don’t sit on the Tailor. It always comes back to bite.
Got a game of your own? Send us the rules and we’ll put it up here with your name on it.