The card game King’s Market is an easy to learn game that kids will love, especially when they get to play with poker chips. The game Pay or Play has a similar feel but with more complicated rules. Boodle also has a similar feel.
Let’s get to how to play King’s Market.
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What You Need For King’s Market.
You will need a deck of cards with the jokers removed and poker chips, bingo markers or other tokens. You can use holiday candy to make it more festive. (Check out our Big List of Games to play with candy here.) This game is great for 2 to 8 players.
How to Play King’s Market
To start, pull out all of the king from the deck and place them face up on the table. Next, each player will get the same amount of chips. 10 chips each is a good amount.
Before the cards are dealt, players decide which king is the market that’s open. Now, each player will place a chip on that king. They will also place one chip in the middle of the playing area.
Now, the dealer will deal out all of the cards, creating one extra hand.
Once the cards are dealt, the dealer can look at her hand and decide if she wants to keep her hand or exchange it for the extra hand. If she chooses to change hands, then she discards her hand and picks up the new one. The play would then start.
On the other hand, if she chooses to keep her hand, then the player to her left can choose to pick up the extra hand. If he wants to exchange hands, then he must pay the dealer one chip as payment. If he doesn’t want to exchange his hand, then the next player may do so. That player would have to pay the dealer one chip. When a player exchanges her hand for the extra one, then all other players have to play with the hand that they were dealt.
The player with the Ace of spades goes first. If the ace is not in play, then the player with the lowest spade starts the round.
The player with the next card in order plays. So if the ace of spades is played, then the player holding the 2 of spades plays that card. This continues until no one can play on that pile.
When no one can play, the cards are moved to the side and the player who last put down a card can now start a new pile. She must play the lowest card is has of a red suit.
Play then continues as it did before. When no one can play on that pile, the last player to place a card on it must start the new pile with his lowest black card.
When a player plays the queen of the same suit as the king with the chip, that player collects the chips and adds it to her stock pile.
When a player is the first to shed all of his cards, he collects the chips it the middle and play stops.
If there are still chips on the king when the round ends, the chips stay on the king for the next round.
Round Two
Players now choose a new king to place their chips on. If there are still chips on a king from the round before, players can chose to either leave them as the king or add a second king to have chips. In this case, a player would collect the chips off the king that they have the matching queen for.
Players will put a chip in the middle of the playing area at the start of each round.
The position of dealer rotates to the left of the first dealer and the game continues as before.
When a player who is to lead a trick no longer has any cards of one colour, she can then play the lowest card she has. For example, if she is suppose to play a red card but no long has a red, then she can play her lowest black card.
Winning King’s Market
Player can either play until someone ends up with all the chips, or they can play to a certain amount of rounds. Each player should have the same amount of turns to be the deal. After the set amount of rounds, the player with the most chips is the winner.
Variations
There are two variations that we have found. The first on is that the deal will cut the deck to determine which of the kings is that one to get chips. The second one is that the king is chosen from right to left in the line.
The Market of Fun Is Open
Kids will love King’s Market. It has the feel of a grown up game with easy to play rules. This is sure to be the nee favorite game.
Looking for more kid favorite games? Check out the card games Knuckles, Finder Keepers and Giveaway. Visit our Family Game Shelf Shop for lots more fun that your kids will love, including our dice mini-golf game Whacky Putt. And if you need some new playing cards, shop here for some fun ones. Canadians can shop cards here.
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