Hospodský autobus – Czech stockpile game

Objective

Be the first to empty your personal ten-card stockpile, even if other cards remain in your hand.

Deal and setup

Two to four people play with two decks and four jokers. Everyone has a ten-card stockpile, four cards in hand and four reserve places.

How to play — step by step

1. Dáme Karty's club variant for 2–4 players uses two French-suited decks and four jokers, 108 cards in total. Each player has a personal reserve of 10 face-down cards, only the top card visible, and four cards in hand. The rest form the shared draw stock. This is not a universal tournament standard; the exact rules of this variant follow.
2. The first player to empty their reserve wins. Cards in hand or on auxiliary piles need not be used up. History scores are the negative number of reserve cards remaining; the winner scores zero.
3. Turns proceed clockwise, starting with the first seat. Your hand automatically refills to four at the start of each turn. If you play your last hand card onto a shared run during your turn, you automatically draw four new cards and continue the same turn. If fewer cards are available, you receive all available cards. You may make any number of legal moves.
4. Shared runs are not limited to four. Every ace or unassigned joker may start a new run: A–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–J–Q–K. A is 1, J is 11, Q is 12 and K is 13. Suits and who started the run do not matter. After the king, the whole run is cleared and the space is available again for an ace or joker. Do not play another ace on a king.
5. Play onto runs from your hand, the top of your reserve or the top of one of your own auxiliary piles. Covered cards and opponents' cards cannot be used. Playing from your reserve immediately reveals its next top card.
6. Each player has four auxiliary spaces numbered 1–4. A pile may contain only cards of the same rank, in any suits. Only hand cards may be discarded to auxiliary piles. The top reserve card may go only to a shared run, never to an auxiliary discard space.
7. End your turn by discarding one hand card onto an auxiliary pile of the same rank or an empty auxiliary space. You may discard even if you could still play. If your hand remains empty after automatic drawing because no cards are available, you may continue moving cards from your piles or press End turn.
8. If the selected hand card cannot go onto any auxiliary pile, place it under your own reserve by dragging it there or using Under the bus. This ends your turn. The top reserve card and the auxiliary piles stay unchanged.
9. A joker in a shared run takes the required rank, including ace or king. On an auxiliary pile it takes that pile's rank; when starting an empty pile, you choose the rank. It keeps that rank until it leaves the auxiliary pile. Jokers in shared runs cannot be exchanged or taken back.
10. When the draw stock runs out, completed runs are shuffled to provide new draw cards. If cards are still insufficient, refill only with the available number. After a full circuit without a move, if the stock is empty and no player has a legal move, the game is a draw.
11. Controls: drag your card with a mouse or finger to a legal target, or click the card and then a highlighted target. A shared run plays the card. An auxiliary pile accepts only a hand card and ends the turn. Possible moves only show legal transfers. Menus and rules pause opponents; the game is saved after every action.

Important rules to remember