Printable Kings in the Corner rules

Kings in the Corner in one page

2–4 players · 1 deck

Deal 7 cards to each player and lay four cards face up in a cross around the stock pile, leaving the corners empty. On your turn, draw a card, then play as many cards as you can by building down in alternating colors, putting kings in the corners, and moving whole piles. The first player to get rid of all their cards wins.

In brief

• Deal 7 each; 4 cards face up in a cross around the stock
• Corners start empty: kings only
• Draw 1 card at the start of your turn
• Build down, alternating colors (red 9 on black 10)
• Move a whole pile if its bottom card fits another pile's top
• Fill empty side spaces with any card
• Play as many cards as you can, then pass left
• First to empty their hand wins the deal
• Penalty: king 10, other cards 1
• Play to 25 or 50; lowest score wins

Setup

1. Shuffle a standard 52-card deck. Deal 7 cards face down to each player.
2. Put the rest of the deck face down in the center of the table as the stock.
3. Turn four cards from the stock face up and place one on each side of it (north, east, south, and west) to make a cross. These are the foundation piles.
4. Leave the four diagonal corners of the cross empty. Only kings can start a pile in a corner.
5. Aces are low. Card order from high to low is K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A.

On your turn

1. The player to the dealer's left goes first. Start your turn by drawing one card from the stock.
2. Play a card onto any pile if it is one rank lower and the opposite color of that pile's top card, such as a red 9 on a black 10.
3. Put any king into an empty corner space to start a new corner pile, then build down on it the same way.
4. Move a whole pile onto another pile if the bottom card of the pile you're moving is one rank lower and the opposite color of the other pile's top card. This frees up a foundation space.
5. Fill any empty foundation space (on the sides of the cross) with any card from your hand. Keep playing as long as you have legal moves, then play passes left.

Scoring

Winning

In a single deal, the first player to empty their hand wins. With penalty scoring, keep playing deals until a player reaches the agreed target, typically 25 or 50 points, and then the player with the lowest total wins. If two players tie for lowest, most groups play one more deal to break the tie.