The war card game rules

How to play the card game war

War is an accumulating card game for two players, using a 52-card deck; in this game Aces can be high or low.

Each player is dealt half the deck, and both players play simultaneously. Each player presents one card, and whoever has the higher card takes both cards shown and places them at the bottom of his deck. In case of a tie, both players play three face-down cards and one face-up card, chanting “I DE-CLARE WAR!” and these face-up cards decide who will receive all the cards. If there is another tie, the process is repeated, etc.
 

In all cases of ties, face-down cards are exposed before being collected. In some variations, smaller numbers of face-down cards are played. In one bloodthirsty variation, the number of face-down cards equals the pip value of the cards, with face cards being ten and ace eleven.

Whoever has no card to play when they are required to play one is the loser.

A simple game, but there is a strategy to it, if a player has an excellent memory they can improve upon his or her chances by remembering the placement of the cards. However, over the long-term, as the deck sizes change (as both players collect cards) and as more and more cards are revealed, it becomes extremely difficult—indeed, nearly impossible—to implement this strategy. Only a player with an extremely good memory and the ability to visualize extremely quickly card positions in both decks will be able to consistently implement this strategy over the course of a game.

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