President (Asshole) Rules

President is built around a status system most card games don't bother with: after every hand, players don't just win or lose — they're ranked, reseated, and forced into an unequal trade before the next hand even starts. The card play itself is simple shedding; the social hierarchy layered on top of it is what makes the game distinctive.

Setup and Ranking

Deal the entire 52-card deck out evenly among 4 to 7 players (a few players may end up with one extra card; that's normal). Cards rank 2 (highest) down through 3 (lowest) — an intentionally inverted order from almost every other card game, where 2 is usually among the weakest cards. On the very first hand of a session, whoever holds the 3 of clubs (or simply the lowest card dealt, in some house rules) leads first; every hand after that, the previous round's President leads instead.

Playing a Hand

The lead player plays any single card, or any matching set (a pair, three, or four of a kind) of their choice. Each player after them, in turn, must either pass or play a matching group of equal or greater size, using cards that all rank higher than whatever's currently on top. If everyone else passes in a row, the pile clears and whoever played last leads a completely fresh pile with any card or group they like — the rank resets entirely, not the "playing a legal beat" restriction.

The Special Cards

Depending on house rules, certain cards carry effects beyond their rank: playing all four of a kind at once (or sometimes just a single 2) clears the pile immediately regardless of what's on top, giving the player another fresh lead; some tables also play a "7 rule" where a 7 forces the next player to play something lower rather than higher. None of these special-card rules are universal — agreeing which ones are in play before dealing is essential, since President's exact rule set varies more by table than almost any other game on this site.

Finishing Order and Roles

Players who empty their hand are ranked in the order they finish: first out becomes President, second Vice President, and so on down to whoever's left holding cards last, who becomes Scum (sometimes called Asshole, Bum, or several other names depending on the table). These titles aren't just bragging rights — they set up the next hand entirely.

The Card Exchange

Before the next hand is dealt, Scum must hand over their two best cards to the President, who in return gives back any two cards they don't want; Vice President and second-to-last swap one card the same way. This exchange is mandatory and one-sided by rank — Scum has no say in which two cards they're forced to surrender, which is deliberately punishing and is the mechanism that gives the game its social-status identity: winning one hand makes the next hand meaningfully easier to win too, unless the new Scum can claw their way back up.

Where President Came From

President's closest documented ancestors are Chinese shedding games, most notably Zheng Shangyou ("fight the landlord" in spirit if not name), which reached the West gradually starting in the 1970s and took hold broadly through the 1980s under a wide range of regional names. No single Western inventor or date is attached to President specifically — it spread as a folk game through military bases, college dorms, and workplaces, which is a large part of why its exact special-card rules never standardized the way a commercially published game's would have.

Basic Strategy

Getting rid of pairs and higher groups early is usually correct, since a lone high card (especially a 2) is often more valuable held back as a way to force a pile reset later in the hand than played immediately. Watching what rank other players pass on tells you real information about their hand even though President has no bidding phase to signal intentions directly — a pass at a low rank often means a player is holding nothing but high cards they're saving.

The Arguments This Game Actually Produces

The most common dispute is exactly which special-card rules (four-of-a-kind clears, the 2-clears rule, the 7-reverses rule) are actually in play at a given table, since none of them are universal. A second common argument is whether the card exchange is truly one-sided or whether Scum gets any say at all (standard rules: none — the exchange is mandatory and non-negotiable). A printable rank-tracking score sheet helps a table playing multiple hands in a row keep track of who held which title last, since the seating and exchange order reset every single deal.

Questions People Still Ask Mid-Game

Can you play a single card on top of a pair, or does the group size have to match exactly? Group size must match exactly — a single card can only be beaten by another single card, a pair only by another pair, and so on.

Does the pile reset if only one player is left who hasn't passed? No — the pile only resets once every OTHER player still in the hand has passed in a row; the game continues normally as long as at least one player besides the last one to play has a turn coming.

What happens if a player runs out of cards mid-pile, before it's cleared? They're simply finished for that hand and take whatever finishing position comes next in order — the pile continues normally among the remaining players until only Scum is left.