Egyptian Ratscrew

Egyptian Ratscrew, or ERS, is a fairly violent card game played all over the world. Its popularity was well established at CTY by 1985, when Egyptian Ratscrew and Spit were the two dominant card games played by students. Historically, Egyptian Ratscrew was one of the games that most students learned at CTY, rather than at home; this leads to the supposition that Egyptian Ratscrew was popular at CTY before in the outside world.

The nickname ERS is a common misconception, but is solid enough to stand. The actual name of the game is Egyptian Rat's Crew, commonly slurred together into Egyptian Ratscrew. Thus the abbreviation SHOULD be ERC, but ERS is used by all.

Common Rules

-Dealing of Cards

• After a full shuffle, the cards are dealt out to all players in as close to equal measure as possible.
• The entire deck is tolled out to the players.
• ERS can be played by anywhere from 2 to 6 players, with more players making the game more interesting, but a two player duel can be just as exciting.

-Gameplay

• The players, without looking at their cards, play their cards face up in the center of the circle of players in a clockwise or counter-clockwise pattern (it does not matter which).
• What occurs from there depends on what cards are played and the sequence that they are played in:
  • Numeric Cards(two through ten): The next player plays a single card (really, nothing happens)
  • Face Cards (Jack, Queen, King, Ace): The next player plays a number of cards based on the type of Face Card put down. If the player puts another Face Card down, then the process moves to the next player. If the player fails to pull out a Face Card in the specified amount of cards, then the previous player picks up all the cards in the pile.
    • Number for each face Card: Jack-1, Queen-2, King-3, Ace-4.
• Slaps: If, in the rotation or in the Face Card put-downs, a pair of cards of the same number or face come up right after the other or in a card- other card- first card sequence (called a sandwitch) then all players are allowed to slap into the center of the circle on top of the cards. The first player to get their hand on the cards gets the whole pile of cards.
  • If a player slaps when there is not a pair or sandwitch they need to "burn" a card by putting it on the bottom of the pile. This card cannot be used in a sandwitch, even if it is applicable.
• The goal of this game is to get all of the cards through slapping and gaining piles of cards.

-Strategy

There are many ways to help your deck of cards grow:

• Quick Slaps can quickly help a player gain cards.
• Memorizing pairs can allow for very quick slaps.
• If you have very few cards it is possible to memorize your whole deck and have a definite leg up on the competition.
• If you are not very good at slapping playing your cards very quickly in order to possibly cancel out slaps by already playing the next card before anyone can slap.

External Links

• ERS Rules
• Wikipedia article on ERS