Kings in the Corner

Kings in the Corner is a traditional card game for two to four players, played with one deck of 52 cards and no jokers. Deckwren’s version is for Android phones: you play against one, two or three computer players, and it is on its way to Google Play.

The table

Each player gets seven cards. Four cards go face up beside the stock, one to each side: these are the side piles. The four corners start empty, and the rest of the deck is the stock.

Your turn

• Make as many moves as you like, in any order, then end your turn. You never have to play a card.
• A card goes on a pile when it is one rank lower than the pile’s last card and the other colour: a red 7 goes on a black 8. Aces are low, so nothing goes on an ace.
• Only a king can start a corner. An empty side takes any card from your hand.
• A whole side pile can move onto another pile when its first card fits that pile’s last card, and a side pile that starts with a king can move to an empty corner.
• When you end your turn, you draw one card from the stock.

Winning and the score

The moment your hand is empty, you win the hand. If the stock runs out and every player in a row ends a turn without moving a card, the hand stops and is scored: each king left in a hand costs 10 points and any other card 1, and the lowest score wins.

House rules in the app

Families play this game in many ways, so the app lets you switch on the common variations in Settings: drawing at the start of your turn instead of the end, playing every king to a corner at once, and playing several hands to 25 or 50 points.

What the app does for you

• A large-cards setting, and the main buttons on the left for a left thumb if you like.
• Computer players at more than one level, whose moves play out slowly, normally or fast; each sees only its own hand and the table.
• After a hand, every player’s starting cards, and the same deal again from the other seat if you want a rematch.
• The full rules on one screen, and your statistics kept on your phone.

Deckwren is not affiliated with or endorsed by Goliath, which sells a Kings in the Corner board game. A rule you think we got wrong? Tell us.