Looking for an easy-to-learn card game to play with your child? Beggar My Neighbour is fun and quick to learn. Here’s how to play Beggar My Neighbour:

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We learned how to play Beggar My Neighbour and it quickly became a favourite. It is only a two player game so not really a family card game, but it’s really quick to learn and your child will enjoy it too.

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How to Play Beggar My Neighbour

Number of Players: 2

Cards needed: Standard 52 card deck

Goal: To win all of the cards

Shuffle the cards and deal them all out to the 2 players.  Players keep their cards in front of them cards down.  The player to the left of the dealer starts the game by turning up his card and playing it into the middle.

If the card has a rank of 2 to 10, play passes to the next player.  When a face card or an Ace (court cards) is turned up, the next player has to pay a number of cards:

• Jack – the next player has to turn over 1 card
• Queen – the next player has to turn over 2 cards one at a time
• King – the next player has to turn over 3 cards one at a time
• Ace – the next player has to turn over 4 cards one at a time.

If all the cards being “paid” are between 2 and 10, the player who played the court card gets to keep them.  However, if one of the cards being paid is a court card, the player paying stops immediately and the next player has to pay.

This continues until one player wins the pile in the middle, that player puts his winning cards at the bottom of his pile face down.

If you run out of cards, you are out and the first player to get all of the cards is the winner.  (NB it can take a while so you can agree that the players with the most cards at the end of a pre-agreed time is the winner)

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Have your say! Have you played Beggar My Neighbour? Tell us what you think in the comments below.