Rather learn by playing? The app has a guided tutorial that teaches every rule below by having you play it, one hand at a time. Most people pick the game up faster that way — this page is here for reference, and for settling arguments.
The idea
Six players are dealt thirteen cards each. Two teams are hiding in that circle, and you find out who's on yours by watching how people play. Your team wins the hand when someone on your team finishes first and nobody on your team finishes last. If only one of those is true, the hand is a wash and nobody scores.
Who's on your team
Teams are decided by the red tens. Whoever holds one is on the red team; everyone else is on the black team. Nobody announces it — you work it out from who helps whom, or you find out when a red ten hits the table.
Depending on how the tens fall, the split can be 3v3, 2v4, or 1v5. Being the lone red against five is the hardest and most valuable position in the game.
Card ranking
Low to high. Note that the 2 is the highest single card, not the lowest:
Suits don't rank against each other — only the red tens matter, and only for teams.
What you can play
The first player of a round chooses the shape; everyone after them must match it or pass. The last player to play wins the round and leads the next one.
| Single | One card. A higher single beats it. |
|---|---|
| Pair | Two cards of the same rank. A higher pair beats it. |
| Straight | Three or more consecutive ranks. Only a higher straight of the same length beats it. |
| Dragon | A straight of pairs — six cards or more, like 7-7 8-8 9-9. |
| Bomb | Three or more of a kind. Beats any normal play at any time; only a bigger bomb beats a bomb. |
Passing doesn't knock you out of the round — you can play again later in the same round if it comes back to you.
Bombs
Bombs are the reason nothing is ever safe. Three of a kind or better can be dropped on any normal play, whatever the shape, and it takes the round.
- Bigger bombs beat smaller bombs of the same size.
- There's a special ladder built from fours and aces — 44A, then 44AA, 44AAA and up — where each step beats every shorter member of the family.
- Two red tens is one of the strongest bombs in the game.
- Three red tens is the single most powerful play there is.
Cha and Go
This is the part that makes the game loud, and it only happens in single-card rounds.
When someone leads a single, anyone holding the pair of that rank can play it out of turn — that's a Cha, and it jumps the normal turn order. Someone holding the last card of that rank can then answer with it: that's a Go.
An eight is led. You Cha with a pair of eights. Someone else Goes with the last eight — and now they're in control of the round.
No bombs are allowed while a Cha-Go is running.
Doubling the stakes
Before the cards are played, everyone gets a chance to raise. A red-team player doubles by showing their red tens; anyone can quadruple by showing a bomb. It's a real decision — raising tells the table something about your hand, and being the player who doubled paints a target on you.
Scoring
Scoring is based on the cards the losing team is still holding when the hand ends, so it isn't just whether you won — it's by how much. Any double or quadruple set before the deal multiplies the result. Washes score nothing for anybody.
Different tables play it differently. Red 10 is a family game that's been passed around by word of mouth, so house rules vary — the minimum length of a dragon is the usual one. The app plays the rules above.
