CALIFORNIA SPEED

OBJECTIVE OF CALIFORNIA SPEED: The objective of California Speed is to empty your hand first.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 Players

MATERIALS: One 52-card deck, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Shedding Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult

OVERVIEW OF CALIFORNIA SPEED

California Speed is a Shedding card game for two people. Similar in some ways to war, players will each have a pile of cards that they will play from without viewing cards prior. These cards will then be matched and covered. The player to empty their hand first wins.

SETUP

A 52-card deck is shuffled, and each player will receive half the deck, or 26 cards exactly. Players will receive their cards facedown and will take them into their hands as a pile and keep them facedown. This prevents their opponent and themselves from viewing any of the cards. 

Card Rankings and Values

In California Speed, ranking and suits do not matter. The only thing players will look for is matching sets. So, if the cards they are viewing have the same value. For example, 2 Aces have the same value regardless of suit. 3 Queens will also have the same value and are valid targets.

GAMEPLAY

Once both players have their piles in hand the game can begin. Simultaneously both players will flip the top card of their pile face up onto the table in front of them. This will be done four times so that each player has a line of 4 cards in front of them. Once the last card for each player is placed, players can start to search for matching sets. A match consists of two to 4 cards of the same value, for example, three 4s or two Aces. 

When a player spots a match, they will deal cards from their piles faceup to cover all the matching cards. If both players spot at the same time they will be racing to cover the cards faster, both players may end up covering cards in the match but cannot cover the same card together. If the new cards create more matches players will continue to cover up cards with cards from their hands. This continues until there are no more valid matches to cover. 

Each player will now collect all the cards stacked on the four piles in front of them and add them to the bottom of their pile. Once cards are situated back in the pile, players will again start to deal out 4 cards face up in front of themselves together and will repeat the gameplay as above. 

This continues until a player plays out the final card from their pile onto a match to the faceup cards in front of either player. the full match does not need to be covered just as longa s one of the valid cards of a match is. 

END OF GAME

The game ends when a player empties their hand. They are the winner of the game. multiple games can be played in secession and kept score so that a winner can be found through a series of games.  

Nakoa Davis
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