OBJECTIVE OF ELEVENS: The objective of this game is to use all of the cards in the deck to create pairs that add up to 11 in total.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 or 2 Players
NUMBER OF CARDS: A standard 52-card deck.
RANK OF CARDS: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, All royals are removed together as a trio to create their “pair”.
TYPE OF GAME: Puzzle
AUDIENCE: Solo players, family, friends
HOW TO PLAY ELEVENS
The Deal
Shuffle your playing cards and deal three rows of three cards each. All 9 of these cards should be facing upwards so that they are visible. The remaining cards become the Deck for the duration of the game.
The Board
Elevens is extremely similar to Bowling Solitaire, except that the layout is a little different and the goal is to make matching pairs that add up to 11 rather than adding matching pairs up to 10.
Empty spaces in the 9-card formation are automatically filled by placing a card from the Deck in the free space. Once you run out of cards in the Deck, do not fill the empty spaces in the card formation with any other cards.
To play this game, look at your 9-card formation and see if any cards can be matched that add up to 11 in total. If you have a matching pair that can create this sum, then you may remove them from place. Once you’ve done so, remember to fill in the gaps left by these two cards with two cards from the Deck.
Only cards in the 9-card formation are available to play with, and you may not build any cards on top of each other during the game. Cards cannot be removed from the Deck unless they are being placed in the table layout, and you should not look at the cards in the Deck before moving them into play. They must remain unknown until they are flipped over to be placed in the 9-card formation.
The ranking of cards matches their face value i.e. the two of clubs is equal to two. Aces hold a value of one and Jacks, Queens, and Kings equal eleven only when they are removed together. For example, if you have a Jack and King on your board you can’t remove either until a Queen appears. Once all three cards are present on the board they can be removed together to make “11”. They are the only cards in the game that are moved as a trio, rather than being matched as a pair.
HOW TO WIN:
To win at a round of Elevens, you must remove absolutely all cards from play – including those from the Deck. Once you have matched all cards in the Deck, then you have won the round.
It is possible to play this game with more than one player. To do so, you could create a scoring system by having each player keep their matched pairs and making each set worth 1 point. The player with the highest number of points would win the game. Typically, this is a solo player game, but it’s extremely easy to make into a family-friendly or party game.
SIMILAR GAMES
There are a few games that are quite similar to Elevens.
Suit Elevens – is a solitaire game variation of this game where you can only match a pair of cards that are the same suit.
Tens – allows you to remove cards from play that add up to 10. It’s similar to Bowling Solitaire and Simple Pairs.
Fourteen Out – is a game where you match pairs of cards which add up to 14.
Check out our full list of the best single player card games for more!
OTHER NAMES
This game is also known as “Block Eleven” and “Number Eleven”.
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