Kings in the Corner
Kings in the Corner, also known as Kings Corners, is a simple game for two to six players. Kings in the Corner plays a lot like a multiplayer competitive solitaire game. As in Klondike, players build piles of cards descending in rank and alternating colors. Unlike in Klondike, however, kings have their own reserved spots on the layout, and vacant spots can be filled by any card a player desires.
Object of Kings in the Corner
The object of Kings in the Corner is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards. This is done by playing them to the four (eventually eight) piles in the middle of the table.
Setup
Kings in the Corner uses a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. If you’re looking for a particularly kingly deck of cards, why not give Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards a try?
Shuffle and deal seven cards to each player. Place the deck stub in the center of the table, forming the stock. Draw four cards and place one, face up, on each side of the stock (above, below, to the left, and to the right of it). These four cards form the tableau. (See the image at right for an example layout.)
Game play
Game play begins with the player to the dealer’s left. If this player has any cards which are one rank lower than and of the opposite color of any of the four cards in the tableau, they may their card on top of the card in the tableau. When placing a card, it should overlap the other card slightly, leaving enough of the first card exposed that the index can be easily read. Aces are considered low, and nothing can be placed atop them.
When a player holds a king, they may place it in any one of the four corner spaces formed by the initial tableau piles. It then becomes available for further building, as with any other tableau pile.
If the bottom card of a tableau pile and the top card of another pile form part of a continuous sequence—for example, if the top card of one tableau pile is the 8♥ and the bottom card of another pile is the 7♠—the piles may be combined. (In the example given, the pile headed by the 7 could be placed on top of the 8.) When this happens, the vacant space formed may be filled by any card.
A player continues making as many plays as they wish as long as they are able to. If they cannot or don’t want to play any further cards, they draw a card from the stock. This ends their turn, and play passes to the left. When the stock is depleted, players simply knock on the table and end their turns without drawing.
Game play continues until one player runs out of cards. That player is the winner. If all of the players knock consecutively, the hand ends and the winner is the player with the lowest number of cards.
