Deck Head is a hilarious card game of cunning, strategy and memory that requires three or more players. All you need is a deck of cards, a sense of humor and preferably be wearing a hat or cap. It's the perfect game to play with a group of friends whether you are waiting for a train, in a group video chat or just hanging out. Try it out... you will never guess just how much of a laugh being a Deck Head can be.
Background
For ages now I have been trying to remember a card game where each player places a single card on their forehead so the card is only viewable to the other players. Unfortunately I don't recall the rules or ultimately what the point of the game was but I do remember is was a hilariously fun game. So one cold evening a little while ago while our family was on holiday in France huddled around a blazing fire in the foothills of Najac, sipping on French wine, I decided if we couldn't remember the game why not just make it up ourselves and Deck Head was what we came up with.
Progressive Enhancement
To begin with my Dad and I each selected a random card from a full deck and without looking at the card ourselves, placed the card face up on our forehead so that each of us could only see the other's card. As we were both wearing caps at the time we simply slipped the card half way under the rim of our hats so only the bottom half protruded, which gave us the added advantage of being able to continue eating and drinking while playing the game. Although the game had barely begun at this stage it was quickly apparent that we would call the game, Deck Head. Apart from the obvious reason for the name (a card from the deck being placed on your head), we did each look like complete idiots with a playing card stuck to our forehead so you could be excused for assuming an alternative connotation for the origin of the name.
It was obvious that the aim of the game would be to try to guess, with some element of certainty, the identity of your card before the other player could guess their card. However, instead of just randomly shouting out meaningless guesses we decided we would take it in turn to ask each other a simple question to give ourselves clues as to what our card could be. For an example, "Is my card red?", If the answer was "Yes" then we would know the card was either the suit of "Hearts" or "Diamonds". We quickly realized that the fastest way to arrive at the correct answer was to eliminate the maximum number of possibilities with each question.
For simplicity sake, I have purposely ignored the fact that the cards displayed by the opposing players would technically be eliminated from the remaining possibilities
It made sense to first ask the colour of the card thus eliminating 50% of the remaining possibilities followed by asking the suit of the card, again eliminating 50% of the remaining options. This focused the search down to one of a possible 13 cards, (Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen and King), the jokers having been excluded from the original deck. So now in a process of elimination it made sense to pick the middle card, i.e. the 7 and ask if your card was higher or lower than the 7. The one curve ball we discovered would be if your card was actually the seven. In which case the answer to either of the previous questions would not consider the 7 itself as a possibility and therefore this card would automatically have to be included in the remaining possibilities, i.e. one of a possible 7 cards. It wasn't long before we realized that this game was not going to be that exciting at all in it's current form as to arrive at the correct answer the questions we asked were predictable and progressively clinical. The game needed some added zest.
A Moment of Enlightenment
In a moment of profound soberness we realized that if you could ask a question about your card in relation to another player's card the game would take on a much more tactical and cunning approach. For example, "Is my card the same colour as Player 2's card?", or "Is my card the same suit as Player 2's card?". As the question would be based on some sort of relationship to another player's card it would make the game much more competitive as each subsequent answer could potentially offer multiple clues and eliminate possibilities for other player's. Obviously with only two players this was going to be impossible as the opposing player would have no idea what their card was at the start of the game so each player would have no frame of reference to formulate a question, the simple conclusion was we would need a minimum of three players. Luckily we had 6 of us all willing to give this new game a try, my wife Krista, brother Luke and his wife Lynette, my Mum and Dad and of course myself.
The Game
After a number of trial games we were able to refine the gameplay and developed the following requirements, rules, strategies and example questions resulting in a really fun game which we would now like to share with you. We hope you enjoy the game...
Aim
To correctly guess your card within the least number of turns (i.e. before any other player) by asking the other players questions about your own card in relation to theirs.
Requirements
- A full deck of 52 cards (excluding the Jokers).
- A minimum of three players.
- Each player should ideally be wearing some form of headgear, a cap, hat, piece of string, bandanna, elastic band, use your imagination...
- Each player should recognize the individual card suits by name and symbol (i.e. Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades) and the colour associated with each suit (i.e. Hearts and Diamonds are red and Clubs and Spades are black).
- For the purposes of this game, Aces are considered the lowest card in the deck, i.e. an Ace represents a value of one.
Rules
- Don't look at your card.
- You can only ask only one question per turn about your card or make one attempt at guessing what your card is.
- You can ask any question about your card but it must be in relation to another player's card or group of players' cards. Asking, "Is my card red... Is my card higher than a 6... is my card the suite of Diamonds" is not allowed.
- Each question must only have a definitive answer of "Yes" or "No". In the case of say Player 1 and Player 2's card both being the same value and Player 1 asking if their card is higher than Player 2's card the answer should be very clearly "No", similarly if Player 1 asked, "Is my card lower than Player 2's card?", the answer would also be "No".
- All questions must be answered truthfully.
- The game ends with the first player who correctly identifies their own card, (The Deck Head).
Game Play
- Start with a full deck of 52 cards (excluding the jokers) face down.
- To determine which player should start the game as the Dealer, each player selects one card at random from the deck, the player with the highest value card is appointed as the Dealer. If two or more players have the same highest card, those players should select another card from the deck and repeat until a single player has the highest card.
- Once the Dealer is determined, all cards are returned to the deck and reshuffled by the Dealer.
- Starting with the player to his or her left, the Dealer distributes one card from the top of the deck face down to each player.
- When each player has a card they should carefully pick up the card from the furthest edge and while keeping the card facing away from themselves, place the top half of the card under the rim of their hat. Be very careful not to mistake 6's for 9's and visa versa when observing other player's cards as this can cause all kinds of mayhem during the game.
- When all players have placed their card face up on their forehead and each player has had an opportunity to view each players card the game begins.
- Starting with the player to the left of the dealer and progressing in a clockwise direction, each player asks one question during their turn to gather information about their card in relation to another player or players' cards.
- Depending on the question being asked all players can answer the question unless a specific player is asked for the answer. As an example if in the case of 4 players, player 1 asks the question, "is the colour of my card the same as Player 2's card?", both Player 3 and 4 can answer as they can both see the colour of Player 2's card. However if Player 1 were to ask, "Is the suite of my card represented by either Player 2 or 3, then only player 4 should answer.
- The game continues with each player taking their turn to ask a single question about their card until one of the players thinks they have enough information about their card to make a calculated guess. When it is that player's turn, the player says, "Is my card the 3 of Hearts", as an example. If the player's card is not the 3 of Hearts the game continues, however if the card is the 3 of Hearts the other players shout "Deck Head" and the player who correctly guess their own card wins the game.
- All cards are returned to the pack and a new game begins with the player to the left of the dealer taking on the role of Dealer.
Strategy
The intriguing aspect of this game is that with every question a player asks about their card they inevitably give away some information about another player's card (or in some circumstances a group of players' cards). So while desperately trying to narrow the possibilities enough to making a calculated guess about their own card, each player will want to keep track of how close the other players are to making a calculated guess about their card and use this to selectively choose the questions they ask. As an example in a case where there are 4 players, if a Player 1 asks Player 3 and 4 if their card is the same colour as Player 2's card, the answer would inevitable serve both Player 1 and Player 2 by revealing the correct colour of their respective cards therefore should Player 3 want to determine the colour of their own card they would ask in relation to Player 1 or 2 as these two players would already know the colour of their card and the answer would not provide any additional information to the other players about their cards that was not already know.
Example Questions
The obvious journey to try to determine which card you have would be to first identify the colour of your card, followed by suit and then try to narrow the value to within 2 or 3 possibilities to make an educated guess at the actual value, however you may choose to gather these three key pieces of information in any order. As you will find in progressive games there may be a strategic advantage to taking on a different approach.
Below are a sample of common questions we came up with but you could create your own - remember each question should have a definitive answer of either "Yes" or "No"
- "Is my card the same colour as Player 2's card"?
- "Player 2, is my card the same colour as Player 3 and 4's card?"
- "Is my card the same suit as Player 3's card?"
- "Player 2, is the suite of my card represented by either Player 3 or Player 4's card?"
- "Player 2, is the value of my card between the value of Player 3's and Player 4's card?"
- "Is the value of my card higher than the value of Player 2's card?"
As you progress with the game you could start asking more complicated questions to try to throw off the other players, for example:
Player 2, is the value of my card higher than the value of, Player 3's card minus the value of Player 4's card divided by the value of Player 5's card?
As you can see there are quite a few variations of questions you could ask and I am sure you will come up with more. As you get the hang of the game try adding a time limit to each player's turn. We hope you enjoy the game as much as we have.
posted in: Fun