How to Play President

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

President is a shedding card game for 3 to 8 players in which everyone races to empty their hand. Cards are played in matching sets and each play must outrank the last, so the table builds with tension until someone passes or clears the pile. The social sting comes from the rank system: finishing positions from one round determine seating, card-swapping privileges, and titles in the next, meaning yesterday's Scum is bidding for President all over again.

It is popular at kitchen tables, university common rooms, and on long journeys because it needs only a standard deck, scales easily, and rewards sharp card reading as much as luck. The hierarchy of titles gives every round a light competitive edge that keeps all players invested even when they are out of a hand.

A little history

President is widely known across the English-speaking world and has close relatives in Japan, where a game called Daifugo has been documented since at least the 1970s and shares the same core mechanics of hand shedding and social rank penalties. How or whether that game travelled west, or whether similar games arose independently in Europe, is unclear. Its origins are traditionally attributed to informal play rather than any single inventor or publication, and no authoritative first printed ruleset has been firmly identified.

Setting up

1. Seat all players around a table. For a first game, any seating order is fine; in subsequent rounds players sit according to the ranks earned in the previous round (President takes the best seat, Scum the worst).
2. Shuffle the full 52-card deck thoroughly.
3. Deal all cards out as evenly as possible, face down. With player counts that do not divide evenly, some players will hold one extra card. This is normal.
4. Players pick up and sort their hands. No cards are shown to others.
5. In the very first round, the player who holds the 3 of clubs (or the lowest club, if using a variant starting card) leads first. In subsequent rounds, the previous round's Scum leads.

How to play

1. Card ranking from highest to lowest is: 2, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. The 2 is the highest-ranked card in standard play.
2. The opening player lays any single card, or any set of cards of equal rank (a pair, three of a kind, or four of a kind), face up to the centre. This is the current play.
3. Play proceeds clockwise. Each player in turn must either beat the current play or pass. To beat it, you must play exactly the same number of cards as the current play, but of a strictly higher rank. A pair beats a pair; a single beats a single. You may not change the number of cards mid-trick.
4. If you pass, you place no cards and the turn moves on. You may not re-enter that trick after passing.
5. Play continues around the table until all active players have passed or only one player remains willing to play. That player wins the trick, sweeps the pile face down to the side, and leads a fresh play of any valid card or set.
6. The moment a player empties their hand they are out of the round and take the next available finishing rank: first out is President, second is Vice-President, and so on down the table. Play continues among the remaining players.
7. The last player still holding cards when everyone else has finished is the Scum. If there are 5 or more players, the second-to-last finisher is the Vice-Scum.
8. Collect all played cards, shuffle, and deal again for the next round.
9. Before the second and subsequent rounds, the rank swap takes place: the Scum must hand their two best cards to the President, who gives back any two cards they choose. With 5 or more players, Vice-Scum gives their one best card to Vice-President, who returns any one card. Middle-ranked players swap nothing.
10. The player ranked Scum leads the first trick of the new round. The game continues for an agreed number of rounds or until a player reaches a set score.

Winning and scoring

There is no single universal scoring system, but the most common method assigns points by finishing position each round: President scores 0 penalty points (or a positive score such as 4 in a 4-player game), with points incrementing toward Scum who scores the highest penalty (or zero in a positive-scoring version). After an agreed number of rounds, the player with the best cumulative score wins. In casual play, many groups simply track how many times each player finishes as President, and the overall winner is whoever reaches that title most often or first reaches a target such as three Presidential wins.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns four-of-a-kind as a bomb or revolution. Many groups rule that playing all four cards of the same rank clears the pile immediately and reverses the rank order for the remainder of that round (so 3 becomes highest and 2 becomes lowest). This is a popular house rule, not a universal standard; agree before play begins. A second dispute involves what happens when the pile is cleared by a player who then has no cards left. That player still claims their finishing rank; the next active player to the left leads fresh.

Skipping is another area of variation. Some groups rule that playing a card of equal rank (rather than strictly higher) skips the next player. This is a recognised variant but is not part of the standard rules described here, where equal rank is not a valid beat. Agree on equal-rank rules before the first deal to avoid argument mid-round.

How to win more often

• Hold your 2s in reserve. They are your highest cards and most useful for breaking a trick you desperately need to win, or for leading fresh when you want control late in the round.
• Lead from your longest suit of mid-ranked cards early. Getting rid of bulk when tricks are still open is faster than fighting to play singles late in the round.
• Count the passes. If three players have passed and one remains active, that person likely holds strong cards and is waiting. Do not waste a 2 beating them unless you have another way out.
• As President, give your weakest two cards back to Scum in the swap. The swap is an advantage: do not soften it by returning useful cards.
• Track which high cards have been played. A K or Q looks threatening in the first hand; by the third pass it may be the highest card still live, which changes your calculations entirely.

Variations

Revolution (Four-of-a-Kind Bomb)

When a player lays all four cards of the same rank on a single turn, they trigger a revolution. The pile is immediately cleared, that player leads fresh, and the card ranking is reversed for the rest of the round so that 3 becomes the strongest card and 2 the weakest. A second revolution in the same round restores the original ranking. This is one of the most widely played additions to the base game.

Scum Deals

In this variant, the Scum is required to deal and shuffle for every round, adding a light social penalty to the lowest rank beyond the card swap. It slows the game only marginally and reinforces the hierarchy theme that makes President distinctive.

No-Pass Lead Rule

Some groups forbid the leading player from passing on the first card of a fresh trick. This prevents a slow game where leaders sit on strong cards, forcing more action and ensuring the round progresses at a reasonable pace. It is particularly useful with larger player counts of six or more.

Equal-Rank Skip

Under this variant, playing a card of the same rank as the current play is allowed and automatically skips the next player in turn order rather than beating the pile. This adds a tactical layer, letting players disrupt opponents' turns without spending a higher card. The pile is still beaten only by a strictly higher-ranked card of the same quantity.

President: frequently asked questions