How to Play Sevens

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

Sevens is a shedding card game for three to eight players in which everyone races to empty their hand by extending four shared sequences, one per suit, built outward from the sevens. It needs no special equipment beyond a standard deck and rewards both patience and timing, making it a genuine all-ages game rather than a polite fiction.

It is a staple of kitchen tables, camping trips and rainy school holidays across the UK and much of Europe. The rules are simple enough to teach in two minutes yet the blocking and holding decisions give experienced players a real edge over beginners.

A little history

Sevens is known under several names across Europe, including Fan Tan, Domino and Parliament, which suggests it spread widely during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but its precise origins are unclear. The name Parliament appears most often in older British card-game references, while Fan Tan is the label most commonly used in North American guides. Beyond that pattern of documented names and wide geographic spread, the early record is thin.

Setting up

1. Seat three to eight players around a table with space in the centre for four growing card sequences.
2. Choose a dealer by any agreed method, for example cutting the deck highest card deals.
3. Shuffle the full 52-card deck thoroughly.
4. Deal all cards clockwise, one at a time, face down. With some player counts the hands will not be equal: unequal hands are normal and accepted.
5. Players pick up their cards and sort them by suit. No cards are placed face up yet.

How to play

1. The player holding the seven of diamonds plays it face up to the centre to start the first sequence. If no one agrees to lead with the seven of diamonds, the player holding the seven of clubs leads instead, or any agreed seven. Some groups allow any seven to open.
2. Play passes clockwise. On your turn you must play a card if you legally can. You may not voluntarily pass when a legal play exists.
3. A legal play is one of three things: (a) place any other seven to start a new suit sequence, (b) add the eight of a suit already started to the high end of that suit's sequence, or (c) add the six of a suit already started to the low end of that suit's sequence.
4. Each suit sequence extends outward from seven in both directions: downward toward ace and upward toward king. Cards must be placed in strict rank order with no gaps.
5. If you have no legal play, you pass your turn. In some scoring variants you place a chip or token into the pool when you pass; see Variations.
6. Play continues clockwise, each player either laying one card or passing, until one player places their final card.

Winning and scoring

The first player to play their last card wins the hand. In a single-hand game that player wins outright. In a multi-hand scoring game, the winner scores zero and all other players score penalty points equal to the face value of the cards still in their hand, with ace counting 1, number cards at face value, jack 11, queen 12 and king 13. The overall winner is the player with the lowest cumulative score after an agreed number of hands, typically one deal per player.

The fine points

The most common dispute is whether a player may pass when they hold a playable card. The standard ruling is clear: passing is only permitted when no legal play exists. If a player is caught passing illegally, the standard penalty is that they must immediately play the card they should have played and receive an agreed penalty such as two extra points or two chips. It is worth agreeing this rule explicitly before play begins.

A second regular edge case is the opening move. If the game requires the seven of diamonds to lead and the player holding it has a strong tactical reason to delay, they simply cannot: holding the lead seven is not optional. Where the opener is any seven chosen by the holder, players should agree the rule before dealing. In all cases, once a seven is played it is permanently on the table and cannot be retrieved.

How to win more often

• Hold back high-value cards in suits where no sequence has started yet: you cannot play them until the seven of that suit is laid, so they are dead weight until then.
• If you hold a seven, consider whether playing it immediately opens sequences that benefit opponents more than yourself. Sometimes delaying a seven for a turn forces a rival to pass.
• Watch which ranks your opponents are clearly waiting for. If you hold the card that unblocks a player with very few cards, delay playing it as long as your hand allows.
• In scoring games, prioritise shedding your kings, queens and jacks early since they carry the heaviest penalty if caught in your hand at the end.
• Keep track of suits that are growing slowly: if a suit is stalled, other players are likely holding cards in that suit, which tells you something about the shape of their hands.

Variations

Chip Penalty (Fan Tan)

Each player starts with an equal number of chips or tokens. Every time a player passes, they pay one chip into a central pot. The winner of the hand takes the entire pot. This version is commonly called Fan Tan and adds a light gambling element that increases the cost of holding awkward cards.

Parliament (strict passing penalty)

Under the Parliament variant, a player who is caught passing illegally must take three chips from the pot rather than one, and must also play the concealed card immediately. This stricter penalty makes bluffing passes and attempts to delay the opener much riskier and tends to speed the game up considerably.

Domino (any suit opens)

In the Domino variant any player may start any new suit sequence at any point, not just when a seven is forced by the turn order. This removes the tactical delay on sevens and makes the game flow faster and more evenly, which suits younger or less experienced players.

Two-deck Sevens

With six or more players, a second shuffled deck is added, giving two copies of every card. Duplicate cards may both be played, extending the sequences in the same way but allowing two players to play the same card in sequence. This version manages larger groups smoothly and reduces the frustration of being entirely blocked by one withheld card.

Sevens: frequently asked questions