Egyptian Ratscrew

How to play Egyptian Ratscrew

1. Deal. The 52 cards are shuffled and dealt out, 26 to each player, face down. Nobody looks at their cards: your deck is your face-down pile.
2. Take turns. On your turn, turn your top card face up onto the pile in the middle. Your deck glows when it's your turn.
3. Number cards simply pass the turn to the other player.
4. Face cards and aces start a challenge: your rival has to turn up a face card or an ace of their own within a few tries, or you win the pile (see below).
5. Slap! Whenever the top two cards have the same rank, or the top card matches the card two below it, either player can slap the pile. The first slap takes it.
6. Collect. A pile you win goes face down under your deck, in the order it was played, and you start the next pile.
7. Win by collecting all 52 cards. For a shorter game, choose 40 cards before you start: the first player to hold 40 cards wins.

Face cards and challenges

When a jack, queen, king or ace is turned up, the other player must answer it with another face card or ace. They don't get just one card to do it:

The other player turns their cards one at a time. As soon as one of them is a jack, queen, king or ace, the challenge turns round, and now you have to answer that card. If all their tries are number cards, the player who turned up the last face card or ace wins the whole pile, after a short moment in which either player can still slap it.

An example. Orange turns up a king, so Purple has three tries. Purple turns a 4, then a 9, then a jack. The jack turns the challenge round: Orange now has one try. Orange turns a 6, which isn't a face card, so Purple takes the pile with the jack and starts the next one.

The game shows the face card in play and the tries left as dots under the pile, so you never have to count.

Slapping

These are the cards you can slap:

• A double: the top two cards have the same rank, such as two 7s or two queens. Suits don't matter.
• A sandwich: the top card and the card two below it have the same rank, with one different card in between, such as a 5, a king and a 5.

The first player to slap a double or a sandwich wins the pile, even in the middle of a challenge, and starts the next pile. If your rival's slap got there first, yours simply doesn't count. When two hands come down at almost the same moment, the game goes by whichever tap reached it first.

Slapping at the wrong time costs you. If there's no double or sandwich on top, your top card is burned: it goes face down under the pile, and whoever wins the pile gets it. Burned cards peek out from under the pile, with a count.

Watch every card. A double can appear at any moment, including during a challenge, so keep your eyes on the pile even when it isn't your turn.

More slaps

House rules for Egyptian Ratscrew vary a lot, so players usually agree before they start which cards can be slapped. Choose More slaps on the game page to add three popular ones to doubles and sandwiches:

• Tens: the top two cards add up to 10, counting an ace as 1: an ace and a 9, a 2 and an 8, a 3 and a 7, a 4 and a 6, or two 5s. Tens and picture cards don't count.
• Marriage: a king and a queen, one on top of the other, either way round.
• Top and bottom: the top card has the same rank as the first card turned onto this pile.

Running out of cards

When you have no cards left, you can't take a turn, but you're not out yet. Your rival keeps turning cards onto the pile, and you can still slap. Slap a double or a sandwich first and the pile is yours, so you're back in the game.

• If your rival turns up a face card or an ace, you have nothing to answer it with, so the pile goes to them, again after a moment for a last slap.
• If your last card goes while you're answering a challenge, the player who turned the face card or ace takes the pile.
• If neither player has a card left to turn, the player who turned the last card takes the pile.
• Once a pile goes to your rival while you have no cards, the game is over.
• A wrong slap when you have no cards left to burn ends your game straight away, so be sure before you slap.

Controls

Against the computer, any of those keys work for you, and the computer's half shows its deck and a CPU pad that presses down whenever it slaps. With two players on a phone, lay it flat between you so you can both reach your own half. Each half has its own deck and its own SLAP pad, so a flip can never be mistaken for a slap.

Computer levels

The computer sees only what you see: the cards face up on the pile and how many cards each player holds. It never knows the order of the decks. It needs time to spot a double or a sandwich and to move its hand, and on the lower levels it misses some, slaps late and now and then slaps at nothing.

On its turn, the computer turns its card after about a second on Easy and about two thirds of a second on Expert. It never slaps at nothing, or late, when a wrong slap would end its game. A quick player can still beat Expert to a slap.

Tips to win

• Watch the top three cards. A double needs the top two cards, a sandwich the top and the third. If cards come out in a random order, roughly one card in nine makes a double or a sandwich.
• Keep your thumb near the SLAP pad. The slap is usually won or lost in a fraction of a second.
• Don't slap on a hunch. A burned card is a card gone, and a hunch is often a near miss, such as a 6 on a 9.
• Stay alert in a challenge. While you count your rival's tries, a double can still turn up, and a slap beats any face card.
• Never give up with an empty deck. Your rival has to keep turning cards, and every one of them could give you a double or a sandwich to slap your way back in.
• Slap carefully when you're out of cards. One wrong slap then ends the game.

About Egyptian Ratscrew

Egyptian Ratscrew is a modern American card game, popular with children. It grew out of the old English children's game Beggar My Neighbour, also called Beat Your Neighbour Out of Doors, in which the jacks, queens, kings and aces work just as they do here, and adds the slapping, which may have come from the game Slapjack. It goes by many other names, including ERS, Egyptian War, Egyptian Rat Slap, Ratslap and simply Slap. Rules vary from one group of friends to the next, especially the list of cards you may slap, so this game keeps to the common core: the 1, 2, 3 and 4 tries for jacks, queens, kings and aces, doubles and sandwiches, and a burned card for a wrong slap, with more slaps as an option.

Questions

Updated 10 November 2026