How to play Egyptian Ratscrew
Egyptian Ratscrew (also written Egyptian Rat Screw, or ERS) is a traditional card game played with a normal deck of cards. This site is not connected with any company that sells a boxed game under a similar name.
Egyptian Ratscrew is a slapping card game for two or more players. You try to win all the cards: by face-card challenges and, above all, by being the first to slap the pile at the right moment. You need one normal 52-card deck. Play it now in our Egyptian Ratscrew game.
The deal
Deal all the cards one at a time, face down, as evenly as possible. Nobody looks at their cards. Each player keeps a neat face-down pile.
Playing cards
- Starting left of the dealer, each player takes the top card of their pile and turns it face up onto the middle pile. Turn it away from you, so that everyone sees it at the same time.
- As long as number cards are played, play just goes round the table.
- When someone plays a jack, queen, king or ace, the next player must play a face card or ace too. They get 4 chances for an ace, 3 for a king, 2 for a queen and 1 for a jack.
- If they play a face card or ace in time, the challenge moves on to the next player. If they don’t, the player who played the last face card or ace takes the whole pile, puts it face down under their own cards and starts the next pile.
A king gives the next player 3 chances. 4, 9 and 2 are all number cards, so the king’s player takes the pile.
Slapping
The only thing that beats the face-card rule is the slap. Any player can slap the pile at any time when one of these is on top. The first player to slap takes the whole pile and starts the next one.
| Slap | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Double | Two cards of the same rank in a row | 5, 5 |
| Sandwich | The same rank with one other card between | 5, 7, 5 |
Many groups add more slaps. Agree on them before you start. Bicycle lists these:
| Slap | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tens | Two cards in a row that add up to 10, or two with a face card between them. Ace counts as 1. | 3, 7 or A, K, 9 |
| Marriage | A queen on a king, or a king on a queen | Q, K |
| Top-bottom | The card just played matches the first card of the pile | 8 … 8 |
| Four in a row | Four cards going up or down | 5, 6, 7, 8 or Q, K, A, 2 |
| Jokers | If you play with jokers, a joker can always be slapped | Joker |
All of these, except jokers, can be turned on in our game’s Settings. Doubles and sandwiches are always on.
Wrong slaps
If you slap when there is nothing to slap, you must put one or two cards from your pile face down under the middle pile. These burned cards go to whoever wins the pile. Our game uses one card, or two if you choose that in Settings.
Running out of cards
When you have no cards, you can’t play any more, but you are not out. Keep watching: if you slap a double or sandwich first, you win the pile and you are back in. A common house rule, which our game uses, is that a wrong slap when you have no cards puts you out for good.
If you run out of cards while you are trying to answer a face card, you have lost that challenge and the pile goes to the player of the face card.
Winning
The player who collects all 52 cards wins.
How our game plays
- Play with 1, 2 or 3 computer players, or two people on one screen.
- When a challenge is lost, the pile waits about one second before it moves, so you can still slap the last card.
- The computer slaps faster at higher speeds and sometimes misses a slap at lower speeds. At Easy and Medium it very rarely slaps wrong too.
Questions
Why is it called Egyptian Ratscrew?
Nobody knows for sure. It is a modern American game based on the old British game Beggar-my-neighbour, with slapping added. Other names are Egyptian War, Ratslap and Slap.
Can the order of chances be different?
Yes. The usual order is 4 for an ace, 3 for a king, 2 for a queen and 1 for a jack. Wikipedia notes that some players swap the chances for kings and jacks.
Who wins if two players slap at the same time?
The first hand on the pile, which is the hand underneath. Bicycle says that if you really can’t tell, the player with the most fingers on top wins. In our game the first slap that reaches the game wins.