Chase the Ace
There is another card game called Chase the Ace that has very little to do with the version described here. This version is more commonly known as Cuckoo, Screw Your Neighbour or Ranter-Go-Round
- For the instrumental rock song by AC/DC, see Chase the Ace.
Chase the Ace is a card game for two or more players (although it dosen't work as well with two players and takes longer with lots and lots of players) that is closely related to the game Old Maid. The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards to a discard pile while not picking up the Ace. The loser is the player holding the last card at the end (the Ace of Spades). It is rarely played for money.
A standard pack of cards with both Jokers, the Ace of Clubs, the Ace of Hearts and the Ace of Diamonds removed is used. The cards are dealt as evenly as possible between the players, though players do not all require the exact same number of cards so long as no player has more than one card less or more than any other player.
If players have a pair of cards of the same rank, they discard that pair. Play now commences, starting with the player to the left of the dealer.
The player whose turn it is chooses one card from the player to their right's hand, who holds their hand so that the player cannot see the cards they are choosing from. If the card is of the same rank as a card they already have, they dispose of the pair. The player to their left then proceeds to pick one of their cards, and so on round the circle.
In different versions of the game, the Joker card can be used instead of the Ace, or a random card chosen and removed from the pack. Occasionally, if the deck has one, the bridge scoring card can be used.
A player is out when they have discarded all of their cards. The last card left will always be the Ace of Spades, and the player holding it at the end is the loser.
There is also an instrumental AC/DC song that goes by the name of Chase the Ace, from the album Who Made Who.