Shed your hand, face-up cards, and hidden cards in Idiot, also known as Palace or Shithead, against up to three computer opponents.
Choose two, three, or four players. Before play begins, select one card from your hand and one of your face-up table cards to exchange them. Press Start game when your table cards are ready.
Select a legal hand card and press Play. You can select several cards of the same rank and play them together. While the stock remains, playing from your hand refills it toward three cards.
After the stock and your hand are empty, play your face-up cards. Then choose face-down cards blindly. An illegal reveal forces you to pick up the discard pile and return to playing from your hand.
Normally, play a card equal to or higher than the discard pile’s top rank. Aces are high. Twos, fives, and tens are special and can be played on anything in this edition.
A 2 resets the pile so the next player can play any card. A 5 requires the next ordinary card to be 5 or lower. A 10 burns the pile and lets its player lead again. Four equal ranks consecutively on top also burn the pile.
During the hand phase you can choose to pick up the pile or blindly try the top stock card. A failed blind play adds that card to the pile before you take everything. The last player still holding cards loses; everyone else escapes.
During setup, keep strong cards and flexible specials among your face-up cards for the endgame. You will have fewer options once your hand is gone.
Play matching ranks together to shed cards quickly and watch for a four-card burn. Save a reset or ten for a difficult pile, but do not leave yourself with only awkward ordinary cards.
Picking up can sometimes be safer than gambling on the stock. In the face-down phase, every reveal is uncertain: a cleared pile gives you the most forgiving start.
Idiot is a shedding card game known by several names, including Palace and Shithead. This v1.2 edition uses special twos, fives, and tens, with animated computer opponents and the site’s illustrated card deck.