How to play Pope Joan
The rules of Pope Joan, and a game played out one move at a time.
The rules are below, and there are fewer of them than the eight pots suggest. If you would rather watch than read, press play: we deal a short hand for three on the real table and stop on every move to say what happened, what you could do, and why.
Press play and we deal a short game of Pope Joan on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
The pack, the deal and the board
A standard pack with the eight of diamonds taken out, so fifty-one cards, and three to eight people. Ace is low, king is high. The dealer deals the whole pack one card at a time, round the table and to one extra hand that nobody picks up. That spare hand is the reason the game works: every card in it is a gap nobody can fill.
The last card dealt is turned face up. Its suit is the reward suit for the hand, and the card stays in the hand it was dealt to, to be played like any other.
Before anyone plays, the dealer alone puts fifteen counters on the board: six on Pope, two each on Matrimony and Intrigue, and one each on the ace, king, queen and jack of the reward suit and on First out. Everyone starts the match on a hundred.
Leading and following up the suit
Whoever sits after the dealer leads. You can lead any suit, but only the lowest card you hold in it. Whoever holds the card one rank higher in that suit plays it, then whoever holds the next one, and so on up. The run can hop round the table or stay in one hand for six cards.
Nobody chooses to follow. If the card is yours, you play it. The run stops when it reaches a king, or when the next card is in the spare hand or already played. The seven of diamonds always stops, because the eight is out. Whoever played the stopping card leads again.
So the only real decisions are your leads. Pick the suit that pays, or the one that gets rid of a long run of your own, or the one that ends on a card you hold so the lead comes back to you.
What pays
Play the ace, king, queen or jack of the reward suit and its pot is yours. The nine of diamonds is the Pope, and playing it takes the Pope pot, whatever the reward suit is.
Play the reward jack and then the reward queen yourself, one straight after the other, and you take Intrigue too. The queen then the king the same way is Matrimony. Split between two people, the combination pays nobody.
If the turned-up card is one of the pay cards, the dealer takes that pot at once, before a card is led. That pot is empty when the card is played later, so it pays nothing then.
How the hand ends
The first person to play their last card ends the hand. They take First out, plus one counter for every card still held in every other hand. Anyone still holding the Pope pays nothing, so a nine of diamonds that never gets reached can still save its holder a pile of counters.
Any pot nobody claimed stays on the board, and the next dealer adds fifteen on top, so an unplayed Pope keeps growing. The deal moves one seat on each hand. Online, the first to a hundred and fifty counters takes the match, and after the tenth hand the most counters wins whatever the score.