How to play President, the card game also known as Scum

If you've ever lost a card game and then had to hand your two best cards to the winner, you've played President. Most people learn it at a kitchen table, from a cousin, with rules nobody ever wrote down. Which is why every group plays it a little differently, and why every group thinks the others are doing it wrong.

Here are the classic rules, the house rules you're most likely to run into, and (since we liked it enough to build a whole game on it) what Crown Shuffle does differently.

One game, a lot of names

Depending on who taught you, it's President, Scum, or, in less polite company, Presidents and Assholes. In Japan it's Daifugō, "grand millionaire". The Great Dalmuti, from 1995, is a commercial version with its own deck. While we were making Crown Shuffle, we called it Kings & Peasants. Same idea every time: get rid of your cards first, and enjoy the power while it lasts.

What you need

• Players: 4 to 7 is the sweet spot. It works with 3, and with 8 or more you can shuffle two decks together.
• Cards: one standard 52-card deck. Some groups add the jokers as wild cards.
• Time: a round takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Nobody has ever played just one.

Card order

Suits don't matter. From lowest to highest:

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2

Yes, the 2 is the best card in the deck. It's the first thing that confuses new players, and the first thing they forget in the middle of a round.

How to play a round

1. Deal out the whole deck. Some players get one card more than others. Life isn't fair, and neither is President.
2. In the first round, whoever has the 3 of clubs starts. They can play it alone, or with their other 3s.
3. The starting player puts down a single card, a pair, three of a kind or four of a kind. That sets the shape of the pile.
4. Going around the table, each player either plays the same number of cards at a higher rank, or passes. Pairs go on pairs, triples on triples.
5. When nobody can (or wants to) beat the pile, it's cleared, and whoever played last starts a new pile with anything they like.
6. The first player to run out of cards is the President. Everyone else keeps going until one player is left holding cards. That player is the Scum.

Most groups let you play again after passing, as long as the pile hasn't been cleared. Some say once you pass, you're out until the next pile. Settle this before the first round, not during an argument.

The roles

The order you finish in decides your title for the next round:

• President: first out
• Vice President: second out
• Citizens: everyone in the middle
• Vice Scum: second to last
• Scum: last

Plenty of groups also move seats, so the President gets the comfiest chair and the Scum shuffles and deals.

The card exchange

This is the bit that makes President mean. Before the next round:

• The Scum hands the President their two best cards. The President gives back any two cards, usually their worst.
• The Vice Scum hands the Vice President their best card and gets one card back.

In most groups the Scum then leads the first pile, as a small mercy. It doesn't help much.

House rules you'll run into

• 2s clear the pile. Play a 2 and the pile is cleared on the spot. You start the next one.
• Skips. Play the same rank as the card before you, and the next player loses their turn.
• Revolution. Four of a kind flips the card order, so 3s become the best cards. Borrowed from Daifugō, and great for ruining a President's day.
• Jokers. Either wild cards or the only cards that beat a 2, depending on who's shouting.

The problem with President

Once someone hits the bottom, the card exchange tends to keep them there. The Scum gives away their two best cards, gets two bad ones back, and starts the next round weaker than everyone else. Some people find this hilarious. The person who's been Scum six rounds in a row usually doesn't.

How Crown Shuffle changes it

We liked President enough to build a game on it, and disliked that problem enough to fix it. Crown Shuffle keeps the core: shed your cards, match the shape, beat the rank, and pass cards between the top and the bottom of the table. Then:

• The ranks are people. Fourteen medieval characters, from the Beggar (1) to the Royal Advisor (14), instead of 3 to 2. A Knight (11) loses to a Priest (13). Aura tops big biceps.
• Two Crowns beat everything. Played alone, a Crown clears the pile. It can also fill a gap to finish a pair or a set.
• The sequence rule. If the last three cards on the pile make a run, like 6, 7, 8, only the next card in the run can follow.
• The bottom fights back. From round two, the Peasant and the Servant each draw a secret ability card. Seven are genuinely useful. Seven do absolutely nothing. Nobody knows which one you've got, so bluff.
• It plays 2 to 8, with a proper two-player mode.

The longer comparison is in Crown Shuffle vs. President, and the full rules are on the rulebook page. Crown Shuffle launches on Kickstarter in early 2027, and the mailing list hears about it first.