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Detailed Rules of Dutch

Dutch is a memory card game for 2+ players where the aim is to have the lowest value in your hand. It is similar to Cabo and Rat-a-Tat Cat.

This page documents two variations of the game which differ slightly but can have very different characteristics; I've nicknamed them "Aggressive" and "Passive". The former involves a contest of speed and is in my experience generally found in Sydney's Hills District, further west compared to the latter, which is found on the North Shore and is played over many rounds. You can play with a mix of the two rulesets.

Setup

Every player is dealt 4 cards face down - or possibly more for longer play. They may each look at 2 of their own cards to start with. After the first 2, players are only allowed to look at cards in a hand by drawing a King or Jack and otherwise cannot; this is a game of memory. They may organise their cards however they like - most initially place them in a square. The objective is to have the lowest score, which is the sum of the values of the cards of your hand.

(Aggressive: The game is usually played wtih a 54 card deck which includes two Jokers as well as the 52 standard cards. Passive: The game may be played with or without the Jokers.)

Play

Players take turns drawing from the deck.
When players draw a card, they look at it without showing the card to anyone else, then either place it face up in the discard pile or swap it with one of the cards in their hand. This is done by discarding the card which was previously in their hand face up (without actually seeing that card's value until it is discarded) and placing their new card face down in their hand.

Face cards are all worth 10. When (Aggressive: drawn and then immediately discarded Passive: discarded at any time), the discarder may perform the corresponding action.
Aces are worth 1, and a Joker is worth -1 (Passive: if they are in use).

When a card is discarded, anybody may jump in and discard a card (Passive: from their own hand) of the same number; players may jump in on their own discarding - e.g. discard a 5 they picked up and then immediately discard another 5 from their hand. If a player discards a card through a jump in, they do not have to pick up another card and now have less cards in their hand. The punishment for an incorrect jump in - i.e. the card the player discards has a different number to the one already in the discard pile - is to draw an extra two cards after discarding the card that was incorrectly identified, giving them one more card in total. This does not interrupt the turn order.

(Aggressive: Only one player may jump in one card per normally discarded card. Multiple people can contest jumping in, but only the fastest of hand is allowed to discard. There is no punishment for jumping in correctly when another player has already, apart from the card remaining in your hand and having been revealed to all, thus opening up the possibility of someone else jumping in with your card.
Players may jump in for others, taking a card from their adversary's hand and discarding it. If correct, the player that had their card jumped must then draw two. If the jumper is incorrect, they must instead draw one card themselves to increase the size of their hand.)

(Passive: All players are allowed to jump in, with as many cards as they like, on the same card. There is no fighting for the fastest discard.)

A player with an empty hand still takes their turn, drawing a card. They will usually discard it, possibly acquiring a face card and using its power.
(Aggressive: However, they may also keep the card and grow the size of their hand, with the benefit of this being either to take a Joker to decrease the value of their hand, or to create misdirection.)

End

When the game ends, all players turn their hand over and scores are calculated.

(Aggressive: The game ends when there are no more cards in the deck to be drawn. The player with the lowest scoring hand wins, or multiple players tie for victory if they share the lowest value of hand.)

(Passive: The game ends either after someone has called "Dutch" or there are no more cards in the deck. When someone calls Dutch, everybody except the caller gets one more turn before the game ends. Dutch may be called at any time. If Dutch is called during someone's turn, they are allowed one more turn after everybody else goes, as the last turn.

If playing multiple rounds, every player's score is added to a running total and a new round is started. When someone's score reaches 100, the lowest total scoring player wins the overall game.
If the player who called Dutch does not have the lowest value hand, or has tied in value with another player, an undercut penalty which is usually 15, is added to their score.)

More Variations

The above rules mere describe two particular instances for the game, and many more exist in different homes and schools. Additional names for Dutch include Rum and Queens. Variant rules include the following:

Some variants value red Kings at -2 or -3.

In one passive variation, the penalty for tying is be reduced and outright victory when having called Dutch reduces that winning player's score - for instance, these more forgiving score modifiers could be applied in order to encourage calling Dutch: If you have your own variation and would like to share, or otherwise have any other comment, please reach out to the contact details on our about page. We'd love to hear!