Quick Rules

♠

• Play single cards or matching sets, each one ranked higher than the last played, until nobody can (or will) beat it.
• When play stops, whoever played last clears the pile and leads next, starting fresh at any rank.
• Get rid of all your cards first to become President for the next round; last player left is the Scum (or ruder name, depending on the group).
• The next round, the Scum must give their best card(s) to the President, who gives back their worst in return.
• 2s are typically the highest card, and 4 of a kind (or two 2s) played together can "bomb" and clear the pile instantly in many house rules.

How to Play (Quick Overview)

1. 1

   Deal the entire deck out evenly to all players (some players may have one more card than others if it doesn't divide evenly).

2. 2

   Whoever holds the 3 of clubs (or, in some house rules, simply the lowest card) leads the first trick, playing any single card or any matching set (like a pair or triple) of the same rank.

3. 3

   Each following player must either play the same number of cards at an equal or higher rank, or pass - once you pass, you're out of that trick, though you can jump back in on the next one.

4. 4

   Once every other player has passed in a row, the pile is cleared and whoever played last leads a brand new trick, playing whatever they like to restart the rank.

5. 5

   Continue until players start running out of cards - the first to empty their hand becomes President; play continues to rank the remaining players down to the last one left, the Scum.

6. 6

   Before the next round's deal, the Scum passes their best card(s) to the President, and the President passes back an equal number of their worst cards in exchange.

Objective

Get rid of every card in your hand before anyone else, to become President - and avoid being the last player left holding cards, which makes you the Scum for the next round.

Setup

Deal the entire deck out evenly to every player. It’s fine if the deal doesn’t split perfectly even - some players simply get one extra card. Card rank typically runs 3 (lowest) up through Ace, then 2 (highest), though house rules vary on exactly where the ranking starts.

How to Play

Whoever holds the 3 of clubs (or, by some house rules, simply whoever has the lowest card) leads the first trick of the game, playing any single card, or a matching set of 2, 3, or 4 cards of the same rank, face up in the middle.

Play continues clockwise. Each player must either:

• Play the same number of cards, of a rank equal to or higher than what’s currently showing (so a single card must be beaten by a single higher card; a pair must be beaten by a higher pair), or
• Pass, sitting out of this particular trick (you can still play again once a new trick starts).

Once every other player in turn has passed, the pile is cleared away, and whoever played the last (and highest) cards leads a fresh trick - starting at any rank they like, since the pile is now empty.

Play continues around the table, hand after hand, as players gradually run out of cards.

Scoring

President has no point score - only finishing order matters. The first player to empty their hand entirely becomes President. Play continues among the remaining players to establish the rest of the order; the very last player left holding cards becomes the Scum (or a ruder name, depending on the group and how polite the table wants to be). Middle finishers are sometimes called Vice-President and Vice-Scum in larger groups.

Winning

There’s no single “winner” beyond becoming President for that round - the real appeal is the social ranking (and the card exchange) that carries into the next round.

Before the next hand is dealt, the Scum must hand their best card(s) to the President (commonly their 2 highest cards), and the President gives back an equal number of their worst cards in return - a built-in handicap that gives the President a head start on the next round, and a real incentive to climb out of last place.

Variations

• Bombing: many groups let four of a kind (or, in smaller decks, two 2s) played together instantly clear the pile, skip everyone else, and let the same player lead again immediately.
• Revolution: playing four of a kind sometimes flips card rankings upside-down for the rest of the round.
• 3-card exchange sizes: larger groups sometimes have the Scum and President exchange 2 or 3 cards instead of 1, and add a Vice-President/Vice-Scum exchange of 1 card between the second-best and second-worst finishers.

History

President is a folk card game without a single documented inventor, believed to have developed independently in multiple places, with especially strong traditions in East Asia (as Daihinmin in Japan) and in North American college dorms and military barracks, where its social ranking system made it a natural fit for informal group play.

Fun Fact

The Japanese version, Daihinmin (literally “great poor person”), predates most Western accounts of President and includes many of the same core mechanics, suggesting the game likely has independent or parallel roots in different card-playing cultures rather than a single point of origin.

More to Explore

• Variations →
• History →
• Fun Fact →