A popular European card game similar to Uno, where players race to discard all their cards by matching the previous card's suit or value.
Mau Mau
2 - 5 players
5 - 10 minutes
Objective: Get rid of your cards
Setup:
- Discard 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, Jokers
- Each player gets 5 hidden cards which they can look at
- Place remaining deck face down, start discard pile with top card face up
Take your turn, either:
- Discard a matching suit (e.g. 10♦ on 5♦) or matching value card (e.g. 7♣ on 7♦) with the last discarded card
- Call Mau if you only have 1 card left
- Call Mau Mau if your last card is a Jack
- Take a card from the draw pile
If a player calls Mau on another player who's on their last card, the other player must take a penalty card
Power cards:
| Card | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ace | Must be played with another (matching) card. If it cannot be played with another card, a new card must be taken from the pack |
| 7 | The next player draws two cards. A 7 can be played on a 7 giving the next player 4 cards to take (and so on) |
| 8 | The next player skips their turn |
| 9 | Change the direction of play |
| Jack | Wildcard, can be played on any card, the player who plays it chooses the suit of the card |
Scoring: 7 - 10 = face value, Ace / Queen / King = 10 points, Jack = 20 points
Points can be counted for each player and written down. When a player reaches a number of points (such as 100), the game ends. The player with the lowest points, wins.
Based on the rules as written on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau-Mau_(card_game)
Notable changes:
- 9 is a power card
- Jack winning the round does not double everyone else's points