Description

Forty Below is a card game where the goal is to score the fewest points, usually tallying the score over multiple fast-playing rounds.

The deck is comprised of eight copies of each number from -1 through 10, and four copies of -10.

In a given round, each player is dealt six face-down cards, which are then arranged in a 3x2 grid. Two of those cards are turned face-up. On a player's turn, he or she will do one of three things:

1. Flip a face-down card so the number shows
2. Draw the top card from the deck
3. Draw the top card from the discard pile

If either of the latter two happen, the player will have a choice: discard the just-drawn card, or replace one of his or her six cards with it (a replaced face-down card becomes face-up at that point).

This continues until one player has the numbers of all six cards showing. Play continues until everyone has an equal number of turns, and then they move on to scoring.

When scoring, if the top and bottom number of the player's grid matches (e.g. both a 7) then the numbers are negated and they become 0. Alternately, if a player can form a "square" of numbers - both top and bottom match on four consecutive spaces - then the player scores -40 points ---- they just went Forty Below.