Egyptian ratscrew, or ERS, is a fast-paced card-slapping game reminiscent of Slapjack, but with more complex rules.
In Egyptian ratscrew, the entire deck is dealt out to the players. The players then take turns placing a card in a pile in the center of the table. Players may slap when the topmost cards in the pile meet a number of conditions. Rules can vary, but the most common ones are:
- Pair: The top two cards have an identical value. If someone neglects to slap a pair, triples and quadruples may be slapped. this is often the only rule used
- Sandwich: Two cards of the same value separated by a card of a different value.
- Consecutive: Two or three cards in order of value, such as 2-3-4, or Q-J-10.
- Marriage: The top two cards are a king and a queen.
- Divorce: The top three cards are a king and a queen separated by a third card.
The other feature common to all games of Egyptian ratscrew are rules concerning face cards. Whenever a player puts down a face card, the subsequent player has a certain number of chances to play another face card. They get up to four chances for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, and one for a jack. If they fail to play a face card in the allotted number of chances, the player who played the original face card picks up the pile. If they should play a face card, they immediately stop playing cards and the cycle continues to the next player, until someone fails to play a face card.
The object of the game is to collect all the cards in the deck. A player is out when they lose all their cards, but they are usually allowed to "slap in" and rejoin the game, as are all bystanders.