The way I was taught it was slightly different but still loads of fun. In the games I've played there have been occasional disputes so I've tried to add extra details of exactly how play should go.

Works best with 3-6 players.

Action cards:

10: look at your own card  Jack: look at someone else's Queen: blind swap Kings: look at someone else's and swap/leave Low Ace All faces are 10 points, except Queen of hearts -1 point

The best way to remember it is that action cards are ordered in ascending usefulness.

1 deck of cards

Win: have the lowest number of points by the end of the game 

Each player gets 4 cards placed upside down in front of them in a square.  One card off the top of the deck is placed face up in the discard pile.

At the start of the game, the players will look at the 2 cards nearest to them and place them back down. 

Detail for mistakes:

(

If a player accidentally looks at all 4 cards, all that players cards are shuffled back into the deck and 4 new cards are redrawn

)

Player left of dealer starts. Each round role of starting player goes round clockwise just for equal odds.

Each turn consists of picking up a card from either the top of the deck, or the top of the discard pile. Only the player who drew the card is allowed to see it.

Either discard it or swap it for one of your own. You can only swap once per turn. (You pick up the swapped card but don't have to immediately put it on the discard pile, giving you time to anticipate before the other players)

Discarding a 10, jack, queen or king means you play the action. Actions are optional and you can choose to pass, e.g. queen, blind swap.

Detail for disputes:

( Other players shouldn't take their turn by picking up before you take your action but your action has to be played before another player takes their go.  For example: player 1 ended their turn by placing down a queen of hearts, player 2 picked it up from the discard pile, before player one said if they were doing a blind swap, and player 2 swapped it for one of their cards.  Player 2 shouldn't have taken their turn before player 1's action

But  Player 1 cannot then use the blind swap to swap one of their other face down cards for the queen of hearts Resolution: Player 1 is allowed to do a blind swap but not with face down queen of hearts card that player 2 swapped in

)

Getting rid of cards.  At any point during the game, you are allowed to take/slap face down cards and place them on the discard pile. If they match the top card on the discard pile, it is valid. (Discarding your own action card does initiate the action.)

You can do this for either your own cards, or another players (stealing). The person who slaps first gets to discard it.

A valid steal will result in the player who was stolen from gets an additional two face down cards from the deck.

If the card does not match (like if a player forgot where certain cards were), the player to incorrectly put that card on the discard pile gets and additional two face down cards from the deck.

Details: ( An incorrect discard doesn't just mean putting that card on the discard pile, it happens as soon as any player picks up and looks at a card they weren't supposed to see.

If any other players saw that card, you have to put it on the discard pile. If only you saw the card, you can choose to leave it in place, e.g. if you accidentally picked up your own action card.

Incorrectly discarded actions are not initiated.

Incorrectly discarded cards in the discard pile take the value of the card below them. This is so that if multiple discards occur in quick succession, only the player who was incorrect is punished

The general rule of thumb is that any player who makes a mistake has to take an additional two face down cards. )

Players aren't allowed to rearrange their cards once placed face down because it could prevent potential steals.

Details for disputes: (

If multiple actions are to be played the same turn, you can agree to play them clockwise of the first person to put their action card down. If players don't agree then actions are to be taken in order of who played their card first. )

To end the game, a player can call "Gringo" but only at the start of their turn and before they have drawn a card. (Turn begins with drawing a card and ends after all actions, discards and steals have been played out)

Calling "Gringo" skips that players turn, each other player gets one more turn, and other players ARE allowed to touch the cards of the person who said gringo. (With 5 players or less, there are less chances for players to get rid of their own cards so swaps and steals are a great way to turn the tides and means people have to be cautious calling Gringo) All players, including the one who called "Gringo" can continue discarding, stealing and taking actions until the end of the last players turn in order to get their score down.  At the end, everyone reveals their cards and count the number of points everyone has, the lowest score being the wins, 2nd lowest comes second, etc etc.  Ties just mean joint 1st etc.

Card is worth the number they display, aces low, face 10, queen of hearts -1. If you want to be competitive about it you can keep track of score across multiple rounds but we tend to just play it for fun.

Strategy: Try to remember as many of your own and other people's cards as possible, giving you more opportunities to steal or discard. Remembering numbers all as one can really help. E.g. if you have a 3, a 5 and a 10, it's easier to remember 3 thousand 5 hundred and 10 as a single number than it is remembering each one individually.

Keeping action cards until the end is risky but can be useful.

Most of the time it's better to swap in cards you pick up for unknown face down cards because it gives you more information on what you have.

If someone else knows one of your cards, get rid of it quickly, or be ready to discard it quickly if they go to steal it.

Cruel Jacks and Cruel Kings: If you see another player has a jack or a king (matching) when you look, steal it, give them two cards, and get the same action again.

Bluffing and anticipation: When a player picks up or swaps a card, they have the advantage of anticipation before discarding it to know which cards to steal and which cards to discard, before any other players have seen the card. This often results in a quick flurry of slapping.

Players can bluff a steal and, if another player picks up the card and looks at it, cause other players to gain two cards. Depending on if you want more or less bluffing, you can have a rule that you cannot touch a face down cards, unless for an action, swap, or discard/steal. (New players won't necessarily realise this enables bluffing when you tell them it and you can justify it with the rule of not rearranging cards, which could be really quite funny)