Yaniv

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. Calling Yaniv
6. Winning the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Yaniv is a draw-and-discard game with a twist: you do not want to collect cards, you want to get rid of the high ones. Every card has a point value, and you try to end a round with a hand worth as little as possible. As soon as you think you hold the smallest hand, you call "Yaniv!" and everyone shows their cards. If you were right, you score nothing and the others score their hands. If someone has as little as you or less, you are punished.

• Players: 2–5 (with 4 or 5 players, two decks shuffled together are more comfortable).
• You need: a 52-card deck plus the 2 jokers, and pen and paper for the scores.

Card values

Setup

1. Choose the first dealer at random. Deal and play go clockwise, and the deal passes to the left after each round.
2. Deal 5 cards to each player, one at a time, face down. Keep them hidden.
3. Put the rest face down in the middle as the draw pile.
4. Turn up its top card next to it. It starts the discard pile.

The player to the dealer's left starts the first round. In later rounds the winner of the previous round starts, because the first turn is an advantage.

Playing a turn

Unlike in rummy, you discard first and draw afterwards. On your turn you do one of two things:

• Discard and draw (the normal turn), or
• call "Yaniv!" – only at the very start of your turn, before you touch a card, and only if your hand is worth 5 points or less.

Discarding

Put one of these onto the discard pile, face up:

• a single card;
• a set – two or more cards of the same rank, e.g. 9♠ 9♦, or K♣ K♥ K♠;
• a run – three or more cards of the same suit in a row, e.g. 4♥ 5♥ 6♥. The Ace is always low (A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not).

A joker can stand in for any missing card in a run: 4♥ JK 6♥ is a run. On its own it is a single card worth 0. You may discard only one single card or one combination per turn: with 5-5-5-9-9 in your hand you throw the 5s or the 9s, not both.

Lay a run down in order, either from low to high or from high to low, so that the cards at its two ends are clear.

Drawing

After you have discarded, take one card into your hand from either:

• the draw pile (top card, unseen), or
• the cards the previous player discarded – but if that was a set or a run, only the first or the last card of it, not one from the middle. (On the very first turn of a round, that is the single upturned card.)

Example: Ben discards the run 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ (laid down in this order). Carla may take the 4♥ or the 6♥, but not the 5♥. If Ben had thrown 8♣ 8♦ 8♠ in that order, Carla could take the first 8♣ or the last 8♠, but not the 8♦.

That is why a set may be laid in any order: you decide which card the next player can see and reach. And be careful with jokers: a run that ends in a joker offers your neighbour a free 0.

If the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile (except the last discard) and turn it into a new draw pile.

Calling Yaniv

At the start of your turn, if your hand is worth 5 or less, you may call "Yaniv!" instead of playing. Nobody has to call: with 4 points you can also play on and try for lower.

You must call at the start of your own turn. If you reach a low hand by drawing, you wait for your next turn – and everyone else has a turn to lower their hand in the meantime.

When you call, everybody turns their cards face up and adds up the value.

• You have the lowest hand: you score 0. All the others score the value of their hands.
• Someone else has the same total or less – this is called an Asaf in Israel: you score your hand + 30 penalty points. The other players score their hands (and the player with the lowest hand scores that as well – no reward for having caught you).

The next round is started by the player with the lowest hand (with a tie, the first of them clockwise from the caller).

Winning the game

Keep a running total on paper. Your goal is to keep it low. When a player's total goes over 200, that player is out. The last player left wins. For a shorter evening agree on 100 as the limit.

Halving: at many tables, a player who lands on exactly 200 goes back to 100, and exactly 100 goes back to 50. That can make a risky call worth it when your hand + 30 would land you on one of these numbers.

If the last two players go over 200 in the same round, the one with the lower total wins.

Tips for beginners

• Throw away the high cards first: Kings, Queens and Jacks weigh 10 each.
• A pair or three of a kind is a great discard – it removes several heavy cards for a single draw.
• Note what your neighbour throws. If the discards look useful, you can draw them.
• Don't call Yaniv with 5 if the others have been throwing low cards. A failed call costs 30.
• Keep an Ace or a joker – they cost you almost nothing and help you build sets.

Variants

All optional – agree on them before you start.

• Call limit 7: you may call with 7 or less. A higher limit makes rounds shorter (good for 5 or more players).
• Any card of a set: the next player may take any card of a thrown set, not only the first or the last one.
• Slam-down: if you draw a card that would have fitted your discard (a second 6 after you threw a 6, or the 7♥ after 4♥ 5♥ 6♥), you may lay it on your discard at once and don't have to draw another card. It must be done before the next player has discarded.
• Jokers in sets: a joker may join a set as well.
• Kluft: the Dutch version. Only the top card of the discard pile can be taken, and the player laying a run decides which end lies on top. Jokers are just cards worth 0.
• Different halving: at some tables every multiple of 50 (50, 100, 150, 200) takes 50 points off; at others the total is halved.
• No Yaniv on the first turn: nobody may call before every player has had one turn.