Pay or Play is a fun little game for kids aged 4 to 7. It allows children to develop their ordering and number sequencing skills. It’s quick and easy to learn, and can be modified to be easier or harder depending on if you’d like to make things more interesting for your child. Materials are easy to obtain, so you can play whenever you’d like.
Setting-Up Pay or Play Card Game
This game requires 2 to 4 players, and it needs only a deck of cards, a roll of pennies (or anything similar, like counters), and a bowl or cup.
With that, here’s how you set up Pay or Play:
- Each player needs 10 pennies. You can change the penny amount to whatever you’d like, but everyone must get the same amount of pennies
- The dealer passes 7 cards out to each player, all face down.
- The rest of the deck is placed face up in the middle of the table where all players can grab a card when they need to. This is the draw pile.
- Place the cup/bowl in the center of the table. This will be where the pennies go and is called the “kitty”.
- Discard any Jokers. They’re useless in this game.
Rules of Pay or Play Card Game
The aim of the game is to get rid of all the cards in your hand without losing all your pennies.
- Turns are taken clockwise, so the player left of the dealer will begin.
- The first player had to place an Ace (it doesn’t matter what kind) on the table. It can be from either their hand or from the draw pool on the table. If they can’t do that, the player must place a penny in the cup, or “kitty.”
- If an Ace has not been placed, the next player has to either put one down or put a penny in the kitty. This goes on until an Ace is placed.
- The next player will play the 2 from their hand or from the draw pile. If the player can’t play a 2, then the player must place a coin in the kitty. (Optional: If you want to make it harder, you can change the rules so that only the same suit can be placed after the ace).
- This continues all the way up until a king is placed. The player who placed the King will begin the next round by selecting an Ace of any suit.
- This cycle starts again. Players keep putting down their cards, trying to empty their hand first while still keeping at least 1 penny at all times.
- Players who run out of coins instantly lose and can no longer play until the game is finished.
- The first player who gets rid of all the cards in their hand while still maintaining at least one coin will win the game.
- If the other players lose all their pennies before all the cards run out, then the remaining player wins automatically, regardless of how many cards they have.
