BorderCap Gin:  2 To 4 Players

What You Should Know Before You Play

The object of the game is to use what you learn about U.S. state capitals and border states of U.S. states to be the first player with 50 points. Your goal is to collect winning groups of cards based on states that either (1) border each other, or (2) have state capitals that begin with the same first letter. Your opponents, of course, are attempting to do the same thing.  You must try to beat them to it. 

Play a round at a time until someone wins the game. Use only the GeoPlunge cards, and shuffle the deck after every round. 

How to Play

¨         To start each round, deal every player 7 cards except the player to the dealer’s left gets 8 cards.  That player begins the round by discarding a card from his or her hand, and placing the card face-up on the table. 

¨         Where there are only 2 players, for the rest of the round the players take turns picking a card -- by either taking the most recent card discarded by the other player or picking the next card in the deck (which a player cannot look at unless he or she picks it) – and then discarding a card from his or her hand.  However, twice during each round a player may put the card he or she discards face-down on the table.  When a player does so, the other player cannot look at that card or pick it, and the other player must take the next card in the deck.

¨         Where there are 3 or 4 players, only a player to the left of the player that just discarded a card may pick that card. 

What You Need to Win a Round

¨      To win a round you must be the first player to have two groups of cards as follows: 

1.      One group must be four cards in which either

--   one of the cards in the group is a border state of all of the other three cards in       the group, OR

--   all of the cards in the group have state capitals that begin with the same first letter. 

2.      The other group must be three cards in which either

   --   one of the cards in the group is a border state of both of the other cards in                     the group, OR

--   all of the cards in the group have state capitals that begin with the same first letter. 

¨      A player cannot use the same card in both groups.

Keeping Score

You get 20 points for winning a round.  You get 10 bonus points if your winning group of 4 cards consists of (1) at least 2 states that each border all of the other states in the group, or (2) 4 cards whose state capitals all begin with the same first letter.