Accordion

Score Distribution

• 2 Suits
• 4 Suits

Rules of Accordion

The cards of the entire deck are placed in a line. The goal is to remove as many cards as you can from the line. You win if you have only three or fewer cards left at the end.

At each step, you can move a card either one spot or three spots ahead in the line if it has the same suit or rank as the original card at that position. The original card is then removed from the line, and the gap in the line is filled by moving the cards behind the gap up one spot each.

For example, let's say the line has the following five cards remaining: 4♥ 5♦ 6♣ 6♥ 7♣.

There are two possible moves from here:

1. Move 6♥ up one spot and remove 6♣. After this move, the line becomes 4♥ 5♦ 6♥ 7♣.
2. Move 6♥ three spots ahead and remove 4♥. After this move, the line becomes 6♥ 5♦ 6♣ 7♣.

Note that no follow-up moves are available if the first option is chosen, and the game will end with four cards left.

On the other hand, if the second option is chosen, it can be followed up by moving 7♣ one spot ahead and removing 6♣. In this case, the game will end with only three cards left.