Your first game

Dealt In is shithead over the miles — you, your friends, one table, each on your own phone, each move when you get to it. Here's the whole thing, screen by screen. Nothing to install: it's a website that behaves like an app.

1. Get dealt inthe door — once

   Open dealtin.cards. Type a name your friends will know you by, your email, and a PIN (). That's your seat at every table from now on — forget the PIN and we'll email you a code to get back in. Tap Deal me in.

   Say yes to notifications when your phone asks. They tell you when it's your go, when someone deals you in, and when the game ends — even with the app closed.

   screenshot: the door (name · username · PIN · Deal me in)

2. Find your friendsthe Friends tab

   Bottom of every screen: Home · Explore · Friends · Board. On Friends, type a friend's username and send the request; they say yes on their phone. Or tap Invite someone to play and share your link — anyone who opens it lands at the door, and when they're in, you're friends.

   screenshot: the Friends tab

3. Deal a gameHome → the gold button → New game

   Pick how many decks (two is our usual), how many table cards each, how many in hand, and the power cards — "The way we play" is the house rules; "Classic" if you learned it somewhere else. Then the players: tap each seat and pick a friend. Invite sends the invitations; nothing deals until people answer.

   

4. The invitationon whichever screen you're on

   When someone deals you in, an invitation rises on your phone: who's hosting, who else is at the table, and your answer — Deal me in or Not now. The host sees the answers come in; the moment everyone's in, the cards are dealt.

   

5. Setting upyour table cards

   You get a row of face-down cards you can't see, a row of face-up cards on top of them, and a hand. Before play, you can swap cards between your hand and your face-up row: tap a hand card, tap a face-up card, Swap. Put your strongest cards face-up — they're your endgame. Tap Ready when you're set; play starts when everyone is.

   

   Why that row is a strong one. Your face-up cards are the endgame you can see coming — and you can lay every card of the same rank in one go. Four kings together, with a wild joker to ride along as a fifth, means the whole row can go in a single turn the moment the pile allows a king. The only thing that stops it is a 7 from the other side (the next card must be lower, and a joker can't go higher on a 7) — so if a 7 lands on you, you pick up, and if they have a second 7, you pick up again. Everything else on the table, those kings beat. Pair your strong cards face-up; spend the swap phase building rows like this.

   

   The riskier version. Four fives look like nothing — but four of a rank is four of a rank: they go in one turn too, and they'll clear onto most piles, because the pile only has to be showing a 5 or lower (or reset by a 2). What makes it riskier than the kings is the everyday middle of the game: any 6, 8, 9, jack, queen, king or ace sitting on the pile and the fives can't go — so you're waiting on a low card or a reset, not just dodging a 7. High and matched beats low and matched; low and matched still beats five odd cards.
   The ? beside the table's name shows why that person goes first — the house picks the rule.
6. Your gothe felt

   The felt reads top to bottom: the other players and their face-up cards · the deck and the pile in the middle, with the hint beside them (Your go, Anything, Go lower) · your table cards · your hand, the playable cards in the gold box. Tap a card to lift it (tap another of the same rank to play them together), then tap the pile. Can't go? Tap the pile to pick it up. When it's someone else's go, their name is gold up top — put the phone down, a notification will tell you.

   

   The power cards are the whole game — 2 resets, 3 mirrors, 7 makes the next player go lower, 10 burns the pile, J reverses, jokers are wild. The full list, and what "the way we play" means: the rules.
7. Going outhand → face-up → face-down

   Hand empty and the deck gone? You play your face-up cards. Those gone? You play your face-down cards blind — tap one, it flips, and it plays if it can (if it can't, the pile's yours). First out is first; the last one holding cards is the shithead.

   screenshot: down to the face-down cards — one tapped, flipping

8. The shitheadthe results

   When the last card lands, the results rise on everyone's phone: the finishing order, and the 💩 falling onto the shithead's name. They wear it — beside their name at every Shithead table — until someone else loses a game of Shithead they're sitting at. The Board keeps the score: 🥇🥈🥉 and how many times each of you has worn the hat.

   

9. AgainRematch

   Rematch deals the same table again, straight away — everyone's rung. New game starts fresh. Home takes you back to every table you're at: whose go it is, and anything waiting on you.

Every move at a Dealt In table is a row in the log, so a game can be read back move by move. Here's the one the two setups above were built for — the four kings and a joker against the four fives — and the moves a beginner would ask about.

• Spend power cards one at a time. Move 18: a 2 to reset the pile — holding a second 2. Move 22: a 10 to burn it — holding a second 10. Move 25: a joker — holding the other joker. Each held-back card came out later exactly when it was needed (moves 20, 43, 42). Playing a pair of 2s or 10s together is a waste: one does the job, the other is your next escape.
• Burn, then go again. A 10 clears the pile and gives you another go on an empty one — move 34 then 35, move 43 then 44: burn, then lay four fives on nothing. That's the move that makes a low row work.
• Aces are for pairs. Move 21: both aces together on a 2. Top of the deck, nothing sits on them but a 2, a 3 (mirror), a 10 or a joker — so they were answered by a 10 (move 22). An ace played alone invites a mirror; two aces at once cost the other side a power card.
• The rows went in one go. Move 38: four kings from the face-up row in a single turn; move 44: four fives the same way. The joker and the 3 that shared those rows went the turn after — a wild card can ride with a rank, but it's often worth more on its own.
• The blind cards decide it. From move 40 both players were flipping face-down cards they couldn't see. One side flipped an ace, a 2, a 2, a 2 and an ace — five playable flips out of five. The other flipped a 7, a 9 and a 2 into the wrong piles. Nothing in the setup could change that; it's why you put your best cards face-up, not face-down: the face-down ones are luck, the face-up ones are yours.
• The 7 is the only answer to kings. Move 49: a 7 flipped blind, played onto a 2 — the next card had to go lower, and a 2 (move 51) reset it straight back. Sevens force; 2s undo. Keep one of each as long as you can.