How to Play Beggar My Neighbor Cards

Children love to make their parents pay. In the game Beggar My Neighbor, players pay each other's debts until someone runs out of cards. Also called Strip Jack Naked or Beat Your Neighbor Out of Doors, this game is simple and can be played for hours. It doesn't even require a complete deck of cards so the leftovers found in the bottom drawer will work just fine.

Assemble at least two people but the more the merrier. Add more cards as you add players.

Remove the Jokers from the deck(s) and deal face down evenly between the players. Don't look at your cards. Just keep them in a pile face down in front of you.

Turn up one card in the center of the table, starting with the person to the left of the dealer. If it is numeric or "ordinary" card (2-10), skip to the next player. No action is required.

Force your neighbor to the left to pay a "fine" if the card flipped up is an Ace, King, Queen or Jack, which are called "court" cards. There is a fee associated with each court card and it must be paid by your neighbor, one card at a time. A Jack requires the payment of one card, a Queen requires the payment of two cards, the King requires three cards and the Ace requires a payment of four cards.

Flip up the payment card, one card at a time. If during the payment, you only turn up numeric or ordinary cards, the person who originally created the debt gets to pick up the whole deck in the center of the table and add it to his face down pile. Play then continues. If another court card is flipped, then the original debt is paid and the new debt moves onto the next player, depending on what court card they flipped.

Win all the cards from your neighbors and win the game. Players are eliminated one-by-one, as they run out of cards.