White Elephant

White Elephant is a gift exchange card game, and as might be expected for anyone familiar with a “white elephant” exchange, the gifts are terrible — except if you can complete a collection of them, that is.

Each gift is a suit of cards numbered 0-10, and you want the lowest score possible. You collect cards by choosing them from the “gift exchange” in the center of the table or by trading for cards already taken. If you trade, you must place a trade chip in the center of the table, with this chip going to the player who chooses to take all remaining cards from the gift exchange. The round ends once each player has cards in front of them.

Aside from having low numbers, you can lower your score by having a collection of gifts as then each gift in the collection has a value of 1 instead of its indicated value. A collection, however, is determined by having a majority of cards in the set, so if others steal cards from you, they might also knock you out of contention for a collection…