How to play Trash
Trash (also known as Garbage) is a 2–6 player card game about racing to flip your own numbered layout face-up before anyone else. Here's exactly how it works, matching how Card Night deals and plays it.
The goal
Every player has their own layout of face-down card slots, numbered Ace through 10 (or Ace through 6 in a three-player match). Slot 1 wants an Ace, slot 2 wants a Two, and so on. Flip your entire layout face-up before anyone else does, and you've won the round.
Setup
- Two players: a 10-slot layout each, using a single 52-card deck.
- Three players: a shorter 6-slot layout each (Ace through 6 only), using two decks.
- Four to six players: a full 10-slot layout each, using two or three decks — enough that the stock never runs thin with more players at the table.
- Every slot deals face down. Nobody — not even you — knows what's underneath until it's flipped.
Card Night deals and shuffles for you automatically, and rotates who starts each round.
Taking your turn
On your turn, draw a card — either from the stock or the top of the discard pile. If it matches one of your own still-face-down slots by rank, you must place it there (placing is never optional when it's legal). That flips the slot face-up and reveals whatever card was hiding underneath — which becomes your new held card. Keep placing as long as you can:
- Draw, place, flip, place again, flip again—a good turn can chain through several of your own slots before it ends.
- The chain ends the instant your held card can't go anywhere: discard it, and play passes to the next player.
Wild Kings, dead Jacks and Queens
A King is wild — it fits into any of your still-face-down slots, whichever one you choose. A Jack or Queen never fits anywhere at all (no layout has a slot numbered past 10) — you'll always discard one the instant you draw it.
Going out, and last licks
The moment your entire layout is face-up, you've gone out. Everyone else still in the round gets exactly one more turn — a last chance to also go out and tie you. Once every remaining player has had that final turn, the round is over.
Winning the match
How a round win turns into a match win depends on the table size:
- Two or three players: the match is a ladder. Win a round and your own layout shrinks by one slot for next round — everyone else's stays the same size. Win a round while you're already down to a single slot, and you win the whole match.
- Four to six players: there's no ladder — the very first round decides the match. Go out first and you've won outright.
In a ladder match, the next round doesn't deal until every surviving player taps Ready for next round, so nobody's result flashes by unseen.
Tips
- Take the discard when it helps you. It's the only card on the table whose identity you know before committing to it — if it fits a slot you still need, it's almost always better than a blind draw from stock.
- A King is a decision, not a guaranteed win. It can go anywhere, so save it for whichever slot you're least likely to fill naturally — usually the rank you've seen the fewest of.
- Watch how close everyone else is. Once someone goes out, your very next turn might be your last one this round — don't waste it on a card you could've discarded a turn earlier.
- On the ladder, one card is do-or-die. Winning a round when you're already down to your last slot ends the whole match — play that round like it's the only one that matters, because it might be.