Streak
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Best
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The schoolyard slapping game. Cards flip onto the pile from both sides in turn, and the first hand to slap a double or a sandwich wins the whole pile. Jacks, queens, kings and aces start challenges, a wrong slap costs you a card, and every rival you beat reacts faster than the last.
The deck is thirty-two cards, seven through ace in every suit, split between you and the rival. Cards are turned onto the pile in the middle automatically, one from each side in turn; your count is at the bottom and the rival's at the top, and the side about to play is outlined. You never have to turn a card yourself. All you do is watch the pile and slap it.
Slap the pile when the top two cards are the same rank, a double such as seven on seven, or when the top card matches the card two below it with one different card in between, a sandwich such as seven, king, seven. Tap the pile itself or the big slap button. Whoever hits first takes every card in the pile and plays the next card. The last three cards are fanned out so you can always see a sandwich coming.
A jack, queen, king or ace starts a challenge. The other side then has one, two, three or four cards respectively to turn up a jack, queen, king or ace of their own. If they manage it the challenge passes back the other way; if they run out of chances, the side that started it takes the pile after a short pause. A slap during that pause still wins the pile first.
Slapping when there is no double or sandwich is a mistake: one of your cards is burned face down under the pile, and whoever wins that pile later gets it. The rival makes the same mistake now and then at low levels. When a side has to play and has no cards left, it loses. Each win adds to your streak, and the next rival slaps about fourteen percent faster, so sooner or later one is quicker than you.
Watch the second card, not the top one. A double is easy to see, but the sandwich is where most slaps are won or lost, because it needs you to remember the card that has just been covered. Keep your eyes on the middle card of the fan: whenever a new card lands, compare it with the card two below. That habit catches sandwiches as fast as doubles.
Rest your thumb on the slap button. Reaction races are decided by tens of milliseconds, and the time it takes to move your hand to the screen is often longer than the difference between you and the rival. The whole pile is a target too, so keep your thumb hovering over whichever you find easier and do not lift it away between cards.
A wrong slap is cheaper than it feels but it adds up. One burned card rarely decides a game, but it hands a card to whoever wins the next pile, and a nervous habit of slapping near-misses such as seven, eight can bleed half a dozen cards over a game. Slap only on a real match. At low levels the rival makes this mistake itself, which is free cards for you.
Challenges are where piles grow. After an ace the other side may turn four cards before it is over, so the pile gets big and a double or sandwich inside a challenge is worth far more than one on a quiet turn. Stay sharpest while a challenge is running, and remember that a slap in the short pause before the challenger collects still steals the whole pile.