Note: This game is best described as a mix between modified versions of Kali Ki Rani and Slamwitch (also known as Egyptian Ratscrew). 

Another Note: This game has two versions - one for two players, and one for more than two players. While the two player version is very fun, the game becomes extremely fun with 4-8 players!

Game Setup

Players gather and sit in a circle. A standard 52 card deck is shuffled and then dealt around the circle, starting from the dealer's left, one card to each player. The dealing continues in this fashion until all the cards in the deck are dealt. As such, at the end of dealing, each player should have either one more card, the same number of cards, or one less card than each of the other players. Players should not look at their cards, and hold their cards in a stack, face down.

After the cards have been dealt, a round of Poker-style betting ensues. The players go around the circle, each saying a positive number (the first person to say a number is the one to the dealer's left). This number represents the minimum number of points that the player saying the number thinks they will win the game by. Each successive player must bet a higher number of points than the previous player, unless they "fold" and don't bet anymore. The round of betting ends when everyone has folded, except one person, who has bet the most. 

For example, let's say Nick, Duncan, and Varun are playing Game: Armani, and are sitting in a circle in that order. Nick bets 1 point, then Duncan bets 3 points, then Varun bets 5 points. Now, Nick bets 6 points. Duncan folds, and Varun bets 10 points. Nick folds. So, Varun won the betting. In winning the betting, Varun has made a commitment that he will win the game by at least 10 points. How are these points determined? This will be covered later. 

If you are playing with more than 2 players, teams must be chosen. Each player looks at the top card of their stack (which, remember, should be face down). Players announce the color of that card (red or black), then place that card randomly back in their stack, so they don't know where it is. Players with the same color top card are on the same team. If everyone has a top card of the same color, teams are redetermined by looking at the next card down, and so on and so forth. The teams may not be equal - it may be the case that there are 8 players, 7 of whom are on one team and 1 who is by themselves on the other. This is by design, and adds to the fun of the game! The betting from before applies to the teams - if Person A won the betting with a bet of 10 points, then, collectively, Person A's team must win by a minimum of 10 points. 

Game Play

The game play of Game: Armani is broken up into two stages; each is essentially a modified version of Slamwitch (Egyptian Ratscrew). Players go around the circle, each playing the top card from their stack face up on the table (making a stack of face up cards on the table). It is important to make sure that everyone sees the played card at the same time, including the person playing the card. The person who is playing the card should do so in a way that ensures they are not seeing the card before any of the other players.

Stage 1

In the first round of Stage 1, the player to the dealer's left places the first card. In successive rounds, whoever won the previous hand places the first card. How do you win a hand, you may ask? This is explained in Winning a Hand.

When a player wins a hand, they collect the face up stack and put it next to them for safekeeping. These won hands are not used until the end of Stage 1. After a player wins a hand, they place their top card face up on the table, starting the next face up stack. The player to their left places the next card, and the game continues. 

Players without cards are skipped when it comes to playing cards, but anyone, including players without cards, can slap to win a hand (see Winning a Hand). 

Once nobody has any cards left in their face down stacks, and all the hands are won, players combine their won hands and tally up their points. If playing with more than two people, teams combine their collective won hands and tally up their points. In both cases, combining the won hands creates a stack of cards, one for each team (or one for each player in a two player game), called the Final Stage 1 Stack. To calculate the points, the cards must be counted; each card is worth 1 point, with the exception of the Queen of Spades, which is worth 7 points.

After tallying up their points, both teams place their Final Stage 1 Stacks face up on the table, and fan their cards out, so that everyone can see all the cards in each of the two Final Stage 1 Stacks. These fans are called the Final Stage 1 Fans. If any card is not visible, any person can move the cards a little bit so that all the cards are visible. 

Remember the betting from Game Setup? That now comes into play. If the team that has the player who won the betting won Stage 1 by at least the amount of points they said they would, they get "Choosing Power". If that team lost Stage 1, or won by less than the minimum amount of points they said they would, then the other team gets "Choosing Power".

For example, let's say that the player who won the betting is on Team 1, and that they bet they would win the game by at least 17 points. Let's also say that Team 1 has 38 points and Team 2 has 20 points. So, Team 1 met their promise (they won by 18 points, and they promised they would win by at least 17), and so they get "Choosing Power". However, if Team 1 had 37 points and Team 2 had 21 points, Team 2 would get "Choosing Power".

Having "Choosing Power" gets a team (or player in a two player game) a significant advantage in Stage 2 of Game: Armani. Specifically, the team with "Choosing Power" gets to choose which of the two Final Stage 1 Fans they want to use for Stage 2. In addition, they get to pick X cards from the Final Stage 1 Fan they are not going to use to add to the fan they will use, where X is the number of players on the opposing team. After this process, both teams collapse their fan of cards into a stack, put them face down on the table, and shuffle them thoroughly. 

For example, let's say that Team 1 has "Choosing Power", has 3 players, 38 points, and that their Final Stage 1 Fan has 32 cards (including the Queen of Spades). Let's also say that Team 2 has 20 points, 5 players, and that their Final Stage 1 Fan has 20 cards. Finally, let's say that Team 1 determines that, even though Team 2's Final Stage 1 Fan has less cards than theirs, the cards in Team 2's Final Stage 1 Fan are better. So, Team 1 switches the Final Stage 1 Fans; Team 1 takes Team 2's Final Stage 1 Fan and gives Team 2 Team 1's Final Stage 1 Fan. After this switch, Team 1 takes 5 cards from the Final Stage 1 Fan that is now in Team 2's possession (and which originally belonged to Team 1). Both teams then collapse their new fans into stacks, put them face down on the table, and shuffle them. This example is analogous to the two player game as well, where Team 1 can be referred to as Player 1 and Team 2 can be referred to as Player 2. 

If you are playing a game with more than two players, the team without "Choosing Power" gets to pick a dealer for each team (i.e. a Team 1 member for Team 1, and a Team 2 member for Team 2). Then, each dealer deals the cards in their team's stack to each member of their team, face down, starting with the team member to their left (and in a similar fashion to what is described in Game Setup). Choosing the dealer for each team can be slightly strategic, based on the chosen dealer's position (i.e. giving 1 more card to a weaker player). 

Each player holds their stack face down. Stage 1 is now complete, and the stage is set for Stage 2 (pun intended!). 

Stage 2

Game play in Stage 2 is very similar to Stage 1. The player to the left of the original dealer from Game Setup goes first, placing the top card in their stack face up on the table. The person to their left follows, and so on. The only difference is, in Stage 2, when a hand is won, the player who won the hand turns it face down and puts it on the bottom of the stack they are holding in their hand, instead of putting it aside for safekeeping. It is important that the order of the cards from the face up stack is maintained when the player takes it and places it on the bottom of their own stack.

The game has two possible conclusions:

• Only one player has all of the cards in the deck in their face down stack

• One player plays their last card, which happens to be the Queen of Spades. In this case, the game ends immediately. This is the only point in the game where no slapping is allowed.

Remember, for Stage 2, nobody is allowed to look at the cards in their stack until they are played face up on the table for everyone to see!

When the game ends, the player/player's team responsible for the game ending is crowned winner of Game: Armani!

Winning a Hand

There are three ways to win a hand:

Slapping the Face Up Stack, which anyone can do at any time if

• The top 3 cards in the face up stack are XYX, where X and Y represent the values of the cards (2, 9, King, etc.)

• The top 2 cards in the face up stack are XX

The first person to slap the deck in these cases wins the hand. If a person (or multiple people) slap the deck when either of these two situations have not occurred, they need to burn their top card by taking it and putting it face up at the bottom of the face up stack. If a person incorrectly slaps a deck, as above, but does not have any cards to burn, then there are no consequences - but make sure that players are not abusing this rule. Players should only be slapping the deck if they genuinely think the two slapping conditions are applicable. 

A trick to determine who has slapped the deck first is to see whose hand is on the bottom! If Person A and Person B slap the deck, and Person A slaps first, then Person A's hand logically must be under Person B's hand.

Playing a Face Card (Ace, King, Queen, or Jack). If a player plays a face card, the next player has X opportunities (in a row) to play a face card. X is 4 if the card played is an Ace, 3 if the card played is a King, 2 for a Queen, and 1 for a Jack. If the next player does not play a face card after X attempts, the player who played the face card wins the hand. 

For example, let's again say that Nick, Duncan, and Varun are playing, in that order. Nick plays his top card, which is a Queen. Duncan then plays a 2, and then an Ace. He is safe! But now, Varun has 4 opportunities to play a face card. Varun then plays a 3, 4, 5, and a 10. Duncan wins the hand. 

Remember, whenever a player plays a card, they are just putting their top card face up on the table. Nobody is allowed to look at their cards before they play them. 

Also, slapping is allowed at any point in the game! If Varun, while hoping to play a face card after Duncan's Ace, plays a 2 and another 2, anyone (including Varun) can slap and win the hand.

Playing the Last Card. At any point in time, if you are the only player who has cards left in your face down stack (the cards you are holding), playing a card wins you the hand. In this special case, the hand includes the cards in the face up stack AND the cards in your hand. Be careful: slapping is allowed here, too.