Gameplay

At the beginning of a turn, players may play cards or call Yaniv.

Play cards / Draw or Pick up a card

A player may play any of the following sets:

• A single card

• Two or more cards of the same rank (jokers are not allowed)

• Three or more cards of consecutive ranks in the same suit (jokers can substitute any cards)

After playing a set, the player must draw a card or pick up a card from a set played by the previous player.

If the previous player played several cards, only the first or the last card can be picked up.

Call Yaniv

Instead of playing cards, a player may call Yaniv and end the round if the hand score is less than a certain value.

All players reveal their hand. If the caller's hand score is the lowest, they score nothing.

If another player has a total less than or equal to the caller's, the caller scores penalty points equal to their card total plus 30.

Other players than callers score penalty points equal to their hand value regardless.

The winner of the round is the player with the lowest hand value (not necessarily the caller), and that player starts the next round.

If a player's score reaches predetermined exact point, their points are reduced.

Game end

Scores are kept from round to round. Any player who has more than certain points is eliminated from the game. The game continues with the remaining players, until only one survives.

Variants

In BGA Yaniv table creator can choose Yaniv call limit, elimination threshold, score deduction point and amount, number of decks used, and number of dealt cards for each round.

Also, 'Slapdown' option is available.

Slapdown

If a player draws a card of the same rank from the deck as the single card they have just discarded, the card may be discarded to reduce the number of cards in hand.

If a slapdown decreases hand size to 0, the player must call Yaniv next turn.