How To Play Brain Damage

Brain Damage, traditionally is a drinking game and as the name of the game might suggest, you can get pretty drunk when playing it, so beware. Here are the basic rules for Brain Damage. However, if you just want to play the game, you can substitute poker chips or coins for the drinks.

Set Up:

1. You will need a regular deck of cards and some alcohol (or a substitute for betting purposes).
2. Remove all of the eights, nines, and red tens from the deck and shuffle the cards.

Points:

To determine scoring, the point values of the cards for Brain Damage are as follows.

1. The cards numbered 2 through 7 are equal to the value of the card.
2. Each face card is worth a half a point (1/2).
3. The two black tens are worth 7 1/2 points.

Object:

The object of Brain Damage is to get a score as close to 7 1/2 as you can without going over.

Play:

This game is ideal for two people or more. Here are the rules of play for Brain Damage.

1. Determine who will deal first.
2. The dealer deals one card to a player face down and one to himself (or herself), also face down.
3. The player looks at his or her card and makes a bet of a number of drinks (or substitute) based on his or her confidence on winning the hand.
4. Keeping the originally dealt card face down, the player asks for additional cards one by one until they are satisfied with their final score. It's important to remember that they don't want to go over 7 1/2 points.
5. When the player is finished taking cards, it's the dealer's turn. The dealer now turns his or her card face up.
6. The dealer then takes as many cards as he or she wants one by one in the same manner as the player.
7. When the dealer is finished, the player reveals his or her face down card.
8. The person who is the closest to 7 1/2 points without going over wins the hand.
9. IMPORTANT: Any person who goes over 7 1/2 points busts and loses the hand of Brain Damage. What's more, the person who busts FIRST loses the hand.
10. The loser pays up and the deal rotates clockwise and the play begins again.