President rules
President is a climbing game played with a standard 52-card deck, for 3 to 6 players. The goal is simple: get rid of every card in your hand before your opponents do. The tension comes from timing — when to spend your high cards and when to grit your teeth and pass.
Setup
Shuffle a standard 52-card deck and deal the entire deck around the table. With some player counts a few people will hold one extra card — that's normal and evens out over a session. On Discard Party the room shuffles and deals automatically, and the dealer leads the first pile.
Taking a turn
The leader starts a pile by playing a set: one card, a pair, three of a kind, or four of a kind. Play then moves around the table. On your turn you must beat the current set by playing the same number of cards of a strictly higher rank — a pair of kings beats a pair of nines, but a single king does not beat a pair of anything. If you can't beat it, or you'd rather save your cards, you pass.
Passing has teeth: once everyone else has passed on a set, the pile is cleared away and the last player who played gets to lead the next pile with anything they like. Leading is powerful, so a well-timed high set that scares everyone into passing buys you a free start.
Card ranks and strategy
Cards climb in the usual order with high cards at the top of the ladder, so lone low cards are the hardest to shed. Try to lead your weak singles early while others still have small cards to spend, and keep a matched pair or a high set in reserve to win a pile late and lead again. Watch the card counts — when an opponent is down to a card or two, think hard before handing them a cheap pile.
Winning
The first player to play their last card wins the hand and is crowned President. Remaining players can keep playing out the hand to settle the full pecking order, and the fun of a session is the rematch — defend the title or claw your way up from the bottom.
Common variations and house rules
Traditional tables add a card tax between hands — the loser hands their best cards to the President in exchange for junk — along with twists like 2s clearing the pile or equal-rank plays skipping the next player. Discard Party plays the clean core rules — beat the set or pass — which keeps every hand a fresh, fair race and makes it easy to teach new players mid-session.
Ready to deal a hand?
Create a private President room, send your friends the link, and you'll be playing in under a minute. Free, no accounts, and it works on any phone.