The Game of 50 States

Play what you capture. Capture to win.

Start with seven cards each, drawn from one deck of fifty states. High cards win.

Choose one card and press Confirm to see the computer’s choice. The highest card wins the match–and the winning card is discarded from the game. But the winner captures the losing card–which will be playable in the next round. The round continues until one player has played all their cards.

Use unplayed and captured cards to make the next hand. Game matches continue until either player runs out of playable cards. The last player holding cards wins the game.

Meet your rival: a randomly chosen fictional steward of the cards.

Relaxed plays randomly; Strategic uses public result history. Difficulty stays fixed for the game.

Your cards are dealt when you press Play.

Global Leaderboard coming soon. Stay tuned!

Your trophies

Each difficulty has its own trophies: Relaxed bronze and Strategic silver. Ten stars of one color become one medal of that color; ten medals become one shield, and ten shields become one flag. Colors never mix. Existing wins belong to bronze; lifetime totals and old records are preserved.

One same-color star per win. A same-color flag represents 1,000 wins in that mode.

Your rival record

Finish a game to start your rival record.

Recorded completed games by rival and selected difficulty
RivalGamesWinsWin %

Game rules

Meet your rival: a randomly chosen fictional steward of the cards.

  1. You and the computer each receive seven random cards from the same fifty-card deck. The other thirty-six cards sit this game out.
  2. Choose a card from your hand, then press Confirm to reveal both choices. The computer commits before you choose. It cannot see your hand or selection; it only remembers cards already shown in results. Round one is random in every mode. Later Strategic choices use that public history.
  3. The higher number wins the match. That winning card is discarded from the game; its owner captures the lower card for the next round.
  4. Keep playing until either current hand is empty. Any unplayed cards stay with their owner—only the winning card spent in each match is discarded.
  5. Combine your retained, unplayed cards with your captures to make your next hand. A player with no captures can still continue if they have retained cards. Only a player with an empty combined hand is out; the other player wins.
  6. Every card has a unique statehood rank, so every match has a winner.
  7. A win adds one star only to the difficulty selected when the game began: bronze for Relaxed and silver for Strategic. Ten same-color stars become one same-color medal, ten medals one shield, ten shields one flag. There are no mixed-color conversions. Existing wins map to bronze.