4. Letters – The Alphabet Connection

Number of Players

2-6 players

Suitable Ages

5 years and older

Playing Time

15-30 minutes

What do you need?

One deck Multi Playing Cards. This contains 2 instances of all letters in the alphabet. Remove the joker cards.

Set up

All cards are in play (55 in total). Shuffle all cards and choose a dealer. The dealer deals everybody 5 cards and makes a stock from the rest of the cards.

Basic Rules

The player next to the dealer (in a clockwise fashion) starts the game by playing a card face up on the table. The player may play every letter except the “A” or the “Z”. For this example, we’re going to assume that he player plays the letter “L”. After playing the card, the starting player draws one new card from the stock, upon which the turn ends and the next player is up.

The next player looks in his or her hand to see if they have one or more letters that “connect” to the “L” card that the previous player put down, in this case the letters “K” or “M”. If he or she can, the card (or cards) are placed next to the card that is already on the table. If the player cannot “connect” a card (i.e., the player has no “K” or “M” card, he or she starts a new alphabet line by placing one of their own cards on the table. This can be either above or underneath the “L” card the previous player played. Let’s say, for example, that the player cannot connect a card and starts a new line with the letter “F.

Every turn, a player can either “connect ” one or more cards to any existing line, or start a new alphabet line. If a player can connect a card, then they must do so. The first player who creates a five-letter line alphabetical order, shouts out the letters in sequence. (for example: “D, E, F, G, H!”)

The player then takes the five cards off the table and puts them in their area as a little pile, with the highest value of the pile as the top card. This value can be found in the third section of the Multi Playing Card (first row, third from the left). This way, every player can keep track of their opponents’ scores. If a player cannot play another letter ,they draw new cards from the stock until their hand is back at five cards. By touching the stock to draw a card from the stock, the player ends the turn and the next player is up.

If a player manages to complete a five card line in which the letters “A” or “Z” are present, they may double the points earned by that line.

The game ends when the draw pile is exhausted and none of the players can connect any additional cards. When this happens, the players count their scores and the player with the highest score wins the game!

We wish you a lot of alphabet fun. Good luck!