Trash Card Game Rules: How to Play Trash (Garbage)

These trash card game rules will have you playing in five minutes. Trash (also called garbage or trash can) is a simple, fast card game where each player tries to fill a layout of face-down cards from ace to 10 by flipping and swapping. There is no reading or complicated scoring, so it is a favorite with kids, grandparents and anyone who wants a light game between bigger ones. Below are the standard rules for 2 players, how to add more players, and the house rules about jacks, queens and kings that you should agree before you deal.

Quick rules

• Goal: be the first to replace every face-down card in your layout with the correct face-up card, ace through 10.
• Each player is dealt 10 cards face down in two rows of five. The top row stands for ace to 5, the bottom row for 6 to 10.
• On your turn, draw a card. If it fits an empty spot, place it there face up and pick up the card it replaces.
• Keep going with each new card until you draw one you cannot use, then discard it and your turn ends.
• Jacks are wild. Queens and kings are trash and end your turn.
• The first player to complete their layout wins the round and plays the next round with one fewer card.
• The first player to complete a round with just one card (the ace spot) wins the game.

What you need

• One standard 52-card deck for 2 players. Add a second deck for 3 or 4 players.
• A table with room for each player's two rows of cards.
• Optional: the scoreboard if you play the points version.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal 10 cards face down to each player, one at a time.
2. Each player lays their 10 cards out in two rows of five, without looking at them. Top row, left to right, is ace, 2, 3, 4, 5. Bottom row, left to right, is 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
3. Place the rest of the deck face down in the middle as the draw pile. Turn the top card face up to start the discard pile (the "trash").
4. The player to the dealer's left goes first.

How to play

Taking a turn

1. Draw the top card of the draw pile, or take the top card of the discard pile if it is useful to you.
2. If the card is an ace to 10 and its spot in your layout is still face down, put it face up in that spot. Pick up the face-down card that was there.
3. Look at the card you picked up. If it fits another face-down spot, place it and pick up the card underneath. Keep going.
4. Your turn ends when you hold a card you cannot place: a card whose spot is already filled, a queen or a king. Put that card on the discard pile.

Wild jacks

A jack can go into any face-down spot. Pick up the card that was there and carry on. Later, if you uncover the real card for that spot, you can swap it in and move the jack to another face-down spot, which keeps your turn going. Jacks can only be moved within your own layout, never taken from another player.

Ending a round

When a player fills every spot in their layout, they call "trash" and the round ends. In the most common rules, each other player gets one final turn to try to finish too. Any player who completes their layout in that round moves on with one fewer card.

Next rounds

A player who completed their layout is dealt one fewer card next round: 9 cards cover ace to 9, then 8 cards cover ace to 8, and so on. Players who did not finish are dealt the same number again. Higher numbers in a shorter layout are now trash for that player.

Scoring

The basic game does not use points: you track how many cards each player has in their layout. The table shows the usual progress.

Some families prefer a points version: finishing a round scores nothing and every face-down card left in a player's layout counts 1 penalty point. Lowest total after ten rounds wins.

How to win

Work your layout down from 10 cards to 1. The first player to fill a 1-card layout, which means placing an ace or a wild jack in the single spot, wins the game.

Variations

• Kings wild: many families play with kings wild instead of jacks, and jacks and queens as trash. This is the most common difference between rule sets.
• No discard pile pick-ups: a stricter version where you may only draw from the stock.
• 3 or 4 players: shuffle two decks together so there are enough cards for every layout.
• Pass the trash: instead of discarding to the middle, you pass your unusable card to the next player, who may use it or pass it on.

Tips and strategy

• Watch the discard pile. A card your opponent just threw away might fill your spot, and taking it starts a chain.
• Save wild jacks for spots that are hard to fill late in the round.
• Notice which spots your opponent has already filled, so you know which cards they will throw back.
• Count how many cards of a rank are visible before waiting on one.

House rules to agree first

• Which card is wild: jacks or kings.
• Whether other players get a final turn after someone calls "trash".
• Whether you may take the top card from the discard pile.
• What to do when the draw pile runs out (usually shuffle the discards to form a new pile).

For more quick, easy games try war, go fish, golf or our list of card games for kids.