Cards are shuffled. The first 25 cards are dealt face-up, one at a time, and arranged into columns of red and black. The player may rearrange the words as often as desired but may not add more cards. Joust Joust is a variation for two players. Seven piles each containing seven cards are dealt face-down in a horizontal row.
Players choose for first play with remaining cards which are put aside.
The top card in each pile is turned up and the first player attempts to form a word from the exposed cards. Otherwise, the next player goes and turns up the cards that are faced-down and repeats the above procedure. If both players PASS consecutively, the game is declared over and the points are tallied. The highest number of points wins the game. 3 red 2 black . . .