Black Peter

About the game

An English-language edition of Schwarzer Peter: the old card game of pairs, and of the one card nobody wants to keep.

Monte’s Black Cat is a multiplayer card game for the web browser, for two to six players. Anyone can open a private room and send the invitation link to friends; everyone picks a nickname and plays in the browser, on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install. The original cards are drawn in the style of a 1920s pack: fifteen pairs of animal couples, and one mischievous black cat.

How a game begins

1. Anyone can open a private room and send its invitation link to friends.
2. Everyone picks a nickname and plays in the browser. There is no account to make.
3. Two to six players take part in a round; anyone else can watch and take a free seat in the next.
4. The game opens on its own website, not inside this page.

The rules

The deck has thirty-one cards: fifteen pairs, and a single Black Peter, the black cat. From behind, all of them look alike.

1. All the cards are dealt, so some players may hold one card more. Every pair in a hand is laid down at once, automatically.
2. In turn, each player draws one hidden card from the next player who still has cards, choosing a position in that hand. A new pair is laid down automatically.
3. You may rearrange or shuffle your own hand at any time, so nobody knows where Black Peter hides.
4. Whoever runs out of cards is safe for the rest of the round.
5. The last player left holding Black Peter loses the round and earns a black paw print. The room keeps a tally from round to round.
6. The host starts the next round; by tradition, the player who lost deals.