How to Play Seep

The Basics

With four players you play in teams of two — you and the player sitting opposite you against the other pair. With two players it's head-to-head. A standard 52-card deck is used, no jokers.

Every card has a capture value: Ace = 1, number cards = face value, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13.

On your turn you play exactly one card from your hand and use it to capture cards from the table, build a house, or throw it to the table. Cards your side captures earn points — but only some cards are worth anything.

Which Cards Score

Cards		Points
Every spade	A♠ through K♠	face value (1–13)
Ten of diamonds	10♦	6
The other aces	A♥ A♦ A♣	1 each
Everything else		0
Whole deck		100

Spades are the treasure — the thirteen spades alone carry 91 of the 100 points. Fight for them.

The Deal & The Bid

1. The starting player is dealt 4 cards and must choose one of them, of value 9 or higher, as their first card — this is their bid. (The shuffle guarantees these first four cards always include at least one 9, 10, J, Q or K.)

2. Four cards are dealt face-up to the table.

3. The starting player makes the opening move, which must use the bid value: build a house of that value, capture with a card of that value, or throw the bid card to the table.

4. The rest of the deck is dealt: the starting player receives 8 more cards and everyone else 12, so all hands hold 12. In a 4-player game that uses the whole deck. In a 2-player game a second deal of 12 cards each follows once the first hands are played out.

Your Turn — Three Moves

Move 1

Capture

Play a card and pick up table cards with it. Your card captures:

every loose card of the same value,
any group of loose cards that add up to your card's value,
a house of exactly your card's value.

You play 9♠ takes 9♥ + 5♣ 4♦ + house of 9

Everything that matches comes with the capture — you take all of it, not a selection. The played card and its captures go face-down into your side's pile.

Move 2

Build a House

Combine your played card with loose table cards into a single pile — a house — worth 9 to 13 points of capture value. Only a card of exactly the house's value can capture it, so a house protects big cards until you (or an opponent!) collect it.

You play 3♣ onto 6♦ = house of 9

You must keep a card of the house's value in hand, so you can collect it later. (In a team game it's enough that your partner owns a house of that value.)
Opponents can raise a loose house — adding cards to lift it to a higher value — and become its owner.
You can never break up or devalue your own house.

Move 3

Throw

No capture, no build? Throw a card face-up to the table. Throwing is the move of last resort for that card — you may not throw a card that could do something:

if any table card or house matches its value — you must capture instead,
if loose table cards add up to its value,
if it could be added to a house you own.

Cemented Houses

A house whose cards add up to a multiple of its value — for example two complete nines: 9 + (5 + 4) — is cemented (pukka). A cemented house can never be raised or broken; it sits until someone captures it with a card of exactly its value.

Add a second full set of a house's value to cement it.
Cemented houses can't be raised, merged together, or broken — by anyone.

King's house (value 13) can never be raised — no card beats a King — so it is as safe as a cemented house from the moment it's built.

Seep! — The Sweep Bonus

Clear everything off the table with one capture and you score a seep — 50 bonus points. The opponents' next player is left staring at an empty table, forced to throw.

A seep on the opening move is worth only the bid value (9–13), not 50.
Clearing the table on the very last play of the hand is not a seep — no bonus.

End of the Hand

When every card has been played, anything left on the table goes to the side that made the last capture.

Each side then counts: captured card points + seep bonuses. The higher total wins the hand, and the difference between the two scores is the winner's margin.

Winning the Game — The Baazi

Hands chain together into a baazi. The margins accumulate from hand to hand, and the first side to go 100 or more points ahead wins the baazi.

If the starting player's side won (or tied) the hand, the same player starts the next hand; otherwise the start passes to the next player.

Table Options

Houses — Unlimited or 2: by default any number of houses can be on the table. Playing with the 2 houses rule, no new house can be built while two are already standing (adding to an existing house is always allowed).

2-player Seep: the same rules head-to-head — 24 cards each, dealt as two hands of 12.

Glossary

Seep: Clearing the whole table with one capture — a 50-point bonus (and the game's name).
House (ghar): A build: a pile of table cards worth 9–13, captured only by a card of exactly that value.
Cemented (pukka): A house containing its value more than once. Unbreakable.
Bid (first card): The 9-or-higher value the starting player commits to for the opening move.
Baazi: The match: hands accumulate until one side leads by 100 points.