Pazaak (2003)

Overview

Pazaak is a card game developed as a mini-game in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game series. It is similar to Blackjack, or 21, where the two players take turns drawing cards from a communal draw pile, trying to get their total as close to 20 without going over.

However, each player also has a side deck of 10 cards, with 4 of those cards being used each game. The side deck cards can be used to modify the player's current total, i.e. adding 1, subtracting 3, etc. The side deck is built by each player before the game, but at the beginning of the game, only the top 4 cards become the player's hand.

Each player takes turns, which includes drawing a card from the draw pile, adding that to the other cards already drawn/played by the player, then the player may either play a card from their hand, end turn, or stand (not taking and not playing anymore cards).

Each round ends with each player either standing or when a player ends his turn with a total over 20 (similar to busting in blackjack).

The person closest to 20 without going over wins the round. In the case of a tie, neither player wins. After one player wins 3 times, the game is over.