Ranter-Go-Round

Ranter-Go-Round is a traditional English card game of chance and gambling, also known as Chase the Ace, played with a standard 52-card deck. Any number of players may take part, with five usually reckoned the practical minimum and some sources allowing as many as twenty. Each player is dealt one card and may choose to keep it or pass it to the next player in an effort to avoid holding the lowest card when the round ends; the player left with the lowest card loses a life or a stake. The game is said to have first been played in Cornwall, though its mechanics closely resemble the French game Coucou, recorded as early as the 15th century, and Ranter-Go-Round itself was documented in print by 1881. In the United States a close relative is known as Screw Your Neighbor, though that name is also used for other card games. It is classed as both a children's game and an adult gambling game, valued for its simple rules and quick, sociable rounds.