Setup for the game consists of placing the container or receptacle into which the players will attempt to toss the cards at one side of a room or hallway
as a target for which players will attempt to toss or throw cards. The
receptacle should be placed a sufficient distance from any walls or
other obstacles on any side however and allow an unobstructed path from
the player and the target. A hat is the most commonly used such
receptacle, and in that case the hat should be placed upside down on the
floor. A line or mark is then set at some distance from the hat or
receptacle. This line is called the oche similar to that as in the game of darts. This distance should best be determined by the skill of players participating. For beginner players, for example, the oche may be placed
rather close, about four feet away, while for games consisting of more
experienced players the oche may be several feet further away. An equal number of cards should be provided to each participant. For ease of determining the owner of each card thrown, these should be distinguishable, such as each player having cards of a specific color, suit or denomination.
Each player then steps up to the oche and begins tossing the cards one by one, trying to throw the card in such a manner that it will land in the hat. After the player has tossed his collection of cards, the next player then steps up to the oche with the same goal. This continues until each player has had the opportunity to throw his cards into the hat.
After all players have had a turn at throwing his cards into the hat, points are scored by the players. For each card that is found to have landed on the brim of the hat, the player earns 1/2 point. For each card that has landed fully into the hat, the player who threw that card earns 1 point. Cards landing in any other position score nothing. If a card that landed on the brim is later knocked into the brim by the same or another player on his turn, that card would earn 1 point instead of just 1/2. Similarly, if a card on the brim of the hat is knocked off the brim onto the floor, that cards earns no points at the final scoring of the round. The game usually consists of several rounds, thus, the cards are all gathered up, redistributed to the players and another round of attempts is completed.
Throwing Technique: Players are entitled to use any method they prefer in throwing of the individual cards, however a player may not use any other equipment or aids other than the card and the bare hands.
However, there are a few techniques that are sometimes preferred by experienced players. A common such technique that is often used by some advanced players is to first grip the card between the thumb and forefinger of the dominant hand, curling the wrist inward. The card is usually held horizontally in front of the body, however some players prefer to hold and throw with the card in a vertical positioning. The actual toss is made with a swift flick of the wrist forward, releasing the card from the fingers at the termination of the wrist flick. A similar method that is often used by card mechanics in which the card is instead gripped between the forefinger and the second finger, and the back edge of the card just touches the palm of the hand. The wrist is curled inward and the card thrown or tossed with a swift forward flicking motion of the hand with the card released near the end of the forward motion of the wrist.
Variations and Optional Rules
One Player Variant: This game can also be played by one player. In this case, the player should take the entire deck and attempt to throw the cards into the hat from the same distance. In this variant, the player can be considered to have a victory if they manage to throw 20 or more cards into the hat. If the player manages to get 30 or more cards into the hat they are said to have a double victory, and having 40 or more into the hat is a triple victory.
Multi-Card Toss: Another variant of the Card Toss is that of multiple cards. The game is played in a series of four rounds. Each player is provided exactly eight cards in each round. On the first round, each player throws the cards one-by-one attempting to get as many into the hat as possible. On the second round, the player throws two such cards at a time. On the third round the player throws four at a time and on the last round, he throws all eight cards in one throw. The scoring are as in the standard variant.
Quarter Point Throw: Another variant is to include an additional point scoring opportunity. In this variant, the hat is placed in the center of a hula-hoop or on top of an opened newspaper. The only difference with this version is that cards which land on the newspaper or fully within the hula-hoop (but not in the hat or on the brim) score 1/4 point for the player who tossed that card,
while, as in the standard variant cards landing on the brim score 1/2
point and cards actually landing fully in the hat score 1 full point. In all other aspects this variant is played identically to the standard version as described above.
Team Throw: If there is an even number of players, it is often fun to divide up the players into two or more teams consisting of an equal number of players. During each round, the turn to throw the cards should alternate amongst members of each team. The scores for all players on each team are summed together to get the final score for each team at the end of the game. The team with the highest grand total is declared the overall winner.