Call at five points or less — but a lower hand turns it against you.
An Israeli game that spread through backpacker hostels and is now played worldwide. Call yaniv when your hand is small enough — and hope nobody has less.
A 52-card deck, usually with two jokers. Five cards each.
Ace 1, number cards face value, court cards 10, joker 0. Only the total matters.
Discard, then draw. You may discard:
A single card. A set of two or more cards of the same rank. A run of three or more consecutive cards in the same suit.
Then draw either the top card of the deck, or one of the cards the previous player just discarded — you may take either end of a run they laid down.
At the start of your turn, if your hand totals seven or less (five at some tables), you may call yaniv. All hands are revealed.
If yours is the lowest, you score zero and everyone else scores their hand total.
If someone else has an equal or lower total, they have assafed you. You take a 30-point penalty plus your own hand, and they score zero. This is the whole tension of the game — calling at seven with three players still drawing is a gamble.
Players accumulate points and the lowest total wins. Play to 100 or 200.
At exactly 50 or 100 points, your score drops by half — the one bit of luck that can save a losing player, and a reason to aim for it deliberately.