7-0: swap on a seven, pass on a zero — fun or chaos?

7: pick a rival, swap hands

When you play a 7 you pick an opponent and trade your whole hand for theirs; that's the 7 swap. Card counts don't matter: whatever's left in your hand after the 7 goes to them, and their hand comes to you. The choice is entirely yours, and any opponent still in the round is fair game.

That's why being down to one card is never safe: if someone plays a 7 and picks you, your last card is theirs and their hand is yours.

The last-card exception: at Masabaşı, if the 7 is your last card, there's no swap; you've simply gone out. You can't hand your empty hand to a rival and make them the winner.

Sometimes the game picks the target for you. At a table where Playing the drawn card is set to "Auto-play it", a playable card you draw is thrown straight away; if it's a 7, you swap with the opponent holding the fewest cards. That's how it works in the Street Rules and Full Chaos presets.

0: every hand moves one seat

With the 0 pass, playing a 0 makes everyone hand their cards to the next player in the direction of play, you included. If a Reverse has been played, the hands travel the other way too. Unlike the swap there's no choice: the seating and the direction of play decide whose hand goes where.

Only players still in the round take part: anyone who has gone out or been eliminated sits it out. If the 0 is your last card, the hands stay put and you've gone out.

Which presets switch it on?

At Masabaşı these are two separate settings: Seven swaps hands and Zero rotates hands. One can be on while the other is off. Both are off by default, but the preset already picked when you set up a table is Street Rules: open the table as it is and you're playing with 7-0 on.

If you'd rather plan your hand, there's Plain Street: the street rules keep their stacking, while 7-0 and jump-in are taken out.

With two players

With two players both rules boil down to the same thing: a 7 and a 0 both swap the hands. With a 7 there's no other opponent to pick; with a 0 the only seat to move to is across the table, so the direction no longer matters.

The upshot is simple: at a two-player table a 7 or a 0 is gold when you hold more cards than your opponent, and a punishment when you hold fewer. Worse, if it's your only playable card you may have to throw it: with Masabaşı's default settings you can't draw or pass while you have a playable card. You end up handing your small hand to your rival yourself.

A table that starts out busy gets there too. In the ranking format players drop out as they finish, and once only two are left, a 7 or a 0 again does nothing but swap the hands.

Combined with jump-in

With jump-in on, you can throw an exact copy of the top card (same colour, same number) without waiting for your turn. That includes the 7: if someone plays a red 7 and swaps, and you hold a red 7 too, you jump in, pick your target and make your own swap. Play carries on from you.

Jumping in on a 0 isn't possible with a single deck: there's only one 0 in each colour, so there's no exact copy. A double deck has two; the Full Chaos preset comes with a double deck, 7-0 and jump-in all together.

At Masabaşı, while a penalty chain is running there's no jumping in and no 7 or 0 either: with a penalty piled up on you, you either answer the chain or draw.

When is it fun, and when is it chaos?

What people love about 7-0 and what they hate about it is the same thing: your hand is no longer entirely yours.

• A lifeline for whoever's behind. Sitting on a fistful of cards? A 7 hands the lot to whoever has the fewest, and a 0 shuffles the whole table.
• A trap for whoever's ahead. Getting down to one card isn't the same as going out: a 7 takes that card, a 0 gives your hand to your neighbour. When you're about to finish, check who's holding how many.
• A nightmare for planners. The hand you built around one colour goes to your neighbour on a single 0. For a table that likes to count cards, switch 7-0 off or keep just one of the two.
• Flat with two players. As you saw above: at a two-player table both of them just swap the hands.

Our advice: at a loud table of three or four, switch both on. If someone's playing for the first time, start with the 7 alone and add the 0 once everyone's got the hang of it.