Last Updated on April 9, 2025 by The Official Game Rules Team

This American children’s game, commonly called Trash, is also known by other names like Garbage or Ten. However, as those names are used for other card games, we will focus on the most common name, Trash. The goal is to be the first player to complete a layout consisting of ten cards, numbered from Ace to Ten. While there are a few decisions to be made, the game is primarily based on luck.

How to Play Trash

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Players and Cards

The game is played with 2 players using a standard 52-card deck. With more players, additional decks can be added to avoid running out of cards. For example:

• 3 or 4 players: 2 decks shuffled together
• 5 or 6 players: 3 decks shuffled together

In Trash, Aces count as one, cards numbered 2 to 10 carry their face values, Jacks are wild, and Queens and Kings automatically end a player’s turn.

The turn order is clockwise.

The Deal

The cards are shuffled, and each player is dealt a layout of 10 face-down cards in two rows of 5 cards. Players are not allowed to look at their cards.

The remaining deck is placed face down in the center to form a stock pile. The objective is to fill the layout with face-up cards numbered Ace to Ten, following the correct sequence.

The Play

The first player draws from the stock pile. If the card drawn is a numbered card (A-10), the player places it in the correct position of their layout. For example, the top-left card is the Ace position. The player must then turn over the face-down card in that spot and place it in its corresponding location, if available. This process continues until the player encounters an unplayable card, such as a Queen, King, or a numbered card whose location is already filled with a face-up card. The player must discard the unplayable card, placing it face up on the discard pile, and pass the turn to the next player.

Subsequent players begin their turns by either drawing the top card from the stock pile or the discard pile. If the card from the discard pile matches a position in their layout, they will use it. If not, they discard it. Jacks are wild and can be placed in any location with a face-down card, displacing the existing card. If a player draws a numbered card that corresponds to a location with a face-up Jack, they can replace the Jack with that numbered card, then move the Jack to any available spot with a face-down card.

In the rare event that the stock pile runs out before anyone completes their layout, the discard pile (excluding the top card) is shuffled to form a new stock pile.

Subsequent Hands and Winning

The first player to complete their layout by having face-up cards in all ten positions wins the hand. After each hand, the cards are shuffled and redealt. The winner of the previous hand plays first in the next round, and their layout has one less card to fill. For example, after winning one hand, a player only has to fill positions A-9, with the Ten location becoming unplayable. After two wins, they will only have to complete positions A-8, and so on.

The game continues until a player is left with only one card to place, and they win the hand by filling that last card with an Ace or Jack. This player wins the entire game.

Variations

For a shorter game, players can agree to make the winner the first player to reduce their layout to a specific number of locations, such as six. Alternatively, a fixed number of deals or a set time period can be used, with the player having the smallest layout at the end being the winner.

Some variations involve rotating the player who plays first instead of passing the turn to the previous hand’s winner. Other variations include using different wild cards, such as Kings or even all picture cards, with each variation having its own set of rules for play.

Inge M also reports two variants that give the losers of a hand another chance to reduce their layouts:

In a two-player game, the loser of the hand gets three “free” draws to attempt to complete their layout before turning over their cards. This variant can lead to more rounds where both players complete their layouts, depending on the players’ preferences.

At the end of a hand, the other players turn over the remaining face-down cards in their layouts. If a player has all their remaining cards in the correct spots, they also reduce their layout by one for the next round.