The game is a cross between dominoes and patience and is suitable for children who have learnt the various card values.

The first player begins by leading a card of the agreed rank, say, a Jack or Unter to the table.

Scoring, if desired, can be done by simply counting the remaining cards in players' hands.

Alternatively points may be awarded or deducted depending on the order in which players 'go out'.

The game is well suited for parties of mixed ages; with small children it can be played until all players have finished.

In some variants of the game all players receive the same number of cards and the remainder (if any) is turned face up and can be played by anyone as needed.

In some editions of Hoyle, the game is called by its common American name, Fan Tan, or Play or Pay.

When the deal has been decided, the cards are dealt singly, and any that are left over form a stock, which is placed face downwards on the table.

The equivalent of Sevens is usually known as Karten-Domino ("Card Domino"), may be played with a 32- or 52-card pack and any Eight or Jack (Unters) may be used to start off.

[6] A variant called Zehnerlegen, in which the Tens are used as start cards, is played in Bavaria using a Bavarian pattern pack.

The following variant is described under the name Siebener raus ("sevens out") in a German book.

When the six, seven and eight of a suit have been played other cards of the same suit may be played at any time to form stacks on the six (descending to the ace) and eight (ascending to the king).

The first card must always be the seven of hearts, but the first move in such cases is decided by the dealer's position (eg.

the closest in the direction of dealing), particular deck (if designs are distinguishable) or simply by calling it first.

Points, are scored by adding the value of the cards left in hands of the remaining players for a number of games.

In the variation known as Shichi Narabe (in Japanese: 7並べ), the players remove all sevens from their hands to start the layout before the first card is played.

The goal of the "alive" players is to ignore the Yūrei and pretend they cannot see or hear them at all costs, hence why they are called "ghosts".

The game is played with either 52 or 36 (aces to sixes in each suit) cards, it always starts with the nine of diamonds.