Two to nine players; three tokens plus a floating life; not the face-up exchange game.

← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →

Two players start with 3 concealed cards each. The table has a shared stock and one exposed discard; turns draw and discard rather than exchange with three table cards. Fans and piles are schematic; the rules specify card counts.
Two players start with 3 concealed cards each. The table has a shared stock and one exposed discard; turns draw and discard rather than exchange with three table cards. Fans and piles are schematic; the rules specify card counts.

01 /

Context and setup

This British version was described by Nic Cleveland of Guernsey. Stop the Bus also names unrelated 31-point and face-up-table exchange games; here the goal is a Brag hand made by drawing and discarding. Use 52 cards without jokers. Give everyone three life tokens. Choose first dealer randomly; deal and play clockwise. Dealer shuffles, deals three singly each, turns one to start discard and leaves the rest as stock.

02 /

Full Brag ranking

High to low: three of a kind(prial), suited run, mixed run, flush, pair, high card. Prials: three 3 s highest, then A, K, Q, J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,2. Runs: A–2–3 highest, A–K–Q second, then K–Q–J down to 4–3–2; K–A–2 invalid. Any suited run beats any mixed run. Ordinary cards rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Compare pairs by pair rank then kicker; flush/high-card hands by highest, then next, then lowest. Here run beats flush.

03 /

Turns and stopping

Dealer’s left starts. On a turn, either draw stock top then discard any one of your four, or take discard top then discard a DIFFERENT card, or call “stop the bus” without drawing or discarding. Keep exactly three. A stock draw may be discarded immediately. After a stop, every OTHER player takes one final turn in order, then reveal; in that final turn they may simply pass. The stopper does not play again.

Our table recycles an empty stock by shuffling all discards except the visible top as a new stock. If no recyclable card exists, end and compare immediately. This stock-exhaustion agreement fills an unspecified edge case.

04 /

Lowest hand loses

Compare all hands; only the worst loses one token. An exact rank tie is broken by suits of the highest-ranked cards in the tied hands: spades>hearts>diamonds>clubs. If that rank is duplicated within a hand, use its highest suit. This duplicate-rank detail is our explicit tie clarification.

Losing your third token leaves you floating, still playing with zero tokens. Lose again while floating and you are eliminated. Last survivor wins. Deal normally moves left; if the next scheduled dealer was just eliminated, the previous dealer deals again so the next surviving player keeps the first turn. Shuffle for every fresh hand.

05 /

Worked final turn

A stops holding 8♣–9♣–10♣, a suited run. B’s final draw produces A♦–A♥–6♠, a pair. C keeps K♠–J♠–7♠, a flush. Rank order is A best, C next, B worst; B loses one token. If B had zero before this hand, B is eliminated; with one, B now floats at zero. The stopper could have lost with a weaker hand.

← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →

B’s final turn. B: hand: A♦, 6♠, K♥. Stock top: Face down. A has stopped with 8♣–9♣–10♣. B may draw once more from stock and then discard. Draw an ace. B: before discarding: A♦, 6♠, K♥, A♥. The stock supplies A♥. Four cards are held temporarily; one must be discarded. Keep the pair. B: final hand: A♦, A♥, 6♠. Discard: K♥. Discard K♥: B keeps aces and a six. This is a legal improvement, but the pair ranks below A’s run. After A stops, B gets one final turn: draw an ace and discard the king. The resulting pair still loses to A’s suited run.
After A stops, B gets one final turn: draw an ace and discard the king. The resulting pair still loses to A’s suited run.

06 /

Do not substitute a different bus game

Exchanging one or all three cards against three face-up centre cards belongs to Bastard Brag; adding one-suit values to 31 is another Stop the Bus. Their stopping and scoring rules are not used here. No bets or hand points are needed: tokens track lives only.

Common questions

May I stop with a weak hand?+

Yes. Stopping does not guarantee safety.

Am I out when my last token is lost?+

No. You float until another losing hand.