A game for 2 players

This is a quick game to practise spotting and calculating near (or close) doubles . Using playing cards helps to highlight that consecutive numbers near doubles, and are just 1 more or less than a double.

For example, 7+8 can be worked out by using double 7 and adding 1, or double 8 and subtracting one.

You will need:

How to play

Shuffle the cards, deal 3 cards to each player and place the remaining cards face down. Draw the top card and place it face up next to the draw pile.
Player 1 checks to see if they can make a near double – this could be using two consecutive numbers from their hand, or a card from their hand to make a near double with the face up card. If they can, they move the near double cards to one side out of play. If the face up card is used, replace it with the top card from the draw pile. Player 1 continues this way until they are unable to make any more near doubles (or they have no cards left). They then end their turn by drawing cards so they have 3 in their hand, and player 2 takes their turn.

If at any point neither player can make a near double, turn over cards from the draw pile until a player is able to do so.
The winner is the person who has claimed the most near doubles at the end of the game.