This is a card game I invented in 2006. It's not the first card game I've invented, but I was much younger when I invented Suitmatch, which I now consider to be of historical interest only. Whereas Suitmatch is a glimpse into my childhood, Counterweight is a game I've invented as an adult. I won the first playtest by twenty points against Pam Marlow on 31 January 2006. If you try the game, please tell me about it, and also tell me if you find anything unclear in these instructions.
Two players and a standard 52 card pack. The cards should be well shuffled.
Deal six cards to each player, then turn the next two cards face up to begin the two permanent discard piles. The remaining 38 cards become the stock.
Play alternates as in most games. On a turn, a player either places a couple or begins a new temporary discard pile. In some circumstances, the player may then be allowed to collect one or more of their temporary discard piles. Each player seeks to win the game by getting rid of their temporary discard piles and the cards in their hand.
Placing a Couple
To place a couple, you place one card from your hand on each of two discard piles. Any two discard piles can be selected - you may choose freely from the two permanent discard piles, your own temporary discard piles, and your opponent's temporary discard piles. The two cards must either be each the same rank, or each the same suit, as the top cards of the piles you place them on - and if they're the same suit, then the card placed on one pile must be of higher rank than its top card and the card placed on the other pile must be of lower rank than its top card. (That's what gives the game its name, because if one card is higher, the other has to be lower as if to compensate.) Aces are low.
If you only have one card in your hand, then whenever the rules call for you to place a couple, you may place your sole remaining card on a discard pile where the top card is either the same rank or the same suit, but if it's the same suit you must then pick up the top card from the stock to replenish your hand.
Beginning a New Pile
If you can't do the above, you must begin a new temporary discard pile. There are two ways to do this. You can take the top card from the stock and place it face up on the table to begin the new pile, or you can take a card from your hand and do the same with it, and then take the top card from the stock to replenish your hand.
Throughout the game it is vital that players follow a layout that makes it clear which discard piles were started by (and therefore belong to) each player. I recommend using the stock and permanent discard piles to form a straight line that divides the temporary discard piles of one player from those of the other.
Collecting a Pile
If you place a card on one of your own temporary discard piles, you may then collect that pile, which means that it immediately ceases to be a discard pile and will become part of your hand at the beginning of your next turn. (There is no compulsion to do this, but you'll usually want to, except when you can - or anticipate being able to - collect all your temporary discard piles in accordance with the following paragraph.)
If your hand is empty after your move (i.e. you have no cards left in it), then you should collect all of your temporary discard piles, which constitute your new hand as of the beginning of your next turn.
Play ends either when one player has an empty hand and no temporary discard piles, or when the stock has been emptied and a player is unable to place a couple.
To calculate your opponent's score, multiply the total number of cards in your temporary discard piles by the number of temporary discard piles you have, and add it to the number of cards in your hand.