The Deal

The deck is divided evenly, with each player receiving 26 cards, dealt one at a time, face down.
Anyone may deal first.

Each player places his stack of cards face down, in front of him.

The Play

Each player turns up a card at the same time and the player with the higher card takes both cards and puts them, face down, on the bottom of his stack. If the cards are the same rank, it is War. Each player counts out four cards face down, and the next card turned face up by each player determines the winner of all the cards.