Garbage is played with two standard 52 card decks with Jokers.

Dealer shuffles the cards and has another player cut the deck. Next, the dealer tries to take the exact amount of cards needed for the deal (10 times the number of players plus one). Deal each player ten cards beginning with player to the left of the dealer. Give one more card to the player to the left of the dealer. If the dealer took the correct number of cards off of the deck, deduct 50 points from his score.

Play begins with player to the left of the dealer. All players begin trying to achieve the goal listed in the "Goals Table". After doing so, the player discards one card.

Play continues in a clockwise direction. Each players turn consists of the following steps. First, one card is drawn from the top of the discard stack or from the deck. The player then checks his hand for the current goal. If it can be met, the sets or runs are played on the table. Sets or runs may be larger than the goal specifies. Next, if and only if the player has already met and played his goal on the table, he may try to further empty his hand by extending other players sets or runs that have been played down on the table. After all plays have been made, the player discards one card.

Special Cards:

• Jokers are wild cards, and may be used in place of any other card in the deck. Once a playermay substitute any played Joker with the card it represents, and then use the Joker to extend a run so that more cards can be eliminated from the hand.
• Aces may be used to construct runs like "Ace, 2, 3" or "Queen, King, Ace", however, "King, Ace, 2" is not an acceptable run.

The round ends when one player runs out of cards.

The deal passes to the player to the left of the dealer.

Players who had their goals played when a round ends play toward the next goal in subsequent rounds. The others keep playing the current goal until they can play it.

Scoring is based on the cards left in your hand. The player who wins the round gets no points while everyone else adds up penalty points according to the "Penalty Points Table".

The game ends when any player makes the eleventh goal by the end of the round.

The player with the lowest score wins.