What is "Suzy's Game"? A playing card game passed down my family for three generations

Question

My whole family plays this card game which we call Suzy's game. We call it that because a girl named Suzy taught it to my grandma. We don't know what the game is actually called or what the real rules are.

It's been a while since I played, but here are the rules I remember.

The game is played with two players and two decks. Each player has a "magic pile" of a few cards, with the top card always revealed. You win when you play the last card in your magic pile.

There are four piles in the middle of the table. You must play cards on those piles in ascending order. When a stack tops off, you return it to the deck and start a new one.

The strategy is to use your other cards to set up the middle piles in a way that allows you to play your magic cards. In front of each player are four piles, and they must put a card into one of those piles on each turn. You want to play on these piles in a way that allows you to drop them on the middle stacks in order.

On your turn you can play as many cards as you want from your hand or from the stacks in front of you. So ideally you have your stacks set up to play every card leading up to your magic card, then you play your magic card as the finisher. It's hard to explain but this feels extremely badass to pull off.

Finally there is some kind of interrupt mechanic, where you can force the other player to play into the middle if they have face up cards that can go there at the end of their turn. So if you need them to put down a jack so you can drop your king from your magic pile, you can make them play the jack, then play your king.

I think this interrupt mechanic goes so far that you can actually make them play a card, stop them, put down a card from your magic pile, then force them to continue playing until they have no more face up cards that can go in the middle. I believe that during this stage you can only play cards from your magic pile; you can't play cards from your hand or your own face-up cards.

This game was absolutely crazy to play with my grandma and honestly felt like being in a card game anime with how many reversals and counterplays there were.

What is this game actually called, and what are the official rules?

Answer 1

There are many different games that could fit this description. The first that came to my mind is Skip-Bo.

The object of the game is to be the first player or team to play out their entire stock pile(s)...for their pile with only the top card visible, and a hand of five cards, and the remaining cards are placed face down to create a common draw pile. The shared play area allows up to four build piles...They must play either the next card in sequential order or a wild Skip-Bo card...play continues until one player has played their final start card.

This fits many of your qualifiers but I don't recall any sort of 'interrupt' mechanic, and Skip-Bo is sold with its own special deck, not the standard 52.

Wikipedia states that Skip-Bo is a commercial version of Spite and Malice, a derivative of Russian Bank (also known as Crapette or Tunj), which in turn originates from Double Klondike (also called Double Solitaire). Double Solitaire and variations like Nertz are a little different in that all players play simultaneously - you don't take turns.

My best guess for your game is Spite and Malice or a variation.

Each player tries to play through his goal pile...If a player cannot play the card in his goal pile, he may attempt to block someone else from playing. Play piles are community piles used by all players. Discard piles belong only to the player who made them. Each turn starts with a player drawing from the common draw pile to give themselves a five-card hand. They then make whatever plays they can until they have no more plays that they want to do, and then they discard a card from their hand into their personal discard area...One person may end up with a low goal card and, in reaching that one and then ending their turn, they will have unavoidably helped someone else to reach their higher number goal card...As play continues, many cards can accumulate in the discard piles. In order to make your goal card or prevent your opponent from reaching theirs, you can use cards from both your hand and your discard piles during your turn.