Pairs is a "New Classic Pub Game" by James Ernest and Paul Peterson, who also brought you Unexploded Cow. It's an extremely simple press-your-luck game featuring a deck of number cards (1 x 1, 2 x 2, 3 x 3, and so on, up to 10 x 10). There is only one loser, and the object is not to score points by colelcting a pair.

Echo Chernik's Barmaids deck is based on a simple premise: Ten lovely barmaids holding beers: one beer on the 1, two beers on the 2, and so on. It's the "Oktoberfest card game" and we're thrilled at how this deck came out.

The Barmaids deck will contain a casino-style gambling variant of Pairs, called "Rocket," described below. (These rules are not final; we'll include the final version in the Pocket Pairs Guide.)