The Great Dalmuti is a light card game where players gain status by going out first.

The 80-card commercial deck consists of cards ranked from 12 to 1, along with two Jesters. Each card has a number, which is not only its rank, but also tells you how many of that card exist in the deck. Put another way, there are twelve 12s, eleven 11s, four 4s and a single card ranked 1. The lower the number, the better its rank.

The deck is dealt out to all players and the objective is to get rid of your cards as fast as possible. The hand starts with one person playing one or more card to the center of the table. The cards played have to of the same rank (although Jesters are wild, and may be played with any other cards). Every player in turn must now either play the same number of cards of a better rank, or pass. Play continues around the table until everyone has passed; at that point, the cards are cleared and whoever played the last set of cards starts the next round. After everyone has been knocked out, the players are ranked. For example, the person who first got rid of all their cards becomes The Great Dalmuti. Players change seat position to represent the new hierarchy and start another round. The Great Dalmuti is usually played for many rounds.