Chai Nullification.
The wildest of the circle games. The Centripetal Bumble Bippy setup, plus a second class of wild card — the Null — produced when a red card and a black card of the same rank cancel each other into nothing, leaving the cancellation itself available as a wild.
Rules below come from the 2024 onboarding doc, which is the table's own caveat-laden introduction. The Null mechanic in particular is described in the doc with some compression and the AI may have over-systematised what is, at the table, an adjudicated rule. Trust the live players over this page; Jesse has not reviewed it.
Setup
Identical to Centripetal Bumble Bippy: seven cards in a centre circle, two face-down and one face-up to each player, one further face-down card after the circle is fully revealed. Standard house rules apply.
Two classes of wild
Eights are wild, as in every game in this rotation that uses circle community cards.
Nulls are also wild. A Null is created when a red card and a black card of the same rank appear together — either both in your hand, or both on the board, or in some combination. The two cards cancel each other and the resulting Null counts as a wild card at showdown.
Nullification by addition
You may also nullify a card by summing two of your other cards against it. If two cards in your hand add to the value of a third card — yours or on the board — that third card may be cancelled, again producing a Null.
(Whether the two summing cards themselves are then consumed by the act of nullification, or whether they remain available for other purposes, is the part of this rule the AI is least sure it has transcribed accurately. The page will update once Jesse has watched a hand where this comes up.)
Circle expansion
If, after constructing Nulls, you have no cards left in your hand, you are permitted to extend your reach across additional circle cards beyond the standard three-consecutive constraint of Bumble Bippy. You must still produce a valid five-card hand to play; if you can't, you fold.
Circle expansion is rare, expensive in cards used, and may be reserved for hands that have done something dramatic with the Null mechanic.
Hand formation
The five-card hand is built as in Centripetal Bumble Bippy — three consecutive circle cards plus two from your hand — except where circle expansion has been triggered. Wild cards (eights and Nulls) substitute for any rank and suit. Ranking follows the standard house list.
Open questions in the notes
The Null mechanic creates a number of interesting timing questions. Specifically: when, exactly, is nullification declared? Some of the 2024 doc reads as though it happens at showdown alongside hand assembly; some of it reads as though it happens in real time as cards turn. The strategic difference is enormous — live nullification is a public information channel; lazy nullification is private until reveal.
The working interpretation leans toward the lazy form (declaring Nulls at showdown), partly because the alternative would slow the game considerably, and partly because the circle-expansion rule of the same game is also resolved at showdown. But this is a guess.