A trick (or treat) taking card game

This is a game I made for the #TrickOrTreatJam by Society of Play about a month before the jam started. If anybody plays this let me know how it went!

Number of Players: 2 or more players

Game Length: As long as you have candy

Components: A deck of 54 standard playing cards with jokers, a pile of candy

The Deck: Cards rank from ace highest down to 2 as the lowest. Suits do not matter in terms of winning. The two jokers should have a color and a black version.

The Deal: Whoever brought the most candy to the table is the dealer first. The dealer deals the deck evenly to each player, leaving any remaining cards that don’t divide out of play. One piece of candy for each player except the dealer should be thrown in the middle of the table, this is now the pot. The dealer then plays a card face down to lead the first trick.

The Play: After the dealer plays the first card, the play continues to the player to the left. Each player plays a single card face down onto the table, and after everyone has played a single card everyone flips their cards up and the person who has played the highest card in rank wins the trick. The winner of the trick does not get any candy from the pot. The player with the second-highest card then chooses a piece of candy to take from the pot, followed by the next highest until all players have taken a piece. The winner of a trick becomes the dealer on the next turn.

If two cards in the play are tied for rank, both those players skip taking candy that turn and the candy remains in the pot for next time, however, if the dealer ties for the highest card in a trick, they score a jackpot and take all the candy currently in the pot.

If a joker is played into a pot, the joker counts as either the highest card or the lowest card and is decided by the player who played it after the cards are revealed. If two jokers are played into the same pot, the two players who played them get a joker jackpot and they win the entire pot split between them, taking turns picking pieces to take. The player who played the colored joker chooses first.

Once each player has played their full hand of cards, the cards are shuffled and re-dealt. The game ends when there is no more candy to be put in the pot.

Variant rules:

Bigger Jackpots: Any time there is a tie that isn’t a jackpot, immediately add candy pieces equal to the current pot into the pot. (This variant is probably not as good for kids because it can lead to less fair candy distributions)

Nasty Candy: Throw some gross candy in the pile so that picking candy last is less desirable. Maybe some warheads or cough drops or candy corn, things that are edible but not everyone is going to want.