The spanking in our relationship is not always confined to domestic discipline nor to my butt.  Although I’m always the one on the receiving end of disciplinary spankings, there are occasions when we spank each other simply for fun or eroticism, although we find the two are pretty closely intertwined.  One of those occasions is when we’re in the mood to play Switch – a very appropriately named card game – for spanking penalties.

When we do, I’m forcefully reminded that DW is not only the disciplinarian, but is also one who relentlessly plays to win.  The game of “Switch” involves a combination of both luck and skill – but fortunately for me, primarily much of the former.

Like all the best games of this sort, the rules are relatively simple and I suspect quite a few will already be familiar with it as a vanilla card game:

• Each player is dealt 7 cards after which the top card from the remainder of the pack is turned face up;

• Starting opposite the dealer, each player in turn has the option of placing down a card from their hand that matches either the suite or value of the upturned card – e.g. the 9 of hearts can be covered by any other heart or another 9.  If the card placed down has the same value (e.g. 9 of diamonds), the next player must then either place down a card of the same suite (a diamond in the example) or another 9;

• If the player has an Ace, he or she has the option of placing the Ace down and then nominating the suite that must be next placed down by the other player – the aim being to nominate a suite not strongly held by the other player;

• If the next player has no cards that can be placed down as above, he or she must pick up one card from the remaining pack.  If the pack is exhausted as a result of this process, (as can happen quite often in long hands) the cards discarded so far (except the top one) are shuffled and used to re-form the pack;

• The player who first succeeds in discarding all of their cards is the winner of that hand and gets to apply the spanking penalty;

• The loser of the hand receives the number of strokes equivalent to the total value of the cards that remain in their hand.  Picture cards count for 10, while Aces count for 20! – so if you hold on to an Ace for use at a strategic moment, be sure you know how many cards are remaining in your opponent’s hand!

Before starting, it pays to agree on the intensity of the penalty strokes each player will receive – typically DW receives really firm hand strokes over my knee, whereas I usually get bent over for a really stinging dose from the hairbrush.

The twists and turns in this game can make for some very suspenseful hands and fortunes can reverse very suddenly with the turn of a single card.

DW’s look is priceless when she knows I have only one card left, doesn’t yet know if I will be able to place it down – but she has no choice but to pick up another that will add to the strokes she may receive.   If it proves that I can’t place down my last card, the situation can very quickly reverse.  If I can’t go out and DW happens to pick up an ace, suddenly I can be the one that’s sitting rather nervously.

For a real sting in the tail of this game, another option is for the first player who accumulates a specific total of remaining cards over a series of hands to then also receive that number of strokes.  An agreed accumulated total of one hundred for example would really give something to play for, given that the losing player will then receive a minimum of 200 strokes in total.

After losing 5 hands in a row recently and receiving more than 40 very firm hand spanks right on her sit spot over my knee, there was definitely no mistaking the enthusiasm with which DW grabbed the hairbrush when she finally did get to win a hand.