Everyone who plays is a miner. Every turn you take a card and look at it. Nobody is allowed to see your card. Then everybody says if they have coal or gold (you are allowed to lie about it). The key is to get gold without anyone knowing. When you manage to do that you steal the gold and keep it for yourself. When you fail this you lose a life and the gold. You are out of the game when you lose all your lives. You win the game if you managed to get the most gold. There are some cards with some special effects which makes the game more interesting.