If the house rules change every time you’re losing, they were never rules.

A rule that bends toward whoever is behind is not a rule, it is a preference wearing a rule’s clothes. Everybody at the table notices, usually before the person doing it does, and after that nothing in the game means much, because the outcome was always negotiable. What gets lost is not a card game, it is being believed.

Agree what counts before you start, especially with the people you play with most. If you are losing, lose, and let the result stand. Being someone whose rules hold up under pressure is worth more than any night you salvage.