...it may have been four.
On my current playthrough of FFVIII I am trying to complete all sides quests, including getting all of the cards. I have already gotten all of the cards I can at this point. I have even completed the CC group challenge. WOOHOO! Who is the king of cards now? I cannot be defeated.. And then. Piet. This is ridicules. I need to beat him to get the Alexander card, without losing any of my cards to him. If I do I have to try to win them back. The problem wasn't only the random rule. It was also that this guy is the master at using Plus and Same. I refined my weak cards to prevent random from causing me too much trouble. But having strong cards doesn't do much against Same or Plus. I must have reset the game 20 times after losing cards, winning Alexander, losing more cards, winning more back... Finally I did it. This game alone taught me how to use Plus and Same. I will never play the same again... I might have been five hours.
PS. Once the Random Rule was abolished. But only after I had lost over half of my high level cards.