Playing cards have been around for centuries and it’s amazing what games you can play with the same deck of 52 playing cards. I’m studying classic card games to become a better game designer and I’m sharing my findings here. This is the third post in the series. Read the first post here.
Gambling games
There are skill based gambling games and then there are gambling games that are pure luck. The king of the skill based gambling card games is of course Poker (in one of its many variants). But even luck based gambling games can be fun. The book (Holmström 1981) presents a game called Ace Race that is new to me:
Ace Race
You place the four aces in a row with a space in the middle one card wide. Then you shuffle and deal seven cards face up in a column from the aces. The aces race to see which first passes across the finish line and players place bets on the aces before the race begins. When the race begins you reveal the top card one at a time and advance the ace in that suit one along the track. Depending on the seven cards revealed, some aces will have better odds than others but all can win (if you reveal four or more cards you reshuffle and deal again). Players will get their winning bets back with a reward based on how many cards were revealed from the deck before the race.
I played around with different ways to make the game more engaging. But even the base game is a fun way to distribute a bag of candy on a family night.
Which ace wins the race is of course completely determined by the initial shuffle. The framing is just smoke and mirrors but it’s fun to see how the gradual reveal builds up tension when players have invested in a specific outcome. Some of the same magic that happens in good story games and roleplaying games.
You can see how classic racing boardgames can have developed from this idea. Seeding the deck with cards known to only one player. Thinning the deck. Peaking the deck. Reshuffling. Changing bets mid game. Lots of theme to add.
The hack I came up with: When you reveal a Jack, advance also the ace or aces that are furthest behind. When you reveal a Queen, advance also the ace in the same colour but different suit. When you reveal a King, advance the same ace again. Simple but creates close races with the occasional surprise win with odds slightly harder to asses. Odds: Zero cards among the seven: 1:1. One card: 1:2. Two cards: 1:3. Three cards: 1:4. Four cards: 1:8.
Poker
Poker is another game where the lowest card can beat the highest card when in the right company. The key to unlock Poker is to learn the poker hands and their ranking. Straight, flush, pairs, houses. Two twos beat ace high. There is a learning curve here. But once learned, you have access to the best skill based gambling games on the planet.
The basic game is a set collection game. From a hand of five cards you form the highest set. But poker is not great as set collection: Odds for getting a high value hand are long, and odds for improving a hand by discard cards and drawing new cards are slim. You will see a lot of poker hands before you see your first royal straight flush.
So it’s a gambling game where you place bets to whom has the higher hand. You must pay to find out. So the lowest hand dealt can win the game if everyone else folds. When you play for a life changing amount of money, this changes the game completely. Usually when we play games, there are few or no consequences outside the game besides friendships made or — with some games — lost. When stakes are high, bluffing becomes another thing completely.
Texas Hold’em is brilliant and how it brings players to play almost the same hand. Five cards face down on the table, revealed in stages. Each player having two cards only they know. Construct the best poker hand from seven cards, five of them shared. The gradual reveal. You are almost guaranteed that players will have high hands and low hands at the same time, making each game much closer.
I’m not a gambler and I have not played poker for money. I played Texas Hold’em for star destroyers and my immortal soul. It was fun. But it’s not the same game. But I can still appreciate a great game when I see it.
Next
There were many other games that I discovered these weeks. Cribbage for instance. And I haven’t mentioned Bridge. I have no experience with these games and the barrier to entry is a little higher. But I’m sure I will enjoy them if I get a chance to play one day. There are classic card games for a long time yet. So maybe there will be a part five and six one day.
There were also games that I just skimmed, typically because they have a learning curve like Poker where certain cards have specific values or there are many phases with each their special rules and exceptions. Games with complex scoring to keep track of. While you can pick up such games easily when you join a group who knows it, it’s harder to learn to play from a book and then teach others how to play. This is one thing that a custom deck of cards can do better: Playing with a specialised deck of cards and custom components can help you teach the game and remind players of the rules.
You can also play most card games online. This can a neat way to learn how to play and a way to play games solo against computer opponents. But you miss out on all the subtle tells and social interaction you get when playing with real human beings sitting around the same table.
In the fourth and final post in this series (so far), I design a game that can be played with standard playing cards. Read on!