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Bank or Bust
Rules
 

Press your luck! Press your opponents! Press your bluff!​

 

Quick Facts:​​

3 - 8 Players

10 minutes 

Party Game ​

​

Objective: Be the player with the highest total of cards each round without going bust!

1. Goal 

Try to be the player with the highest total of cards each round without going bust. The highest possible total is $186 (= $100 + $50 + $20 + $10 + $5 + $1). Any score higher than this is impossible because you would have busted by having matched a card.

2. Set Up

Deal 2 cards to each player. 

3. How to Play the Classic Version

  • Look at your 2 cards

    • If they don’t match, place one card face-down, and one face-up in front of you.

    • If they match, show both cards to the dealer, and discard one of them into the dead card pile, the dealer will give you a new card face-down.  Now look at these 2 cards and if they don’t match, place one face-up and face-down as above. If new card still matches, request another card and do it again.

    • Now everyone is in a starting position:

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  • Turns moves clockwise with the dealer asking each player if they want to “hit” or “stick.”

    • If you “hit” you get one more card face-up from the dealer.  Important: You only get one card per turn.

    • If you “stick,” you are not allowed to “hit” again for the rest of the round.

  • When you hit, if you double any card, you bust, this includes matching your face-down card.

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  • Play continues going around until everyone sticks or is busted. All players who stick compare their total. The player with the highest score puts their cards in their wallet, all losing hands are added to the dead card pile. If there is a tie both players add their cards to their wallets.

  • If the dealing pile is depleted, simply shuffle up the dead card pile and continue playing.

  • Keep playing until everyone has dealt once (or twice if playing with 3 or 4 players).  Then count up the money in your wallet to see who has the most cash!

4. How to Play with Wild Cards

Follow the classic rules above with these twists:

  • Shuffle the 4 jokers (the two $2s and the pyramid & eagle cards) into the deck.

The wild cards:

  • A $2, doubles the total value of your hand only for that round.

    • For example, a hand of  $100. $50, $2 is worth $300. In simple algebra: ($100 + $50) x $2 = $300​

  • The Pyramid or Eagle joker allows you to have a doubled card, and only one double, without going bust.  

    • $100 + $100 + $50 + “Pyramid” = $250 (Safe)

    • $50 + $50 + $20 + $20 + “Pyramid” = Busted!

    • $20 + $20 + $20 + $5 + “Pyramid” = Busted!

    • $100 + $100 + $50 + $50 + “Pyramid” + “Eagle” = Safe

5. Scoring

Count all the “cash” in your wallet. 

  • $2s in your wallet only count as $2 (they don’t double the entire value of your wallet)

    • To be clear, $2s only double the value of a specific hand in order to win that round. 

  • The Pyramid and Eagle jokers are worth $0 

We recommend tallying your games and playing to an agreed score.  Playing to $1,000 is common.

Q&A

Q:  What is the maximum score when using jokers this way?

A:  $1,360 =  $100 + $100 + $50 + $50 + “Pyramid” + “Eagle” +  $20 + $10 + $5 +  $1 + $2 + $2 

Q:  Has anyone ever achieved $1,360? 

A:  Not to our knowledge.​

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