13. Bandit

Number of players

2 Players

Suitable Ages

8 years and older

Playing Time

5 to 10 minutes

Introduction

Imagine you are in a casino, trying your luck at the One-armed Bandit. Will you score the Jackpot or lose everything?

Set up

One set of Multi Playing Cards. Only use the cards 1 - 55

If you selected the appropriate cards, you will end up with:
20 Cherries
12 Plums
9 Bells
6 Sevens
3 Bars
5 Any symbols

Randomly choose who will be the dealer. He or she shuffles the deck and sets up the game.

Basic rules

The goal of the game is to get 3 matching symbols in one row.

The dealer lays down nine cards face up on the table in a 3 x 3 matrix. The three resulting rows represent the winning lines on a One-armed Bandit.

When the dealer puts down the cards, this constitutes your first roll. If there are three matching symbols in one of the three rows, you’re a winner! Take the three winning cards off the table and put them, facing up, in a pile in front of you.

If you’re really lucky, you might even have multiple rows of matching cards. If this is the case, pick up all the winning cards in the matrix and put them, facing up, in a pile in front of you.

If all the winning cards have been collected or there are no winning cards, the player can choose to do one of the following:
- Spin all columns again (the Dealer lays down 9 new cards on top of the cards that are already on the table)
- Hold one column – spin two (the Dealer lays down 6 new cards on top of the cards that are already on the table, but only on top of the 2 columns that the player did NOT hold)
- Hold two columns – spin one (the Dealer lays down 3 new cards on top of the cards that are already on the table, but only on top of the column that the player did NOT hold)

If you’ve made your choice, you then point at the rows you want spun again and announce this to the dealer. The dealer then proceeds to lay down the appropriate new cards on top of the old ones.

Note that players don’t have to claim a price if they so choose. The can play on to win more valuable prizes.

When, after collecting the winning cards, there are empty spots in the 3 x 3 matrix, these spaces are automatically filled by the dealer with new cards. Note that, when these new cards contain matching symbols, you don’t automatically win these. You will have to spin first.

When you remove your winning cards and the underlying cards become visible again, the dealer doesn’t put down new cards on top of them until you choose to spin that column. Until this occurs, the old cards will be used.

The game ends if the dealer has no more cards and the player has no more winning rows to claim. The player counts his or her points and writes these down.

After the points are tallied, the dealer becomes the player and vice versa and a new game begins. After the second game has ended, both players compare their winnings. The player with the most points wins the overall game.

Counting your winnings
After a round, the winnings are counted. Different cards will score you different points:
3 Cherries = 5 points
3 Plums = 10 points
3 Bells = 50 points
3 Sevens = 100 points
3 Bars = 200 points

Variations

- Use the double blanco card as a bad luck card. The card will not score you any points.
- Instead of placing cards on top of other cards when Spinning, the dealer can remove the pointed columns and place new cards. This way, the underlying cards can’t be used again and will be taken out of the game
- You can combine this game with other games on the Multi Playing Cards.

We wish you a lot of One-armed Bandit fun. Good luck!