Mexican Standoff

Mexican Standoff Rulebook

Table of Contents

Number of Players

3 to 5 players.

Length of the Game

About 30 minutes.

Age

Above 9 years of age.

Content

55 numbered cards, 5 scoring cards, 1 sheriff badge, 1 last trick/new round starting player token, 1 rule booklet.

The numbered cards are as follows:

Value 1 (Old Man Sheriff): 1 copy
Value 2: 2 copies
Value 3: 3 copies
Value 4: 4 copies
Value 5 (The First Deputy): 5 copies
Value 6: 6 copies
Value 7: 7 copies
Value 8: 8 copies
Value 9: 9 copies
Value 10 (Bandits): 9 copies
Value 10/25 (Mr. Dynamite Frank Wolf): 1 copy

The Aim of the Game

Players (western heroes) have to try to take as many tricks and earn as many points during the 7 rounds of the game in the Wild West as possible. In contrast with most games, in Mexican Standoff smaller numbered cards have higher values due to their rarity.

Players can also challenge each other, or even the sheriff to a duel, but only one player can emerge victorious in every duel getting multiple tricks at once.

The ultimate winner of the game will be the one who starts firefights at the most appropriate moments to earn the most tricks, special cards (sheriff, bandits, deputies) and the most points.

Settings

Shuffle the deck thoroughly and deal 11 cards to every player. With 3 or 4 players put the remaining cards back into the box without looking at them. Players can look at their own cards but they cannot show them to their opponents.

Before starting the game every player chooses one card from their hand, the so called lonely rider, and passes it face down to their opponent sitting to their left. Number 10 (bandit) cards cannot be lonesome riders. Handling over the lonely rider takes place after every new deal. After this the game can start.

The player who most recently watched a western movie starts the game.

Gameplay

Mexican Standoff is a trick-taking game that lasts for 7 rounds. One round consists of 11 tricks, i.e. turns. Players play one or more cards every turn, and the player who played the strongest (smallest value) card or card combination, will take the trick.

One round ends if every player played at least one card, or, in case of a duel, if every player passed after the player who played the strongest card combination.

Beginning with the starting player and proceeding clockwise every player must perform exactly one of the following actions:

plays one card from his hand, or
starts a duel as a response to a played card / enters a duel, or
passes.

Playing a Card

Players must play at least one single card every turn in front of themselves. This is called the base card. Players can play any of the available numbered cards (so there is no obligatory trick-taking), but they have to take into account that in case of playing only single cards the given trick is always taken by the player who played the card of the lowest value.

In case several single cards of the same value are played during a given turn, the strongest is the one which was played last.

Example: In a five player game the players played the following cards after each other in a given turn: 10, 2, 7, 2, 4. This turn will be won by the player who played the 2nd card number 2, because that is the lowest value card that was played last in that turn.

Starting a Duel or Entering One

Instead of playing one single numbered card a player can also decide to start a duel.

Please note that since no turn can be started with a duel, players can only start a duel if another player already played at least one card prior to them.

In this case the player still has to play a base card in front of himself, but he also has to play two additional cards having the same value. These additional cards are called duel cards. Duel cards cannot have the same value as the base card.

Please note that number 10 cards cannot be played as duel cards, only as base cards.

Example: Frank would like to start a duel, so he plays card number 9 as a base card and two number 8 cards as duel cards. In this case he couldn't have played two more number 9 cards as duel cards, since the value of the base card and the duel cards must differ from each other.

If the next player has not played any cards in that turn yet, he can play only a base card or enter the duel and play further cards as duel cards. Base cards played by players participating in a duel are ignored, only their duel cards are taken into account. If a player has at least one played base card in front of him, the next time he is the active player, he can play duel cards in addition to his base card or pass (see below).

Strength of Combinations

Strength of combinations are as follows:

Single cards: smaller value cards triumph over higher ones (e.g. 10 < 9 < 6 < 3).

Several identical cards (duel cards):

duel cards (regardless of their number) always triumph over single base cards;
in case of the same amount of duel cards the smaller value cards triumph over the higher ones (e.g. 44 is stronger than 88);
in case of the same amount and same value of duel cards the cards that were played last will triumph over the formerly played ones (e.g. if two players play two number 7 cards as duel cards, the later played cards will triumph);
higher amount of duel cards triumph over the smaller amounts (e.g. combination 44 will triumph over 999).

Example: Frank played two number 8 duel cards on his base card. Jack can only take this trick, if he plays two identical cards on his own base card which has the same or smaller value than 8, or if he plays three identical cards of any value. (44 counts higher than 88, so Jack takes this trick). He cannot play four or more cards in this situation.

Playing Combinations

The following rules apply to playing combinations:

Combinations should always be only one step stronger than the formerly played cards/combinations, gradually in a fair manner, meaning that first you can only play two duel cards of the same value on a single base card and cannot play three or more cards right away, or you cannot play for example five or more duel cards on three duel cards.

If a player already played two or more duel cards in a given turn, he can take back his duel cards and play other, stronger cards from his hand instead. Please note that only duel cards can be replaced in this way, base cards cannot be.

Example: Being the second player in a turn, Ringo plays a number 10 base card and two number 6 duel cards. In the meantime Clint played two number 5 duel cards, but Ringo would like to take the trick, so when it is his turn again, he takes back his two number 6 cards and plays three number 7 cards.

In the last two turns of a round no duels can be started, because from this point on players do not have the necessary number of at least three cards (one base and two duel cards).

Please note that if a player has several identical cards in his hand in the last turns of a round only, he obviously cannot start or enter a battle.

Passing

If there is an ongoing duel, the active player may pass at the start of his turn by turning his base card by 90 degrees, as long as he has already played at least one base card in a previous turn.

If a player chooses to pass, he loses the current turn but may have better choices to discard cards at the end of the turn (see the End of a Turn section). After this turn ends, the player can get back in the game again.

End of a Turn

A turn normally ends when every player played at least one base card. In this case the player who won the trick (so the one who played the smallest value card in that given turn) takes every played card and puts them in front of himself turning them face down, and starts a new turn by playing a new base card.

However, if somebody started a duel, in that case the turn only ends if every but one player passes.

In some cases players play different amount of cards in a given turn. At the end of each turn if a player played less cards than the winner of the turn, he has to discard as many cards face up as the winner of that turn did. The winner of the turn takes all played and discarded cards (which means that he took several tricks at once), and starts a new turn by playing a new base card.

Example for a turn: In a three player game Tuco starts a turn by playing a base card number 10. Following him, Frank decides to start a duel, so he plays a number 6 base card as well as two number 8 duel cards. Jack answers this by playing a base card number 7. Next time Tuco is the active player, he decides to leave this turn so he turns his base card by 90 degrees. Frank unfortunately, does not have enough cards left to respond to Jack, so he passes too. This means that Jack won this turn, however, since he played four cards, Tuco, besides his base card, has to discard three more face-up cards from his hand, while Frank has to discard one more face-up card besides his three played cards. Jack collects all these played and discarded cards, and starts another turn by playing a new base card.

Special Cards

There are several special cards among the numbered cards, to which the following rules apply:

Old Man Sheriff

(1 copy with a value of 1)

If somebody gets the card of the sheriff after dealing the cards, he can choose to be a courageous or a coward sheriff.

Courageous sheriff: At the beginning of the round (before any cards were played), or when it is his turn, he can announce loudly before playing his first card: 'I'm the law!', indicating that he has the card number 1, while he is putting the sheriff badge in front of him. With this he agrees to double every point he gets that given round, whether it is plus or minus. Regardless of his announcement, he can play the number 1 (sheriff) card any turn of that round, it is not mandatory to play that card first.

Please note that if the player chooses this option, and he manages to take every trick in that round, he wins the game immediately!

Coward sheriff: He remains silent, keeps a low profile and does not announce that he has the card number 1. If the player can take the last trick of that round by playing the card of the sheriff as a single card or as a base card in a duel, he gets +75 points besides the +50 points of taking the last trick and the +25 points of acquiring the sheriff, so this trick combination worth at least 150 points.

Please note that these +75 points can be acquired by the coward sheriff only, the courageous sheriff cannot get it, even if he takes the last trick with the sheriff. In every other case the player who acquires the sheriff card (so he wins the turn in which the sheriff was played), gets +25 points.

The First Deputy

(5 copies with a value of 5/0)

The cards of the deputies normally worth 5 points, however, for the last turn of every round they get promoted, so their value becomes 0 instead of 5, meaning that they will be the strongest single cards of the round. In that special case when a player runs out of cards because of a duel which was started turns before the end of the round, the turn is treated as if it was the last turn of the round, since at the end of it every player has to discard all of his cards. In this case number 5 cards played as duel cards will also change their values to 0.

Example: Frank plays a number 6 base card and three number 4 duel cards during a duel. Tuco plays a number 7 base card and three number 5 duel cards which normally would be a weaker combination than Frank's, however, during this gunfight both of them run out of cards, so this will be the last turn of that round. Therefore the number 5 duel cards played by Tuco change their values to 0, making him the winner of the duel, and also the given round, so he takes the last trick/new round starting player token too.

At the round end scoring the number of collected deputies are summed up. The player points are modified based on the number of deputies they acquired as follows:

1 deputy: -10 points
2 deputies: -20 points
3 deputies: -30 points
4 deputies: -40 points
5 deputies: +100 points

Mr. Dynamite Frank Wolf

(1 copy with a value of 10/25)

It has a value of 10 every turn, but he is worth 25 points at every scoring for the player who acquires him.

Bandits

(9 copies with a value of 10)

Every number 10 card is worth 10 points for the player who acquired them.

The End of the Game

The game ends after playing 7 rounds (deals), when the last card is played. We sum up the points acquired at the end of the rounds (see the Scoring section), and the final winner of the game will be the one who collected the most points.

Scoring

At the end of each round when every player run out of cards, scoring takes place. To calculate the number of taken tricks each player counts the number of cards he collected and divides them by the number of players. Players score points based on the number of taken tricks as follows:

Number of taken tricks	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Score	-50	-25	0	+10	+25	+50	+75	+100	+150	+200	+250	+500

Additional points are scored for acquiring special characters as follows.

Please note that in case one player took every trick, no additional points are scored based on special cards. The winner gets 500 points regardless of the acquired cards, and every other player gets -50 points.

Additional Points

Courageous sheriff (doubling): Scores acquired in that round are doubled (minus or plus).
Coward sheriff (winning the last trick by playing sheriff from hand): 75 points.
Acquiring Mr. Dynamite Frank Wolf: 25 points.
Acquiring bandits: 10 points per card.
Acquiring deputies: 1 deputy -10 points; 2 deputies -20 points; 3 deputies -30 points; 4 deputies -40 points; 5 deputies +100 points.
Taking the last trick: 50 points.
Taking every trick as the courageous sheriff: Instant win!
Acquiring the card of the sheriff: 25 points.

After summing up and recording scores the cards are shuffled thoroughly again, and another round starts, where the starting player is the one who took the last trick of the last round.

The final winner, i.e. the hero of the Wild West is the player who earns the most points during the 7 rounds.

Example for scoring: At the end of the first round of a four player game the scores of the players are as follows:

Frank took 2 tricks overall (0 points), however, with these tricks he acquired all 5 deputies (100 points), so he ended up with 100 total points in this round.

Jack took 5 tricks (50 points) with 3 bandits (3×10 points), and even though he was dealt the sheriff, being a coward sheriff, he did not take the risk of doubling his points. He could keep the card of the sheriff with his taken tricks (25 points), however, he did not take the last trick of the round, so he does not get any additional points. He closed this round with 105 points.

Tuco took 3 tricks (10 points), acquiring 2 bandits (2×10 points) and Mr. Dynamite (25 points). Tuco got 55 points at the end of this round.

Clint took only 1 trick (-25 points), however, it was the last turn of the round (50 points), with which he could acquire 4 bandits (4×10 points). Clint closed this round with 65 points.