Riverboat Showdown Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Object
• Before Play
• Play
• Wild Cards
• Strategy Hints

Contents

54 cards including 8 Riverboat Showdown cards, 44 number cards and 2 wild cards; chips; rules.

Object

To acquire the greatest number of chips during a predetermined time period (for example, 1 hour).

Before Play

Decide which player will be the first dealer. The dealer shuffles the 8 Riverboat Showdown cards and places them facedown in a line near the center of the playing surface. He then shuffles the remaining 46 cards, including the two wild cards, and deals 8 facedown to each player.

Players may look at their cards and sort them. Each player draws 20 chips to start the game and the remaining chips are placed in a pile near the center of the table to form the kitty.

Play

The dealer turns over the first Riverboat Showdown card in the line. The player to the dealer's left now has 3 options:

1. He may discard a number card higher than the Riverboat Showdown card played and must pay the difference to the kitty. Example: the showdown card played is a 5. The player discards an 8 and pays 3 chips to the kitty.
2. He may discard a number card lower than the Riverboat Showdown card played and must collect the difference from the kitty. Example: the Showdown card played is a 5. The player discards a 1 and collects 4 chips from the kitty.
3. He may discard one or more number cards if they are the same as the Riverboat Showdown card played; he does not pay or collect anything.

Play continues in a clockwise direction until all players, including the dealer, have discarded at least one card to the first Riverboat Showdown card in the line. Remember, the only time a player may discard more than one card in a turn is when those cards match the Riverboat Showdown card played.

The dealer now turns over the second Riverboat Showdown card in the line, and play continues as before.

When a player discards the last card or cards in his hand, any other players who have not discarded to that Riverboat Showdown card may do so. Then, all players with cards still in their hands total up the numbers on their cards and pay that number of chips to the player who went out. If two or more players go out on the same turn, any winnings are split equally between them, and any extra chips are given to the kitty.

After one or more players go out, the round is ended and the deal passes to the left. All cards are reshuffled and redistributed; another round is started.

Wild Cards

The deck contains two wild cards. These cards may be played as any number declared by the player discarding the wild card. See Strategy Hints.

The printed rules give the following paragraphs and card captions with no heading of their own; they are kept here in their printed order.

The Winner is the player with the greatest number of chips at the end of the designated time period.

In addition to 2 wild cards and 8 Riverboat Showdown cards (one each of numbers 1 through 8), the deck consists of 44 number cards:

• 6 Ones
• 6 Twos
• 5 Threes
• 5 Fours
• 5 Fives
• 5 Sixes
• 6 Sevens
• 6 Eights

The printed rules illustrate three card types, captioned NUMBER CARDS, SHOWDOWN CARDS and WILD CARDS.

Strategy Hints

It usually pays to save wild cards for the last discard or discards in order to go out first. They may also be played to collect from the kitty. Example: play a wild card as a 1 on a Riverboat Showdown 8 card to collect 7 chips.

It is normally good practice to try to discard high cards early in the round to avoid getting stuck with them if someone else goes out first.

It is usually profitable to save multiples of a number in the hopes that that number will turn up and allow you to discard all the cards of that number in your hand.