Vegas (2000)
Vegas (2000) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What Comes With This Game
- Twelve Board Sections
- This Rulebook (4 pages)
What Else You Need
- 3-6 Players
- About 2 Hours of precious time
- A Pawn for each player
- Several (15?) colored Counters that match the Pawns
- Three 6-Sided Dice
- A Poker Deck without jokers
- Approximately $10,000 in Poker Chips or Play Money
The Game, in Brief
Players will go around the Board several times, playing simplified Casino Games and buying Sweepstakes Tickets. Every so often there is a Showdown in which players reveal the cards they have collected to win the money in the Pot. There are three main ways to make money in VEGAS: Casino Games, Showdowns, and winning Grand Prizes in the Sweepstakes.
Note: There are two versions of this game, the "friendly" and the "gambling" version. The rules below are for the friendly version. Changes for the gambling version are at the very end of this rulebook.
Setting Up
Players start with $500 in Poker Chips, about 15 personal Counters, and one Pawn. Put your Pawn on the Start space. Alongside the Start Space put 4 of your counters. These "lap" counters track the number of times your piece has been around the board: you remove one lap counter each time you hit Start. With 5 or more players, use only 3 lap counters. After the last lap counter is removed, the game will end with the next Showdown.
Casinos start with Banks the sizes of which are printed on the board. Put the appropriate number of Poker Chips on each Casino.
You may also need to have some Poker Chips in reserve, to replenish players or Casinos who go bankrupt.
Shuffle the Poker Deck and deal a hand of five cards to each player. Play begins with a random player and proceeds to the left.
On Each Turn
The turn is simple. Roll three dice, move, and react to the space where you stop. You will usually gamble, and sometimes you will buy tickets.
Moving: You roll three dice to move, and must take the entire move clockwise around the board. Exception: If you pass a "Draw-Showdown" space you may stop there instead of finishing your move.
Spaces: There are three kinds of spaces on the Board. The most common type is the Casino Game space, but there are also four Draw-Showdown spaces and four Penalty spaces.
Casino Game Spaces
For simplicity, each Casino on this block plays just one game, with the rules described on that Casino. For example, the game at Kublai's is Craps. This particular game corresponds exactly to the Field Bet in Craps. Other Casino Games are a little less realistic, but they are all designed to be evocative of the game in question.
When you land on a Casino Game space, you are compelled to play that game for the wager listed on the space. The amount you win or lose goes into or out of the Bank on that Casino. You only play the game once, unless you re-play by Cheating (see below).
"Rolling" Cards: When a game instructs you to "Roll a Card" you take the next card off the deck, look at it, and discard it. It's a little like rolling dice, but it feels more appropriate for the card games.
Cheating at Casino Games: Although you would instantly get your knees broken for behaving this way in real life, you can cheat at Casino Games by discarding cards from your hand. Each Casino is marked with a pip of a different suit, either Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, or Spades. You must discard a card of that suit to cheat there.
Cheating means re-playing the game, not winning automatically. You are erasing the result of the first game and playing it again. You can still lose, but you can cheat multiple times as long as you have cards to throw away. Typically, you should cheat only when the card you throw away is worth less to you than the chance to play again.
Buying Sweepstakes Tickets
Once you've finished playing the Casino Game, you have the opportunity to buy Tickets in that Casino's Grand Prize Drawing. You may buy Tickets whether you won or lost the Casino Game.
The Ticket price is listed on the Casino. For example, the Ticket price at Kublai's is $20. You may buy as many Tickets as you wish. Use counters to track the number of Tickets you hold, using the Ticket Strip printed on the Casino. For example, if you own three Tickets in a Casino, put your Counter on the "3." If you own seven, put counters on the "5" and the "2."
The money you pay for Tickets goes into the Pot in the middle of the board. This money will go to the winner of the next Showdown.
At the end of the game, each Ticket will be a chance to win the Casino's "Grand Prize," which is the amount of money left in its Bank.
The White "Penalty" Spaces
These four spaces are pretty self-explanatory. You must pay the amount shown to either Casino, and you may then buy Tickets at that Casino.
The Draw-Showdown Spaces
When you pass one of these spaces you have two options. You may finish your move and draw a card, or you may stop and call a Showdown.
If you land exactly on a Draw-Showdown space, you have the choice of drawing or calling for a Showdown. You still can't do both.
If your move takes you past two Draw-Showdown spaces, you can obviously draw at the first and still stop for a Showdown at the second.
Drawing: When you draw, leave the card face up on the table. It is part of your hand, but it's visible to the other players. You may use this card just like any other card in your hand.
Showdown
In a Showdown all players must show their hands. The player who holds the best Poker hand wins the money in the Pot. If two players tie, they split the pot. Players discard their hands, and the player who called the Showdown must shuffle the deck and deal a new hand of five cards to everyone. (If you use a second deck, these re-deals are quicker.)
The Rank of Poker Hands
If you're a little rusty on the rank of Poker hands, a Flush beats a Straight. If you're rustier than that, here are all the hands in increasing order:
High Card: The worst hand is only as good as its highest card. If your high card is tied with another hand, compare the next lower cards and so on. Suit has no value in this comparison, and Aces are high.
Pair: Two cards of the same rank. For example, 2 Jacks.
Two Pair: Two pairs. Compare these by the rank of the higher pair.
Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same rank.
Straight: Five cards in order, such as 2-3-4-5-6. Aces can be either high or low.
Flush: Five cards of the same suit.
Full House: 3 cards of one rank and 2 of another. Compare by the rank of the 3.
Straight Flush: A straight that's a flush.
Royal Flush: The highest hand without wild cards, this is an Ace-high Straight Flush.
Running Out Of Cards and Money
When The Deck Empties: If the deck runs out, either by being drawn or being rolled into the discard pile, there is a Showdown at the end of the turn in which it empties. If there is only one card remaining and the active player needs to draw multiple cards, for example when playing a 2-Card Casino Game, then the remainder of the cards are drawn randomly from the discard pile. The Showdown still happens at the end of the turn.
When a Player Goes Bankrupt: If you are ever required to take a loss you can't afford, you go bankrupt. If you hit zero money exactly, you're still okay. If you go bankrupt, you lose the cards in your hand and all of your Tickets, and start again (in your current position) with $500. Going bankrupt can be painful if you've bought a lot of Tickets, so be careful!
"Suicide" Option: At the end of your turn you may elect to go bankrupt on purpose. This is a good move if you're too broke to really do anything, since you're teetering on the edge of bankruptcy anyway.
When a Casino Goes Bankrupt: If a Casino goes bankrupt, its Bank is replaced with a new Bank of the same size as the original. However, all Tickets in the original Casino are removed from the board.
Ending the Game
When the last lap counter is removed from the Start space, the game becomes "endable." The game will end after the next Showdown.
Now it's time to draw for each Casino's Grand Prize. Do each Casino separately, starting with Kublai's. Shuffle the deck and deal one card to each player for each Ticket he or she holds. Whoever gets the highest card wins that Bank. In this drawing, suit does matter: Clubs are the lowest suit, followed by Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. Aces are still high.
After drawing for each Casino's Grand Prize, tally up your vast personal wealth. The player with the most money wins!
Strategy
The better your Poker Hand, the more Tickets you should buy. You're more likely to win that money back, making those tickets essentially free! If your Poker Hand is awful and has no chance of improving, call a Showdown as soon as you can. This will get you better cards before the Pot gets big.
Assuming that people will cheat fairly often, it is likely that most of the Casinos' Banks will shrink by the end of the game, despite the house percentages. Don't buy too many Tickets in a dwindling Bank.
Any Ticket can win! To have a decent chance of winning a Grand Prize you will have to get a significant advantage over the other Ticket holders. For example, if you have 12 Tickets and three other players have 4 each, you will win the Bank only half the time.
Gambling Variant
Players buy in for 25¢ each. If a player goes bankrupt or commits suicide, he may contribute another 25¢ and be re-staked at $100 less than his last buy-in (starting at $400, then $300, and so on), in order to keep his Tickets and cards. Or he can take the normal bankruptcy penalty without paying. The winner takes all the money.