All In: A Flip&Write Showdown
All In: A Flip&Write Showdown Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- A player sheet per player
- A pencil per player
- Any deck of poker cards you have around, including the 2 Jokers.
Setup
If this is your first game it is suggested to play with the Q♦ Player Sheet, giving one to every player. Otherwise pick one at random and give one of the chosen sheet to all the players.
Fold the sheet so that the upper part aligns with the two signs on the side, creating a screen behind which you will write your hand of cards in secret.
Give a pencil or a pen to every player.
Shuffle the poker deck and set aside 8 cards face down without looking at them. This is called the Golden Deck.
Place the other cards face down in the play area; this is the main deck.
Game Overview
The game lasts 23 rounds. Each round 2 cards will be revealed and the players will use them to secretly write down a card on their sheet, trying to replicate the Poker Scoring Hands illustrated in the upper section of your player sheet.
When all the players will have written down a card, a player may declare a Completed Hand (a row or column filled with cards) and unlock Poker Chips that may be later used to modify the numbers or suit of the selected card.
When the main deck is depleted, the game is over and the points will be awarded. Who has the most is the winner!
Gameplay
Write Down a Card
At the beginning of each round flip 2 cards from the deck by covering the previous placed cards if any.
Players must secretly write down a card on their personal sheet in an empty card space, orthogonally adjacent to a previously written card. Two card spaces are considered adjacent if they are orthogonally linked by a line.
The Golden Card is not considered as an empty card space.
Please note: In the first and second rounds the cards must be written in one of the starting empty card spaces, indicated by the small dot in the bottom-left corner of the card space. In this case you can ignore the Placement Rules.
The card the players choose to write may be one of the revealed cards or composed with the suit from a revealed card and the value from the other revealed card. To indicate which card you have chosen, simply write the value and circle the suit in the card space.
In the example on the manual, the player may choose to write one of the four combinations shown into the marked Card Slots. The player chooses to write down a Queen of Clubs next to the Jack of Hearts, in the same row. This could be a good choice to score a Straight.
The Joker is considered as a wild and allows you to choose any suit or any value for your card. You must however use the other card as a value or a suit. In the case of two Jokers you can write any card you want.
The Poker Scoring Hands (Full House, Straight, etc…) don't have to be written in the exact or sequential order; they just need to be part of the same Hand to score the points. Once written down, a card cannot be deleted or modified.
For example, A 10 J Q K is considered a Straight even if the cards are not in sequential order.
Spending Poker Chips
When you write down a card you can use any amount of your available Poker Chips, marking them as you prefer, to modify the suit and the value of the revealed cards. Do not physically change the revealed cards!
With one Poker Chip (1) you can change the value of a revealed card by +/- 1. This action can be performed several times in the same turn by spending additional Poker Chips. You can also go around from the King to the Ace and vice versa. With two Poker Chips (2) you can change the suit of a card in another suit of your choice.
Note: You are not restricted to the cards in the deck. Since you can modify a card with Poker Chips, there can be more cards of the same type on your sheet (ex. 3 Aces of Hearts).
Completing a Hand
After every player writes down the card for the current round, if you complete one or more Hands by filling all the card spaces in the given row or column, you MUST declare it.
The Hand is identified by a letter (B in the manual's example) and includes all the vertical or horizontal adjacent card spaces linked with a line.
Note that a written down card can be part of more than one hand.
To Complete a Hand you must have a card written in each card slot of a row and/or column, regardless if it contains a valid Poker Scoring Hand or not. In the manual's example the B Hand is completed without any Scoring Poker Point.
For each Hand you have completed you may obtain the indicated number of chips.
- This icon (a single player figure) means that only the first player to complete this Hand obtains one Poker Chip. All other players should mark on their sheet the corresponding icon to indicate that a player already completed the given Hand.
- This icon (two player figures) means that the first player to complete that Hand obtains two Poker Chips and all other players should mark this icon on their sheet to indicate that a player already completed that given Hand. All the other players completing that Hand in subsequent rounds will obtain one Poker Chip.
If more players in the same round complete the same Hand for the first time (or more than one), with the single-player-figure icon those players get 1 Poker Chip reward per completed Hand.
If more players in the same round complete the same Hand for the first time (or more than one), with the two-player-figure icon those players get 2 Poker Chips reward per completed Hand.
Mark the Poker Chips you get in the lower part of your sheet by filling the little circles. You can complete a hand without any Poker Point in it just to obtain the Poker Chips.
Surrounding the Golden Card
When a player (or more), by writing a card on their sheet, surrounds the Golden Card with the 8th card, they can secretly choose one card from the Golden Deck set aside during setup, and write it anywhere on an empty card slot, by ignoring the Placement Rules. This card cannot be modified with Poker Chips. If you choose a Joker among the cards in the Golden Deck, you may write any card you want.
This card is then removed from the game.
If more players surround the Golden Card in the same round, each of those players will then choose a card from the Golden Deck and write it down on their sheet by ignoring the Placement Rules. Players are allowed to choose the same card. After all players have made their choice, remove all the chosen cards from the game.
If this causes you to complete a Hand you must also declare it, as mentioned above.
End Game and Final Scoring
The game ends when the main deck of cards runs out. Then final scoring takes place.
Please note: some players may have empty Card Spaces on the player sheet.
Each player calculates the value of their Hands even if not completed, by writing them in the corresponding Hand space. Follow the scheme in the upper part of your sheet. Each hand can score only once and for a single poker point.
Poker Scoring Hands reference
The player sheet prints a numbered scoring aid, from weakest (1) to strongest (8), following the numerical order:
| # | Hand | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | (comparison symbol only — marks the direction hand strength increases in the aid) | — |
| 2 | Pair (2 cards of the same value, different suits) | 2 |
| 3 | Two Pair (2 cards of the same value in different suits, plus 2 more cards of another value in different suits) | 4 |
| 4 | Three of a Kind (3 cards of the same value, different suits) | 6 |
| 5 | Straight (5 cards with progressive values, suits of any kind) | 8 |
| 6 | Full House (a Three of a Kind in three different suits, plus a Pair in two different suits) | 10 |
| 7 | Four of a Kind (4 cards of the same value, different suits) | 12 |
| 8 | Straight Flush (5 cards with progressive values, the same suit amongst all its cards) | 14 |
The Hand must have the required cards to score the points regardless of the order in which the cards are placed. Each Hand can only score once.
The Straight must be composed of five cards with progressive Values and Suits of any kind.
The Straight Flush must be composed of five cards with progressive Values and the same suit amongst all its cards.
The Ace is the strongest card of it all. It can be considered as a 1 or as the last card in these Straights: A, 2, 3, 4, 5 / 10, J, Q, K, A. In fact a Straight or a Straight Flush can go as high as the A.
The Full House must be composed by a Three of a Kind in three different Suits amongst them, and a Pair in two different Suits amongst them.
The Two Pair must be composed by two cards with the same value in different suits amongst them, and another 2 cards with the same value in two different suits amongst them. All the other Poker Scoring Points must have different Suits amongst them in order to be scored.
After all players have scored their Hands, they will compare their Scoring Hands (i.e. the ones that scored points), one at a time, following the letters in alphabetical order, by starting with the letter A, to declare the Best Scoring Hand between the players.
The player with the strongest Scoring Hand has the Best Scoring Hand and obtains the points indicated besides that Hand. Mark the circle under the points icons with an X.
The strongest Scoring Hand is considered as the further down in the scoring aid in the top of the sheet following the numerical order.
In the case that two or more players have the Strongest Hand (Ex. all tied players with a Three of a Kind), the points are awarded to the player that has the higher face value cards that are part of the combination. A Three of a Kind made of 3s is stronger than one made of 2s. Scoring the highest face value cards an Ace wins over the King.
In the case of a same combination with the same values between more players (players with a Three of a Kind made of 3s), the player with a higher face value card in that Hand not used for the combination, obtains the points. The suit doesn't matter.
In the case there's still a tie, every tied player obtains the points.
Lastly, get one point for each unused Poker Chip.
Write the total amount of points obtained from each of your Hands, for your Best scoring Hands you won, and your remaining Poker Chips in the dedicated spaces in the upper part of your sheet, and now sum all up.
The player with the most points is the winner and in case of a tie, the player with the most remaining Poker Chips wins the game.
Credits
Game Design: Pierpaolo Paoletti Illustrator: Giada Princi Rulebook Editing: Flavio De Leonardis