Underdog

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards and chips
3. Playing a round
4. The last round
5. Winning the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Underdog is a tiny game of nerve and bluff with only 13 cards. Each round you hold one card and may swap it once. Then everyone decides in turn whether to fight for the round by betting a chip. Among the fighters, the highest card wins – but the lowest card in the fight adds the value of the face-up underdog card, so a weak card can suddenly beat a strong one. The winner takes all the chips bet plus a chip from the bank. After seven rounds, the player with the most chips wins.

• Players: 3–6.
• You need: the 13 cards of one suit from a standard deck, and chips (or counters, matches) – up to 32. You play for chips, not money.

Underdog is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Kobayakawa (Jun Sasaki, Oink Games, 2013). It has not been playtested in this form yet.

What is different from the original: the original has 15 cards numbered 1 to 15; Underdog uses the 13 cards Ace to King of one suit, so the values go from 1 to 13. The original rules don't say what happens when nobody fights or when a player has no chips left; the rules for these cases below are our own.

The cards and chips

Take the Ace to King of one suit, say diamonds. The other cards are not used. Each card has a value:

Each player gets 4 chips. Put 8 chips in the middle as the bank; they are the prizes for the rounds. The youngest player is the first start player.

Playing a round

A round has four steps.

1. Deal. Shuffle the 13 cards. Deal one card face down to each player; look at your own card and keep it secret. Put the rest face down as the draw pile and turn its top card face up next to it: this is the underdog card.

2. Draw. Beginning with the start player and going clockwise, everybody does one of these two things:

• Swap: take the top card of the draw pile. You now have two cards: keep one and lay the other face up in front of you, where everybody can see it.
• New underdog: turn the top card of the draw pile face up and put it on the underdog card. Only the top card counts; the new underdog card replaces the old one.

3. Fight or pass. Again beginning with the start player and going clockwise, everybody decides once:

• Fight: put 1 chip in front of you (in the last round: 2 chips, see below).
• Pass: you are out of this round and risk nothing.

You decide in turn, so you know what the players before you have done.

4. Showdown. The fighters turn up their cards.

• The fighter with the lowest card adds the value of the underdog card to their card.
• The highest total wins the round. If two fighters tie, the one who comes first in turn order, counting from the start player, wins.
• If only one player fights, they win without showing their card.
• If nobody fights, nobody wins; the bank's chip stays for the next round and the same player starts again (our own rule).

The winner takes all the chips bet in this round (their own too) and 1 chip from the bank. The winner becomes the start player of the next round.

Example: Anna is the start player. Anna has the 9, Ben the 3, Carla the J, Dan the 6; the underdog card is a 4. Anna swaps: she draws the 2, keeps the 9 and lays the 2 face up. Ben turns up a new underdog card: the 10. Carla draws the Q, keeps it and lays the J face up. Dan draws the 5, keeps the 6 and lays the 5 face up. Now Anna fights with her 9, and so does Ben – with a 3, he hopes to be the lowest fighter. Carla fights with her Q; Dan passes. Showdown: Ben's 3 is the lowest card, so he adds the underdog card: 3 + 10 = 13. That beats Carla's 12 and Anna's 9. Ben takes the 3 chips bet and 1 chip from the bank, and starts the next round.

The last round

When only 2 chips are left in the bank, the next round is the last round – usually the seventh. In it, fighting costs 2 chips (or 1 chip if that's all you have), and the winner takes both chips from the bank as well as all the chips bet.

A player who has no chips left can't fight any more and is out of the game.

Winning the game

After the last round, the player with the most chips wins. Players with the same number share the win.

Tips for beginners

• A very low card is not hopeless: if the underdog card is high and you are the lowest fighter, you may well win.
• A middle card is the most dangerous: too low to beat the high cards, too high to be the lowest fighter.
• The face-up cards in front of the players tell you which values are no longer in the game.
• Turning up a new underdog card is a way to help your own low card – or to spoil someone else's plan.
• Playing late in the fight step is an advantage: you already know who fights.

Variants

• Fifteen cards: if your two jokers look different, add them as 14 and 15 to get the full range of the original.