Bluff the Bullet

Bluff the Bullet is a poker-like game, with extra elements of bluffing and special card abilities. Players are dealt two separate hands, a “Scoring Hand” that determines if they win or lose, and a “Playing Hand,” whose cards have abilities that they can use to help improve their Scoring Hands.

At the start of the game, players are dealt five-card Scoring Hands, and are competing to have the best hand at the end of each round. But there’s one problem: While they start the game knowing what their cards are, that can change. Players are also dealt Playing Hands. During the game they will use abilities on these Playing Hand cards to learn about and change their and others’ Scoring Hands, to try to give themselves the best Scoring Hand possible.

Scoring Hands are ranked similarly (but not exactly) like poker, because each card has one of six suits and number value (from 1 to 7). The number values are important for scoring. Each card also has an ability based on its suit. When you use an ability, state which card(s) its ability is targeting. All abilities (except for bullets) affect Scoring Hand cards.

Beginning with the starting player and proceeding in clockwise order, each player takes a turn playing one card from their Playing Hand. The round ends when no one has any cards left to play. On your turn, must play a card, unless you’ve played a bullet card between your last turn and this one. In that case, you may still play a Playing Hand card, but it is optional. Whoever has the highest Scoring Hand at the end of the game is the winner.

—description from the publisher