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The Blind Bets Card Game

This card game comes from the reddit user u/WintersWarmth. It’s an easy to play game that works best in bigger groups. However there’s tons of variations and optional rules if you want to add a bit of complexity.

What You’ll Need To Play

A standard 52 card deck and any number of players. (Recommended at least 4). A pint glass or otherwise large drinking vessel is optional as well if players choose to play with the the Kings Cup rules.

Set Up

Each player is dealt 4-6 cards (or more, dependent on desired game duration/amount of players) to use as their hand. A card is then drawn from the deck and placed face down in the center of all players, this is the blind.

How To Play

Once the blind is set, players must then place a card face up, adjacent to the blind that they believe matches the suit of the blind. Once all players have done this the blind is flipped and players that match the suit discard their card from play into a discard deck and do not drink. Players that do not match also have to discard their card, draw another card from the live deck and then take a drink. (If ever the live deck is emptied, then the discards are shuffled and added to the live deck).

After this the round is over and the blind is sent to the graveyard and replaced from the live deck to mark the start of the next round. Once a player has discarded their entire hand they are considered a victor and are no longer in the game. Rounds continue until one player is left with cards in their hand, they are considered the loser and must down their current drink in shame. Game over. In the event of a tie all tying players must draw a card, and the lowest loses.

Optional Rules and Variations

Betting

Each round before the blind is flipped any player who did not match the blind in the previous round is able to bet on what the blind will be. If their bet is correct whoever does not match the blind has to drink (as well as the mismatch) However if the bet is wrong then the bet placer must drink twice as punishment (as well as a mismatch if applicable)

Dirty Pint/Kings Cup

This is set aside until a player has discarded their hand and left the game, upon doing so they are required to pour a “small” amount of their own drink into the dirty pint/kings cup. At the end of the game the loser must down the dirty pint/kings cup as their solemn reward.

Blind Faith

An alternate version of the game, in which the blind is placed by one of the players (referred to as the ‘suitor’) and the rest of the players play as normal, but in this version the players determine how much the suitor must drink.

However many players match the blind is how much the suitor must drink, but however many don’t match (whom still have to drink) is how many cards the suitor can discard from their hand. Victor/Loser rules stay the same.

Each round the suitor role rotates to the player on the current suitor’s left side.

Blind Leading The Blind

Whenever all players mismatch the blind, they all drink.

Blind Luck

If a player matches the ace of spades with the blind, they get to choose one other player to drink every time an ace is matched with the blind.

Bonus Blind

If all players match the blind in any given round, the next round will feature two blinds where players have the opportunity to lose two of their cards, or risk having to drink twice. [Note: This can stack. If all players match both blinds in this round, the next round will feature two blinds as well. This continues until any player does not match both blinds]

Flashbang

At any time that 2 or more players mismatch the blind, the mismatching players must drink the corresponding amount of mismatches of all players. (ex. 3 players mismatch, all 3 players must drink 3 times)

Cruel Kings

Instead of the dirty pint/kings cup being filled by a player as they leave the game, it is to be filled by whomever matches the blind when it is any of the four kings.

All-In/Double Or Nothin’/Blind Ambition

In any given round where a player has the chance to bet, they may substitute said bet to go all-in. In this case a player may play all the cards in their hand of any one suit (ex. player has 2-3 diamonds in their hand played all at once) If the suit matches the blind, all of those cards are discarded. However if they do not match, the player must draw double the amount of cards they put all-in, as well as taking another drink.