The Gang Card Game Review
Ever wanted to play poker cooperatively? Me neither, not because I didn’t want to, but because I would be asking myself, who plays poker cooperatively!? Well, with The Gang, now you can. Using a standard deck of cards, The Gang has players working together in a really unique way, and while I didn’t think it would work when it was originally pitched to me, I’ve come to really enjoy it!
The game uses standard Texas Holdem poker rules, but if you are not familiar with those card rules, they are explained to you. At the start of each round, there are numbered poker chips in the middle of the table equal to the number of players. Each player is dealt two cards to start a round. After looking at your cards, you evaluate your assumed strength of your hand and grab a chip from the center of the table, or take a chip from in front of another player. You are attempting to predict how strong or how weak you think your hand is. When finished, everyone will have selected a chip.
When the river is flopped – the first three cards shown in this style of poker – a set of yellow chips will be out on the table and players will once again revaluate their hands, taking chips based on how they are feeling. The higher the chip value, the more confident you are in your hand. Then the 4th card is played, and orange chips are placed on the table and players evaluate their hands again, taking one chip per player. Once the last card is played, red chips come out and players do it again.
Everything prior to the red chips is just information sharing. As players hands improve or get worse, they will start taking different value chips. When the red chips get put on the table, that is when it matters, and players NEED to take those chips from worst hand to best, and get it correct! Open three values – complete three rounds – and you win; set off three alarms and you lose. There are cards you will get to make the next round easier or harder depending on how you did, but that about sums up the game!
What I like about The Gang is that it is a really easy teach if players you are playing with have some understanding of Texas Holdem poker. And I think most people do. There is obviously a lot of luck here – Two Pair isn’t an easy hand to get, but it is easier than 3 of a kind. Do you take the highest chip with 2 pair? Does someone have a higher 2 pair then you? The information you get throughout the game is only going to take you so far – at some point, there is a bit of luck involved, which I guess is Poker in a way. The game itself, though, is really a delight. It’s easy and quick to play, and even when you lose, you don’t feel like you’ve spent a lot of time playing just to come up empty handed. I really enjoyed this, and so did our group!
Article By Adam
