Cowpoker

Designers: James Ernest & Mike Selinker
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Year: 2006
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes

The Idea
Cowpoker is a light card game that serves as a good filler on a gaming night. It’s a mix of a trick taking card game and poker with a healthy dose of wild west thrown in for theme. Players represent one of four different ranches and are trying to get points by making a number of poker hands as they recruit people into their gang (by playing cards in front of them) and win tricks (which represent a wild west gunfight or cattle roundup) throughout the game. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

In the Box
Cow Poker is a card game and is made up of 54 game cards and 12 “Ranch” cards. The cards are a reasonable quality cardboard and will stand up to a reasonable amount of use.

The Ranch cards are made up of three sets of four cards. One set will be used to identify the players and the ranch they represent. The remaining eight Ranch cards are used to randomly determine some decisions during the game.

The game cards each have a number of common features. To begin with each card has a small regular playing card on it. These are used to make up poker hands at the end of the game (and occasionally during the game).

Most of the cards will belong to one of the four ranches in the game and are easily identified by their colour (yellow, red, green or blue). The exceptions are the cards with which contain the face cards (Jack, Queen, King and the two Jokers). These cards are purple “Town” cards which don’t belong to any of the players ranches and have special rules associated with them (printed on the cards).

Next the cards contain three number values on them. The first value is “Points” and is sometimes used for determining the value of a group of cards. The Point value of your gang will constitute a large part of your final score. The last two values are called “Roundup” and “Gunfight”. These last two values will be used in the trick taking part of the game.

Finally each card will contain some special rules text. This text may call for a trick taking round or may allow you to do some special action like stealing a card from another player.

The final component of the game is the rules sheet. It’s a double sided black and white sheet and it explains the rules quite clearly. Diagrams are used to clearly explain the cards and the layout of the cards during game play. It also contains a summary of the ranking of poker hands for those who aren’t sure of their poker rules.

Basic Game Play Summary
The game starts with each player taking one of the ranch cards to identify their ranch. If there are fewer than four players playing, the other ranches become what are called in the game “Deadwood Players”. They will act like virtual players with their card plays being done by drawing the top card off the draw pile. The Deadwood players allow the game to adjust quite well to either 2, 3 or 4 players.

After shuffling the game cards (and not the ranch cards) each player receives a hand of 5 cards. The rest of the cards form a draw pile. In their turn each player will draw cards until they have 5 cards in their hand and then play one card into their gang by placing it face up in front of them.

If the card played to their gang matches the player’s ranch or is a town card then the special effects of the card (as directed by the rules text on the card) comes into play. This will usually instigate a trick taking round (either a Gunfight or a Roundup).

To have a Gunfight or Roundup, players (including Deadwood players) take turns playing one card from their hand with the player who instigated the Gunfight or Roundup going last. The winner of the trick is determined by the appropriate value on the cards played (either Gunfight or Roundup as appropriate) with ties going to the player who played their card last. The cards won in tricks are then placed face down into the player’s “Cellar” (unless a Town card’s special rules text says otherwise). These cards cannot be looked at until the end of the game.

Deadwood players have their turn each round just like “Live” players by drawing off the top of the draw pile.

The game immediately ends when the final card of the draw pile is drawn. Your base score will be calculated from the points value of all the members in your gang. Then you need to make up three poker hands. 6 bonus points are awarded to the player with the best poker hand made up from their gang cards. 6 bonus points are likewise awarded to the players with the best poker hands in their Cellar and the cards remaining in their hand. Finally the player with the fewest points on their Cellar cards will lose 6 points. The player with the most points after these calculations wins.

Who Would Like It
First of all, poker fans won’t necessarily like Cowpoker. Cowpoker has none of the bluffing and betting that makes poker such an interesting and popular game. The poker is simply another part of the theme of the game. And the western theme of the game does work reasonably well so fans of westerns may well enjoy an occasional game.

While there is some strategy to how you play your cards to maximise your potential poker hands while limiting your opponents’ poker hands, luck plays a very big factor in the game. So if a strong luck factor usually turns you off games then you may want to pass on Cowpoker.

Ultimately Cowpoker will appeal most to people who enjoy irreverent humorous games such as “Fluxx” (from Looney Labs), “Lord of the Fries” and “Show Me the Brains” (from Cheap Ass Games) and of course many of the other games from Steve Jackson Games (such as “Munchkin”).

Where to From Here?
If you have enjoyed Cowpoker then the humorous games mentioned above will probably also appeal to you. In particular, “The Good, the Bad and the Munchkin” (from Steve Jackson Games) combines both the light humour and the western theme which Cowpoker touches on.

For a slightly more serious western themed card game (but still pretty light) you could check out “Bang!” (from daVinci Games). For more of a boardgame / wargame style game you could try “Cowboy: The Way of the Gun” (from Worthington Games).