How to play Flip 7

In every round you collect number cards. After each card you decide: take another one, or stop? The numbers on your cards add up. That’s your score for the round.

The catch: if you get a number you already have, you bust. Then you score nothing at all for that round.

Example: Ben gets an 8. He could stop now and keep 8 points. Instead he takes another card and gets a 5. Now he has 13 points. If he takes another card and it’s another 8 or 5, he loses all his points for this round. With any other number he can carry on.

If you collect seven different numbers, that’s a Flip 7. The round ends at once for everyone, and you score 15 extra points.

You play several rounds and write the scores down. The game ends after the round in which someone reaches 200 points. The player with the most points wins.

This guide follows the official rules of the original edition by The Op. The current German edition by Kosmos uses the same rules.

1. Shuffle all the cards and choose a dealer.
2. The dealer deals one card face up to each player in turn, including themselves.
3. Put your number cards in a row in front of you. Modifier cards and a Second Chance go above them, so everyone can see them (steps 4 and 5).

If an action card comes up during the deal, pause and carry it out straight away (step 5). Then carry on dealing. Because of this, not everyone may have a number card after the deal.

After the deal, the dealer asks each player who is still in the round, in turn:

• Hit: you get another card face up.
• Stay: you leave the round and keep the points in front of you. They’re scored at the end of the round.

You can stay as soon as you have at least one card in front of you. Play carries on around the table until nobody is left in the round or someone gets a Flip 7.

Good to know:

• Only number cards can make you bust. Modifier cards never do (step 4).
• Only number cards count towards a Flip 7, and the 0 counts as a number of its own.
• When a round ends with a Flip 7, everyone who hasn’t busted scores the cards in front of them.

Flip 7 has 94 cards of three kinds:

• Number cards (79 cards): the numbers go from 0 to 12. Each number appears as often as its value: twelve 12s, eleven 11s and so on down to one 1. There’s also one 0. It scores nothing but helps you towards a Flip 7.
• Modifier cards (6 cards): +2, +4, +6, +8, +10 and x2, one of each. They give you extra points (step 6).
• Action cards (9 cards): Freeze, Flip Three and Second Chance, three of each (step 5).

If you play with more than 18 people, it’s best to add the cards of a second deck.

You get action cards just like any other card. You don’t keep a Freeze or a Flip Three, though. You decide who it hits: anyone still in the round, including yourself. If you’re the last player still in the round, you have to use it on yourself.

Freeze

A Freeze makes a player stop at once, and they keep the points they have so far. For example, Lea only has 6 points so far. Tom gets a Freeze and gives it to Lea. Lea has to stop and scores 6 points this round.

Flip Three

Flip Three makes a player take the next three cards, one at a time. For example, Tom gives Flip Three to Lea, who has 3, 8, 10 and 12 in front of her. Lea gets a 5, then +4 and then an 8. She already has an 8, so she busts.

The details:

• If the player busts or gets a Flip 7, they get no more cards.
• All cards count towards the three, including modifier and action cards. So Lea’s +4 counts too.
• If a Second Chance comes up, the player can set it aside and use it straight away.
• If a Freeze or another Flip Three comes up, it’s carried out after the third card, but only if the player hasn’t busted. The player chooses who gets it as usual.

Second Chance

A Second Chance saves you from busting once. For example, Mia has 4, 9 and 11 and a Second Chance in front of her. She gets a second 9. She discards the 9 and the Second Chance and stays in the round.

• You keep a Second Chance yourself and put it in front of you.
• You don’t get a replacement card straight away.
• It doesn’t protect you from a Freeze.
• You can only hold one Second Chance at a time. If you get another one, give it to another player in the round who doesn’t have one. If nobody can take it, discard it.
• An unused Second Chance is discarded at the end of the round.

At the end of the round, everyone who hasn’t busted counts their points:

1. Add up your number cards.
2. If you have the x2 card, double that sum. It only doubles the number cards.
3. Add any +2 to +10 modifier cards.
4. If you got a Flip 7, add 15 points.

If you busted, you score 0. Write everyone’s points down and add them to their running total.

Example: Sam stays with 11, 5 and 12 and the +4 card. He scores 11 + 5 + 12 = 28, plus 4, so 32 points. Clara gets a Flip 7 with 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 and also has x2 and +6. Here’s how she counts:

1. After each round, put all the cards from the round on a discard pile. Don’t shuffle them back in yet.
2. Pass the rest of the deck to the left. That player is the new dealer.
3. When the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new deck. If this happens during a round, the cards in front of the players stay where they are.

The game ends after the round in which at least one player reaches 200 points or more. The player with the most points wins, even if several players have reached 200. If there’s a tie for the most points, everyone plays more rounds until there is a single winner.