Flip 7 rules: how to play and how to score

Flip 7 quick rules

The goal

Flip 7 is a press-your-luck game played over several rounds. You are dealt cards one at a time, face up, and score the total of their values; but if you get a number you already have, you bust and score nothing that round. The game ends after the round in which a player reaches 200 points, and the highest total wins.

The cards

Number cards run from 0 to 12: the higher the number, the more copies there are, from twelve 12s down to a single 1. There is also a single 0 card, worth no points. Added to these are 6 Score Modifier cards, which raise your score, and 9 Action cards, which shake up the round.

Hit or Stay

The Dealer deals every card of the round. To begin, they deal one card face up to each player in turn, themself included; then they offer each player still in the round the same choice: Hit or Stay? Hit, and you get another card face up, with your Number cards in a single row in front of you. Stay, and you leave the round, bank your points and flip your cards face down.

Busting, or flipping seven

If you are dealt a number you already have, you bust: the round is over for you and you score nothing. If you collect 7 different Number cards, you achieve a Flip 7: the round ends at once for everyone, and you score 15 bonus points. The 0 card is a Number card: it counts toward the Flip 7.

The Action cards

They are resolved as soon as you get them. Freeze makes a player still in the round leave it, banking their points; Flip Three makes the player you choose take the next 3 cards, one at a time. You may choose yourself, and you must if you are the last player in the round. Second Chance stays in front of you and saves you from busting on a duplicate; you can only hold one, so a second one goes to another player still in the round.

The Score Modifier cards

They go above your row of Number cards. Five of them add 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 points; the sixth, the ×2 card, doubles the total of your Number cards. A Score Modifier card can never make you bust and doesn’t count toward the Flip 7, but you lose it if you bust.

The end of the round and scoring

The round ends when every player has stayed or busted, or as soon as someone achieves a Flip 7. Each player who hasn’t busted adds up their Number cards, doubles that total with the ×2 card, adds their other Score Modifier cards, then 15 points for a Flip 7. The played cards are set aside without being shuffled back in, and the player on the Dealer’s left becomes the new Dealer.

The end of the game

At the end of a round, if at least one player has reached or passed 200 points, the game ends and the highest total wins. The current round is always played to the end. There can only be one winner: on a tie, everyone plays another round.

Beginner traps

High numbers are the most common: a 12 scores a lot, but it’s the number that busts you most often. The ×2 card doubles neither your other Score Modifier cards nor the 15 points of a Flip 7. And a Second Chance doesn’t carry over: all of them are discarded at the end of the round, even unused ones.

How to score Flip 7

Round score

The total of your Number cards, doubled if you have the ×2 card, plus your +2 to +10 Score Modifier cards. In that order: the ×2 card only doubles Number cards.

Flip 7

Seven different Number cards: 15 bonus points, which the ×2 card doesn’t double. The round ends at once for everyone.

Busted

You were dealt a number you already had: the round scores you nothing, Score Modifier cards included.

Game end

Rounds add up. At the end of the round in which a player reaches or passes 200 points, the highest total wins; on a tie, everyone plays another round.

Worked example

Jake stays with 12, 9, 5 and 3 (29 points), the ×2 card and a +4: 29 × 2 + 4 = 62 points. Emma achieves a Flip 7 with 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 11: 32 + 15 = 47 points. Mia had 10, 7 and a +6, but got a second 7: she busted and scores 0.

Common mistakes

• Doubling the +2 to +10 Score Modifier cards, or the 15 points of a Flip 7, with the ×2 card: it only doubles Number cards.
• Keeping your Score Modifier cards after busting: a bust is worth zero.
• Forgetting that the 0 card counts as a different number for the Flip 7.
• Stopping the game before the end of the round in which someone passes 200: finish the round, then compare.
• Declaring two winners on a tie: play another round until there is only one.

How to set up Flip 7

A game takes about 20 minutes, and everything fits in a single deck: follow the three parts in order.