The Piker: Premise
Welcome to the fast-paced investment card game The Piker. Show off your investment skills and auction finesse by collecting the most victory points in this cut-throat, competitive card and dice game for 2-4 players.
There's really only one rule: Don't be a piker. A piker is an amateur, small time trader. Instead, use your skills to implore a strategy of safe investments over the long haul or all-or-nothing gambles on high risk investments. If you enjoy auction games like The Speicherstadt or Ra then you are sure to love this game. But unlike most auction games, Piker uses dice rolls for the auctions adding an element of skill and chance to the game that creates a harmonious balance. |
Setup
- Each player chooses a color and takes that color's privacy screen and 5 dice of their color.
Place the remaining dice out of play for now. - Put the Piker meeple to the side for now.
- Take out the After Market card and place in the center of the play area.
- Shuffle the remaining cards and place them face-down in the center of the play area.
- For 2 players: Deal out 4 cards face down in the middle of the table.
For 3 or 4 players: Deal out 5 cards face down in the middle of the table. - Determine the first player randomly.
Game Play
1 - Generate Income
3 - Collect Investments
4 - The After Market
5 - Refill the Market
6 - The Piker
- All players roll their dice behind their privacy screen to keep them secret.
- Starting with the first player, each player places one dice on an investment card or an open spot After Market card in the middle of the play area.
- Players continue to place one dice until all dice are used
3 - Collect Investments
- Starting with the first Investment Card, add up the dice pips for each color. The player with the most pips wins the card. They take the card and place it face up and in the vertical position in front of their privacy screen. A vertical card signifies that is unsecured.
Note: You do not get the victory points for a card until is secured. - For a tie, the tying players roll all of their dice on the card. The player with the most pips showing wins.
- If the card won is a Market Volatility card, the winning player reads the card at loud. If the card says to use immediately, the winning player performs the action. Otherwise they keep the card face up in front of their privacy screen and play it later in the game
4 - The After Market
- Each player takes their dice from the After Market card and uses it to secure any unsecured cards in front of their privacy screen.
- To secure a card, you must use one or more dice equal to or higher than the secure value on the bottom right of the unsecured card.
- Once you secure a card, turn that card horizontal.
5 - Refill the Market
- Pick up ALL of your dice you used this round from the table, from secured cards and from the after market. Each player starts off the round with 5 dice.
- Place a new set of face down cards in the middle of the table based on the number of the players (see Setup).
6 - The Piker
- The player with the least amount of secured and unsecured victory points gets The Piker card.
If there is a tie, each players rolls a dice and the lowest roll gets the card. - The Piker begins the next round with one extra dice.
- The Piker decides whether or not to place an additional face down card to the market.
- The Piker becomes the first player next round.
- Any player that did not win an auction card gets an extra dice for the next round.
- Go to step 1 and begin the next round. The game consists of 6 rounds.
End of the Game
The game consist of 6 rounds. At the end of the sixth round, each player adds up their points.
The player with the most Victory Points wins. In the event of a tie, the players roll two dice to determine the winner.
- Players receive points based on their secured cards
- Players receive points based on sets of their secured cards. See your privacy screen for the scoring.
The player with the most Victory Points wins. In the event of a tie, the players roll two dice to determine the winner.