The Piker

Piker: an amateur, small time trader afraid to make large investments. In this dice auction, card game, players compete to use their dice as money in auctions to make risk vs. reward investments in an attempt to win the game. The game play is fast and exciting and plays 2-4 players in 20-30 minutes. Inspired by dice placement games like Kingsburg, Castles of Burgundy and Marco Polo, but much lighter and very quick to setup and teach.

* FULL RULES FOR THE GAME CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.BOWTIEGAMES.COM *

Setup Each player starts with 5 dice of their favorite color.

Take out the Piker and After Market Card. Shuffle the remaining cards.

For 2 players: Deal out 4 cards face down in the middle of the table For 3 players: Deal out 5 cards
For 4 or 5 players: Deal out 6 cards

Choose a starting players.

Game Play 1 - Roll Dice The player with the Piker card gets an extra dice for this turn.
Note: There is not a Piker on the first round of the game.

All players roll their dice and hide them behind their screen to keep it secret

2 - Place Dice Starting with the Piker, each player places one dice on a card If you are interested in buying a card, place a dice on it. If you have an unsecured investment card, you can place a dice on it to secure it. You can also place a dice on the After Market card to secure investments later this turn. Players continue to place dice until all dice are used

​3 - Add up the dice and resolve ties For cards up for auction, add up the dice for each color. Highest value takes the card.
For a tie, the tying players rolls their dice and highest roll wins. It is possible for a player to roll multiple dice if have multiple dice on that auction card.

4 - Turn over all market volatility cards All cards in this auction are turned face up, one at a time starting with the card closest to the deck of cards. Any with market volatility cards immediate actions on are played now. Players collect the card they won and place them face up in a vertical direction (signifying they are unsecured). Note: You do not get the victory points for a card until is secured.

5 - Clean up and assign a Piker Pick up ALL of your dice from the table, from secured cards and from the after market. Any player that did not win an auction card gets an extra dice for the next round. 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. Place a new set of face down cards in the middle of the table. Each player starts the next round with 5 dice unless they get more dice this turn for being the Piker, not taking any cards during auction or have a card that allows them extra dice.

Go to step 1 and begin the next round. The game consists of 6 rounds.

Securing an Investment When you win an investment card from the auction, it is unsecured by default. Unsecured auction cards should remain face down. You do not get victory points on the action card until your secure it. You secure an auction card by placing a die of equal or higher value to the cost number on the After Market card. At the end of the round, you get that die back. Secured cards remain face up so all players can see how many victory points you are secured.
After Market Card

The After Market card allows you to store dice during the auction phase that can be used later in the turn to secure your unsecured cards.

Common question: Can I use more than one dice from the After Market to secure a card? Answer: Yes. An example would that you have a card that required 3 to secure. You have placed a 1 and a 2 on the After Market card. You can use both dice to secure the card.

Portfolio As you secure cards, they become a part of your portfolio. If you have matching card types (such as Foundation, Secure, Growth and Speculative), you can gain bonuses (which are listed on your privacy screen).

Winning After 6 rounds, the player with the most secured Victory Points wins. In the event of a tie, the players roll two dice to determine the winner. If a player has a tie-breaker card, they win the game. Note: You can use an extra dice to keep track of the rounds.