Flip 7: The Game That Gets Everyone Playing

🃏 Flip 7 by Eric Olsen | 🏢 Published by The Op Games on 2024

👥 3+ players | ⏳ ~20 minutes | ⚙️ Press your luck, push your luck, family game

I honestly didn't think much of Flip 7 the first time I saw it. I got a promotional copy from my local game store, Millennium Games, and remember thinking the box was colorful. Cute. Whatever. I took it home, played it with my wife, and . . . 🥰 We liked it a lot. So much that we taught it to friends that same afternoon. And the rest is history

Over the past two years, we've played Flip 7 on repeat. It's become one of those games that just lives in our gaming rotation. In fact, we've turned it into part of our unofficial board game onboarding process. If you start playing board games with us, you're getting a copy of Flip 7. Once you've shown interest in something a little heavier, you're probably getting Jump Drive. Those are our games. The ones we teach. The ones we gift. Flip 7 is the game we pull out when someone says, "I don't really play board games, but I'm curious." Flip 7 is one of those rare games where I can teach you while we're already playing, and one turn later, you're making decisions

How to Play

Shuffle the deck, flip over cards one at a time and try not to reveal the same number twice. The deck has one 0 and one 1, two 2s, three 3s, and so on to twelve 12s. The higher you go, the more copies of that number are hiding in the deck. On your turn, you decide whether to hit and take another card or stay and bank what you've already earned

If you flip a number you've already revealed, you bust and score nothing for the round. And this is where Flip 7 gets mean. You'll have a nice little stack of cards sitting in front of you thinking, "I'm doing pretty well here"

Then someone asks if you want another card, and you're thinking... "Sure. What's the worst that could happen?" Famous last words!

There are also special cards that can change things up, including Second Chance, Freeze, and Flip Three, along with score modifiers. AND! if you manage to reveal seven different numbers without busting, you Flip 7 and immediately end the round, earning a 15 point bonus

How to Win

The goal is to be the first player to reach 200 points. That sounds like a lot when you first hear it, but it isn't. Once you get into the flow of the game, those points can add up surprisingly quickly. You can even win in six rounds if things go your way. Once a player reaches 200 points, the game ends, and the player with the most points wins. So hitting 200 doesn't automatically mean you've won. You just need to be the player with the highest score at the end of that round. Of course, you can also bust on a 2 or a 3. My wife has done both! I can't say much, though, because I am absolutely the person who looks at a perfectly respectable score, sees the Flip Three, and immediately thinks, "Yeah, I'll take that." Two milliseconds later, I immediately regret it

The Hit Me

This is the part of Flip 7 that keeps me coming back. The moment when you have to decide whether to stop or keep going. It's exhilarating. You can play it safe. Take your points and move on, or you can push your luck. Maybe you'll get a 12, or you'll FLIP 7 and grab the bonus. Or the most likely case, you'll flip a number you've already played and watch that entire beautiful stack of points disappear. Somehow, even when you know exactly what can happen, you still think, "One more card!"

It's such a simple decision, but it creates so much table drama. Everyone understands it. You don't need to be a board gamer to understand the feeling of having something good in front of you and wondering if you should risk it for something [possibly] better

Who's This Game For?

Honestly? I haven't met someone that doesn't enjoy it. That's what makes Flip 7 so special to me. I've played it with people who already love board games. I've played it with people who were brand new to them. The grouchy mom of a friend loved it. The "I don't like board games" guy plays it. My wife and I will happily play it with just the two of us. It's one of those games that you can teach as you play because the core idea is so easy to understand: keep flipping or stop before you bust. Once people understand that, they're playing. That's a huge part of why this has become our go to game for introducing people to the hobby

Pros

⏱️ Quick to play

🎒 Tiny and portable

🎯 Anyone can learn it

🗺️ Language independent

💰 Inexpensive enough to gift

😂 Creates great table reactions

🧠 Easy decisions with surprisingly tense moments

🔄 You can play it over and over without needing a huge commitment

Considerations

🎲 It is absolutely a luck driven game

😬 You will bust when you really, really didn't want to

👥 The official player count starts at 3, although we've had a great time playing it at two

Bottom Line

I didn't expect Flip 7 to become a staple. It was a promotional copy I picked up from Millennium because I thought the box looked colorful. Two years later, we're still playing it. We've taught it to friends. We've bought it for family. We've given it to new gamers. It's become our unofficial starter pack game. I think that's because Flip 7 doesn't ask much from you. You don't need to know modern board game terminology, and you don't even really need to know how to play before you start. You just need a little bit of luck and the will to decide when to stop. Oh! And Flip 7 is available on BoardGameArena if you'd like to try it before you buy it

Recommendations

One of my favorite things about reviewing games is figuring out where they fit. Flip 7 is a weird one, because there really isn't another game that feels exactly like it. It's push your luck, but it's super addictive and about as simple as push your luck gets. So instead of trying to find games that are just like Flip 7, here are a few I'd recommend depending on what you liked about it:

• Pure push your luck?: Push

  • Draw cards and decide when to stop, but wait too long and you can lose everything. It's quick, easy to teach, and has that same "one more..." feeling

• Quick decisions but with dice: Tally Up

  • Play at the same time. One player rolls while everyone starts IN, and you have to decide when to go OUT. Go out before the roll is busted. First to 2,500 points win

• When you want someone else to bust: 6 nimmt!

  • Everyone secretly chooses a card, then you reveal them and build rows in numerical order. The catch? If your card becomes the sixth card in a row, you take the whole stack. It's simple to learn, but trying to figure out what everyone else is going to play makes it surprisingly tense

• More push your luck?: Deep Sea Adventure

  • Dive for treasure and try to make it back before the shared oxygen runs out. Go deeper for better treasure, the more greedy you get, the harder it is to return safely. so much fun. You'll need six players for this one to really shine

• Push your luck with more strategy: The Quacks of Quedlinburg

  • Brew potions, and try not to explode. Decide when to stop, then use your winnings to buy better ingredients for the next round