Game Shows based on playing cards

[wdm1219inpenna]

I thought of another game show although it's not solely based on playing cards, "Dealer's Choice" hosted first by Bob Hastings and then Jack Clark back in 1974-75.  They did play some card games on that show, including Blackjack I believe every episode but also other non-card gambling games as well.

[steveleb]

Super pay cards aired on WNEW as its OG version did, both being syndicated by corporate cousin Metromedia Producers. 

[wdm1219inpenna]

That's my old neck of the woods, Ewing NJ, I had the good fortune of getting both New York and Philadelphia stations at that time.  I so remember WNEW, which became WNYW.

Fond memories.  I even had the old Pay Cards home game.  How I wish I had taken far better care of all of my home game show board games back then...it is to weep.

[Bob Zager]

Re: Championship Bridge, what does not make sense to me is the IMDB website classifies the series genre as "Sport."

[Steve_Bier]

That's my old neck of the woods, Ewing NJ...

Greetings from Hamilton Township, neighbor!

[clemon79]

In a genre that goes back to the earliest days of television, isn't that odd?

I don't know that it is!

Ponder: rjaguar3's point about card games with hidden information not translating well to a flashing-lights big-money game-show format is pretty solid, which mostly reduces you at that point to open-handed casino games. And to the average Ammurican household TV viewer (particularly in the '50s through the '80s), there are exactly two of those: poker and blackjack. Gambit and its derivatives cornered the market on blackjack, which leaves poker, and there's pretty much only one way to play poker open-handed: basic draw poker. And even Pay Cards has SOME level of hidden information; they just made it part of the game by having the players draw their hands off of the game board.

If anything, give points to Card Sharks for coming up with a lasting format that was only BARELY derivative of an existing casino game...that was in turn then reimagined into an actual table game on its own.

[Joe Mello]

If you extend the definition of "based on playing cards" to include games without physical cards, you can include things like Give-N-Take and Say When, which are effectively Blackjack with prizes in lieu of cards. You also have Concentration, which I would argue is the most successful "card game" game show of them all. I would not say that Twenty-One is based on a card game but it's certainly evocative of one and probably was meant to be.

While I would not classify them as card-based, I can see how Lucky 13 and 10 Seconds might look like trick-taking games (assuming you squinted and had 20/200 vision to begin with).

[Neumms]

I would not say that Twenty-One is based on a card game but it's certainly evocative of one and probably was meant to be.

A foreign game, but Poker Face was the same thing. It could be a great game, though that title might seem like a bait-and-switch.

I’ve thought a game based on draw poker could work in which you answer questions (or something) for the right to change cards. I suppose that was Spin-Off, closer to Yahtzee of course but both with essentially poker hands.

[trainman]

Re: Championship Bridge, what does not make sense to me is the IMDB website classifies the series genre as "Sport."

The Charles Schulz/Jim Sasseville sports-themed comic strip "It's Only a Game," which ran from 1957 to 1959, had one "bridge" panel every week.

[vtown7]

I would not say that Twenty-One is based on a card game but it's certainly evocative of one and probably was meant to be.

A foreign game, but Poker Face was the same thing. It could be a great game, though that title might seem like a bait-and-switch.

I’ve thought a game based on draw poker could work in which you answer questions (or something) for the right to change cards. I suppose that was Spin-Off, closer to Yahtzee of course but both with essentially poker hands.

Side note: I thought the original name of Poker Face that was used in Australia - (The) Con Test - was a brilliant name and wish they have had kept that for all versions.

R.

[tvwxman]

Poker Face / Con Test was briliant (i know - i'm in the minority ) and wish it was tried here.... i think ABC was considering it at one point.

[parliboy]

I’ve thought a game based on draw poker could work in which you answer questions (or something) for the right to change cards. I suppose that was Spin-Off, closer to Yahtzee of course but both with essentially poker hands.

I've run this in large format (think 12 teams at a time) on a number of occasions for conventions.  Players answer "Wits and Wagers" style questions to build poker hands, with the best answers getting more choices on card drafting and the worst answers getting whatever is left on top of the deck.  Play a few different variants where stronger hands are more likely with variants in later rounds) and the score the teams, Pay Cards Style, after each round.

[Neumms]

've run this in large format (think 12 teams at a time) on a number of occasions for conventions.  Players answer "Wits and Wagers" style questions to build poker hands, with the best answers getting more choices on card drafting and the worst answers getting whatever is left on top of the deck.  Play a few different variants where stronger hands are more likely with variants in later rounds) and the score the teams, Pay Cards Style, after each round.

Wow, with 12 hands at once? How many chances does each get to answer and draw again?

[parliboy]

Wow, with 12 hands at once? How many chances does each get to answer and draw again?

TBF, it wasn't done by draw poker, but by drafting.

Imagine a set of cards available in a draft row.  Starting with the best answer a team pulls a card from the row and choose to either add it to their hand or to burn it for the top of the deck.  (This is to allow meaningful draft choices even when none of the cards directly help you)  There are only a limited number of drafts though, so the teams at the bottom of the order only get to top-deck blind.

It's very easy to set it up for later rounds to be worth more by doing things like adding jokers to the game or by increasing the number of cards available to teams.  A typical round might be: each team gets dealt two cards blind, then there are three rounds of questions with community cards revealed in between question, so that each teams has seven cards at the end, but with teams who do better at the trivia having more control.

Because of the order in which rule variants are structured from round to round, a winning hand in the first round might be two pair, but a winning hand in the third and final round might be a full house or four of a kind.  So that provides a natural ramp-up by simply making it easier to make bigger hands in later rounds.

I have a very large deck (something like 11x14) of cards for props and drawing, but once the cards are taken, they're represented in an on-screen display, so everyone can see everyone's hand at all times.  It's all a pretty low-tech thing that I did over ten years ago.  I've got a spreadsheet attached to a PowerPoint using the PowerShow add-on.  Normally when you embed a spreadsheet in a powerpoint presentation, the presentation doesn't update live when you update the spreadsheet.  The add-on allows that to happen.  So I have two tabs in a spreadsheet, one where I can enter something like "TH" in a space and another where a Ten of Hearts appears in a card deck font.  And that second screen is embedded in the PowerPoint.  So I type the rank and suit in a space and a card appears on the screen in the matching place for the right team.

[nowhammies10]

Doug Morris's Net Poker qualifies if we're moving beyond the realm of televised game shows. I remember it being a well-thought-out format which combined trivia knowledge with enough strategy and luck to make a compelling game.