Flip 7 is a simple game, but there are still a few tricks you can miss. Start by shuffling the deck and giving each player one card. (If anyone gets an Action card — see below — pause the dealing and resolve it at once, then carry on from the next player.) All cards go face up on the table.
Go round the table, and on your turn either take a card (“Hit”) or retire from the round (“Stick”). If you Stick, you can add up your score while waiting for the other players to finish. With a large group, designate a dealer, but if everyone can reach the deck they might as well take cards for themselves.
There are three sorts of card in the game. Most obvious are the number cards, ranging from 0 to 12: there’s one 0, one 1, two 2s, and so on up to twelve 12s. If you have two of the same number in front of you, you’re “Bust”: discard your cards, and score zero for the round. Otherwise the Number cards are worth the number printed on them.
If you end up with seven different number cards, declare “Flip 7”. The round ends at once, and everyone scores what they have; you get an extra 15 points.
The second sort is the Modifier cards, orange with either a + or a × sign and a number: these increase your score, but it doesn’t matter if you get a duplicate. When you’re calculating your score, if you have a ×2, add up all your Number cards, double the total, then add any “+” cards.
The third sort is the Action cards, and there are three types of these. In general, you can choose to play an Action card on yourself or on another player — but only on players who are still in the round. If everyone else has Stuck or Busted, you’ll have to play the cards on yourself.
Freeze (blue) is the simplest: the player on whom this is played instantly Sticks, leaving the round with whatever score they have in front of them.
Second Chance (red) is kept beside the player. If later on you get a duplicate number, you can discard both it and the Second Chance to remain in play. You can only have one Second Chance at a time: if everyone still playing has one and another comes up, discard it.
Flip Three (yellow) requires the player to take three cards. These are resolved just like normal Hits, one at a time, but you must take all three of them (unless you Bust first). If you get another Action card, a Second Chance is resolved straight away, but a Flip Three or Freeze is put aside; if you pass the Flip Three without Busting, resolve those other cards in the order they were drawn. Otherwise discard them.
At the end of each round, add up everyone’s scores; the game ends if someone has 200 or more points. (If there’s a tie, I like to play another round.) All cards on the table (even unused Second Chances) are discarded, but don’t reshuffle them until the deck is empty. (When you do, shuffle thoroughly.) First player in the next round is one seat along from the first player of the previous one.
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