HOW TO PLAY

THE GOAL

Pablo is a low-score game. Every card in your hand is worth points, and points are bad. You are trying to finish each round holding less than everybody else, and to avoid accumulating enough total points to be eliminated.

The catch is that you don't get to see your own hand. You're dealt three cards face down and permitted to look at exactly one of them, once, before play starts. From that moment on, what you know about your own cards is whatever you've managed to remember and whatever you've since discovered — and the same is true for everyone else at the table.

SETUP

Each player is dealt three cards, face down, which sit in front of them in fixed slots. Before the first turn, every player looks at one of their three cards. You choose which. You only get to look once, and you don't get to look again later unless you earn it.

The rest of the deck becomes the draw pile, and one card is turned over to start the discard pile.

CARD VALUES

Points are what you're trying to avoid, so learn this table first:

TAKING A TURN

On your turn you draw a card from the draw pile. Then you have two options:

1. Discard it. The card goes face up on the discard pile and your hand is unchanged. Safe, but you've made no progress — unless the card you drew was a Jack, Queen or 7, in which case discarding it triggers its ability.
2. Swap it into your hand. Drag it onto one of your card slots. The drawn card goes into that slot face down, and whatever was already there goes face up onto the discard pile — where everybody sees it.

That second option is the heart of the game. Swapping is how you improve your hand, but it's also how you leak information: the card you throw away tells the whole table what used to be in that slot, and a good opponent is keeping track.

SPECIAL CARDS

Three ranks do something extra when you discard them. You cannot use their abilities by keeping them in your hand — you have to give them up to use them.

CUTTING

After any discard — yours or anyone else's — any player may attempt a cut by tapping one of their own cards. This is the fastest way to win and the fastest way to ruin a good hand.

• If the rank matches the card just discarded, the cut succeeds. The card leaves your hand permanently — your hand is now one card smaller, which means one fewer card's worth of points — and the next player is skipped.
• If it doesn't match, you've slipped. You draw two blind cards as a penalty, so your hand grows by one card overall, and you've just shown everyone a card you didn't mean to.

A cut is a bet on your own memory. Cutting on a card you're sure of is the single strongest move in Pablo. Cutting on a card you merely suspect is how most beginners lose.

CALLING PABLO

When you believe you're holding the lowest total at the table, you call Pablo on your turn. Play stops and everyone reveals.

• If you're right — you had the lowest hand — you score nothing and every other player adds their hand's total to their score.
• If you're wrong — anyone tied you or beat you — you take a +20 point penalty and everybody else scores zero.

Note that ties count against the caller. If an opponent matches your total exactly, your call fails. This matters more than new players expect: calling on a hand of 3 is not as safe as it sounds when a single Ace and a K♥ beat you and a pair of low cards ties you.

TRUE PABLO

If you cut your hand all the way down to nothing, True Pablo triggers instantly and the round ends in your favour. It's the cleanest win in the game, and the only thing that can tie it is an opponent holding nothing but the King of Hearts.

ELIMINATION AND WINNING

Scores carry across rounds. When a player's total reaches the elimination score — which the host sets when creating the game — that player is out. Rounds keep going until only one player remains, and that player wins the game and takes the pot.

CHIPS AND THE POT

Every player pays the same chip buy-in when a game begins, and those chips form the pot. The winner collects the whole thing. Higher bot difficulties carry a higher buy-in and therefore a bigger pot, so playing against tougher opposition is worth more.

Chips are the game's currency for buying card packs, table designs, and entry to bigger games. They never buy you an advantage during play — see the FAQ if you want the specifics on that.

STRATEGY FOR NEW PLAYERS

Look at your middle card first

It doesn't matter mechanically which card you peek at, but picking the same slot every game builds a habit, and habits are what let you track three hands at once later on. Consistency beats cleverness here.

Discarding a face card is usually right

A Jack or Queen sitting in your hand costs you ten points. Discarded, it costs you nothing and buys you information. Unless you're one turn from calling, use them.

Watch what other people throw away

When an opponent swaps, the card that lands on the discard pile came out of a specific slot in their hand. You now know that slot holds something they preferred to what they threw. If they threw away a 3, they're holding something very good in that slot — and that's a slot worth targeting with a 7.

Don't cut on a maybe

A successful cut removes a card permanently. A failed cut adds a card and costs you the information you gave away. The expected value on a coin-flip cut is bad. Wait until you're certain.

Call earlier than feels comfortable

New players sit on a good hand trying to make it perfect and get caught by somebody else's call. If you're confident you're under about 5 total, call. The +20 penalty is painful, but so is watching three opponents dump their scores on you because you waited one turn too long.