The Gang

Objective

Complete 3 successful heists before triggering 3 alarms. A heist succeeds when all players correctly identify the relative strength of their own poker hand compared to every other player's hand — without speaking, showing cards, or giving direct hints.

The Basics

The Gang is a cooperative poker deduction game. It is based on Texas Hold 'Em: each player holds two private pocket cards, and five community cards are revealed over four rounds (pre-flop, flop, turn, river). The catch is that after all five community cards are out, every player must silently select a chip that correctly represents their hand's rank relative to all other hands — strongest hand takes the highest-star chip, weakest takes the 1-star chip, with everyone else in between. If the ranking is unanimous and correct, the heist succeeds. If even one player is misranked, an alarm fires.

A full game is best of 5 (first to 3 heists wins; first to 3 alarms loses).

What You Need

A standard 52-card deck. Four sets of ranking chips — one set per round, colored white (pre-flop), yellow (flop), orange (turn), and red (river). Each set contains one chip per player, numbered 1-star (weakest) to N-star (strongest, where N = player count). Vault and Alarm cards (or tokens) to track progress.

Setup

Sort chips: remove any chips with more stars than the number of players and return them to the box. For example, in a 4-player game, use only 1–4-star chips in each color. Place all chip sets near the table sorted by color. Place 3 Vault cards and 3 Alarm cards in a row.

Communication Rule

You may not say, show, indicate, or imply the specific cards in your hand. You may not say what hand rank you currently have. Your only communication tool is the chip you take (and when and how you take it). Pay close attention to which chips others grab, hesitate over, or swap.

Each Heist (4 Rounds)

A heist runs through the Texas Hold 'Em structure:

Round 1 — Pre-Flop: Each player is dealt 2 pocket cards face-down. Look at your own cards only. The white chips are placed in the center. With no community cards yet, evaluate your pocket cards relative to what you think others might have, and take the chip that reflects your estimated hand strength. You can take any chip, take a chip someone else already has (they must give it up), or return yours to the center. There is no turn order — everyone acts simultaneously. Once all players each hold exactly one chip, Round 1 ends.

Round 2 — Flop: Three community cards are revealed face-up. Lay out the yellow chips. Re-evaluate your best 5-card hand using your 2 pocket cards and the 3 community cards, and adjust by grabbing a yellow chip. Same simultaneous process.

Round 3 — Turn: One more community card is revealed. Orange chips are distributed.

Round 4 — River: The fifth and final community card is revealed. Red chips are distributed.

Showdown: All players reveal their hands. Determine each player's best 5-card hand using any combination of their 2 pocket cards and the 5 community cards (standard Texas Hold 'Em rules). Rank all hands from strongest to weakest. Compare each player's red chip (their final claim) against their true rank.

• All correct → flip a Vault card (heist success).
• Any error → flip an Alarm card (heist failed).

The earlier rounds' chips (white, yellow, orange) serve as communication during the heist but are not scored.

Poker Hand Rankings (Strongest to Weakest)

Royal Flush → Straight Flush → Four of a Kind → Full House → Flush → Straight → Three of a Kind → Two Pair → Pair → High Card.

Ties in hand strength are broken by the standard rules (kicker cards, etc.). If two players truly tie, they share the same rank — the game includes guidance for this case.

Advanced Modes

The box includes Challenge cards (add difficulty after each success) and Specialist cards (ease difficulty after each alarm). Advanced, Professional, and Master Thief modes layer in additional rules. Play several basic games before introducing these.

Key Rules

• Only the red (River) chips determine success or failure — earlier rounds are purely communicative.
• You may steal another player's chip; they must give it up without comment.
• Returning a chip to the center and then not taking another is not allowed — you must end with exactly one chip.
• No verbal hints, gestures, or implications — chips only.

At the Table

Use the chip-grabbing process as a conversation: if someone takes the top chip aggressively, they're signaling a strong hand. If they hesitate or return chips, they're uncertain. Your own knowledge of your hand limits what you can infer — someone else holding a weak hand you can partially account for means their chip choice carries extra information.