Caboo is a key college memory for me. It’s a card game that consumes much of my time and energy. Every night and every circle of friends somehow knew how to play it, and if they didn’t, my merry band of friends would teach them.
So, how do you set up the game?
The game starts with each player being dealt four cards, which they place on the floor, face down in a two by two matrix. The rest of the cards are piled in the centre for all the players to draw from. The game starts with the players seeing the bottom two cards of their set.
How do you play?
Well, each card is mapped to a value: Kings - 0, up to Queen - 12 (the suits don’t matter). The objective of the game is to end up with the least sum. You achieve the aim by drawing a card for every turn. Once a card is drawn, you have one of three options.
You can use the card’s power.
6 or 7 - you get to see a card from your set
8 or 9 - you get to see a card from another player’s set
10 or J - you get to blindly swap your card with someone else’s
You activate the power by placing the drawn card in the centre.
2. You can swap the card.
For every draw, you can replace a card from your set with the card you drew, and the card you swap out needs to be placed in the centre. The swap can be with cards you know or don’t.
3. You can stack the card.
In the special instance where the card you drew is the same as one in your or someone else’s set. You get to stack the two cards by placing them in the centre. If you’ve stacked from another player’s set, you get to replace their card with one of yours; you get to pick which card that is, and neither gets to see it. (Of course, this can always be a card you’re previously aware of. That’s just up to you). The number of cards you get to stack is entirely up to you. This is the most advantageous since you’ll lose an entire card/s, going from n to > n cards and thus significantly reducing your total.
You get to do these three things when it’s your turn.
When another player turns, and they just place their card in the centre. You get to do two things. For either, you need to first call out by shouting out, “Mine”.
You get to swap the card.
Much like a regular swap, you get to replace the centre card with a card from your set. This is only possible if the player hadn’t stacked during their turn. You cannot swap a stack.
2. You get to stack a card.
Like a regular stack, you get to lose one of your cards by stacking it or another player’s. You can stack on a swap or a stack, and there aren’t any restrictions like the previous option.
How do you end the game?
When a player is confident that their total is the least, they can call out, “Caboo”, which will terminate the game. If another player has already drawn a card, they get to finish their turn before the game ends. All players are to flip open their cards and compare their sums. If the player who called out “Caboo” has the least sum, he gets 0 points, while the rest get points equal to their sums. If the player who called out “Caboo” doesn’t have the least sum, they get a penalty of 24 points, while the actual person with the least sum gets 0, and the rest get points worth their sums. Multiple rounds are played, and the player who exceeds a total point sum of 56 gets eliminated from the game.
What if someone swaps/stacks a wrong card?
In this case, the wrongfully swapped or stacked card must be shown off to all players, and a penalty of an unknown extra card is given to the mistaken player.
Advanced Caboo - A Variation.
In this variation (a brain-child of ours, mind you), another round is played after a player calls “Caboo”, starting with whoever is next to them and ending with the player. Additionally, a correct Caboo warrants (-12) points and the elimination benchmark is set at 28 points.
So yes, try it. If you’re confused feel free to comment or call. Bye :)
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