How to play the Game of Pure Strategy (aka GOPS)

Learn the rules to the playing card game The Game of Pure Strategy (aka GOPS) quickly and concisely - This video has no distractions, just the rules. While there are many variations to GOPS, this video covers the original base rules.
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RULES:
The object of this 2-player card game is to win the most points. Setup. Sort the deck into four suits. Each player gets one suit of cards. One suit is discarded. And the remaining suit is shuffled and placed face down in the middle of the table, forming the draw deck. Flip the top card of the draw deck faceup on the table. Players look at their own cards but keep them hidden from their opponent.
The face-up center card is called the prize. The Ace is worth 1 point, 2 through 10 are worth their face value, and jack, queen, and king are worth 11, 12, and 13 points respectively. Each player picks one card from their hand and places it face-down on the table as a bid for the prize. King is high and ace is low. When both players have placed their bids, they reveal their cards and the player with the highest ranking card wins the prize, placing it beside them. The bid cards are both discarded face-down and a new prize is flipped and the process repeats.
If the bids of both players are tied, then the bid cards are discarded but the prize remains and another price card is flipped to the table. Players then bid again, and again until there is a winner. The winner then collects all the face up prizes.
Continue this process until all the player’s cards have been played, at which point, no more prizes may be gained. Each player adds up all their prizes and whoever has the highest total, wins.

[@geodude7116]

I can’t believe this game isn’t much more popular. It’s a blast and can be quite hilarious too. One of my all time favorite card games.

[@revimfadli4666]

I think it's popular as Vulture Culture

[@mortsartstudio9403]

Id love to see more cards games where people get their own individual suits

[@mekkler]

I've never heard of it, but it sounds like fun.

[@abartsch818]

Why haven't I heard of this sooner. Also would one be able to play with 3 people instead of throwing away that other suit?

[@flamics]

The only issue I would see is figuring out what to do when 2 people tie but one doesnt

[@theAstarrr]

@@flamicshere's one way: If the tied players have the bigger number, they continue bidding, and the other player must discard a random card each time the tied players tie again.

[@slimecubeboing]

The variant I've heard about for 3 players is if 2 people tie, the third player wins the prize regardless of their card value, so you want to avoid ties. And if all 3 players tie then a new prize card is added and everyone bid again (like what's shown in the video)

[@TheVarietyArchive1115]

Awesome!

[@aizahsaeed1952]

What happens if both players bid the same amount on the last two cards? Should they just discard them?

[@TheOfficialGypsy_vce]

What happens when you tie at the end?

[@something21893]

I’m guessing u randomly just pick a way to give to one of the players.

[@pipro8049]

Flip a coin Or play RPS

[@theAstarrr]

No one gets the card probably.

[@nom3nklatura]

It reminds me of Emperor game from Kaiji

[@zebasiraj]

Can the players bid the cards that they win too???

[@zethcader6478]

No

[@arnoldh2275]

That would make the game more exciting

[@zcadz]

Tie!

[@grandsonofmustafa657]

Why I keep my card hidden when Every player knows which cards I have?

[@homuraakemi103]

So your bid is not influenced by what they lay down right away. Strategy comes from prediction, psychology, and counting cards.

[@theAstarrr]

So they don't know which one you played. And it's harder to figure out

[@Seahawks-fan765]

Every time i play this game with my mom i look at all of my cards instead of leaving my cards face down and yet i always beat my mom and she never seems to beat me so i dont think its a big deal or i dont think its cheating when a person looks at all of there cards when playing this game that's just my opinion about it tho ​@theAstarrr

[@NikolajLepka]

This feels like For Sale with regular playing cards

[@HorribleSmileProductions]

Game of pure strategy and is based 100% on luck

[@sushimidget840]

Could you explain your reasoning?

[@bethezebra]

There is an unknown variable in the prize card that is flipped over. But that does not make the game lucky, because there is 100% strategy in deciding which card in your hand to use to bid for the prize. It's a total strategy game. The "lucky" prize card can be reacted to however you choose - play a high card, play a low card. If you lose the prize, it is because your opponent out-strategized you, not because they got lucky. Now. If they rolled a dice for the prize and you rolled a dice, THEN it would be a luck driven game.

[@christopherknorr2895]

It's only based on luck if you have no ability to predict the moves your opponent can or will make.

[@Burn66665]

​@@bethezebrait isn't 100 percent skill It involves a bigger number of luck instead of 0%

[@LuxisAlukard]

I like this one, gonna try it out

[@RicardoSF77]

Thanks a lot for bringing up this game! I'm from Brazil and have been looking for a simple game of cards to play with my girlfriend but I've only seen very complicated games and rarely one for only two players. Again, thank you!

[@Elonmooskspider]

se você está procurando mais jogos de duas pessoas, speed e um jogo bem legal

[@satyamevjayate3790]

Best 2 players games my fav 1. Kings Corners 2. Trash 3. German Whist 4. GOPS ❤Suggest your favourites

[@mortsartstudio9403]

I just googled kings corners and I think I found my new favorite card game, thank you

[@Dot-bt8hw]

Try Bluff

[@coruscaregames]

Piquet if you wanna be fancy

[@Psynthex]

Auto War. Rules are the same as traditional War, but with a small adjustment: 3's are the lowest and 2's are "War Cards". 2's can be played against any other card and force a war, as well any pair of matching value.

[@nicholasonyemenam8113]

Spit and speed

[@cricketguy1206]

Ey, I got a good game to play. Genius. How to play. The object of the game is to be a total genius. Setup. *Be Triple S Games.*

[@BigFish437]

holy no how did y tho it dont so no

[@AyrtonTwigg]

I have solved this game for up to 10 cards. Any more requires too much memory for my laptop. (I solved it for the variant where tied cards are discarded).

[@Provitia]

You might want to use genetic algorithms. They are much much faster and their accuracy issues usually never exceed 10%

[@theproz997]

How can you "solve" this game. A player can counter by playing one higher for every card bid and then dump their lowest on the last card bid

[@piotrgebocki6444]

@@theproz997 no because cards are hidden from each other, it's solvable game sadly

[@Interesting_Failure]

@@piotrgebocki6444 I think Theproz's point is that, for example, an opponent playing randomly could get lucky and play that exact counter hand. That means you can come up with an optimal strategy, but not a 100% winning one. Although I would expect that this would then produce a metagame, since if you know your opponent is playing the optimal strategy then you know exactly what they'll do on each prize and can counter accordingly...

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

Question: Wouldn't a general heuristic be to never bid more for a card than it's worth? Everytime they overbid, you win.

[@gleesah8297]

I like this really good information

[@LeotheTiger1234]

Excellent game. One of these days I need to try it.

[@jknifgijdfui]

i feel ace should be able to beat kings and only kings that makes it have value instead of it being automatic loss and makes kings not an automatic win

[@kameliaaaaaaaaaaa]

yeah, the entire time i was thinking "can’t everyone just continuously play their highest value card?", this seems more sensible

[@sarthakshah33]

Cool What we did was - we also flipped 1 card from the 4th color along with the prize, but kept it hidden. So the bid was on both the prize and the hidden card and then calculated the total points from both the colors. Moreover we chose a random card from the 4th color in the beginning which was poison and revealed at the end. So whoever had that number from the prize color will lose 15 points from his total score. Pretty cool ig😅

[@EdKolis]

But now you'll have to change the name of the game to GOMSAABOL (game of mostly strategy and a bit of luck) 😁

[@teddythodo3302]

So sort of like war..?

[@schlingen]

what happens if both players draw on the last card?

[@poketeo764]

nice card game i wil try

[@ItsMangoTape]

I like to add some rules where, when each person picks a deck, their deck has to be a different *colour* to the other person’s. This I because each person gets their colour responded joker, and can play this at anytime to instantly win a bid. However the tie rules still apply, So DONT WASTE A JOKER!

[@Phoenix-em5uy]

Isn't that basically what the king does in this scenario though?

[@TheFinalChapters]

More like GOPL.

[@literallyarandomdude]

more like someone whos mad

[@literallyarandomdude]

probably liked their comment too xd

[@temmielovely]

Is 5 suit ok to play with?

[@ayviondenar3461]

This looks more luck than strategy-based

[@Vetrical]

Absolutely

[@ArmyWolves]

I love this game... I have been wondering if there is a game like *Among us* where the _impostors_ have the Jokers and maybe the Kings or Queens are the redeeming cards and something has to happen before the players holding Jokers claim victory... That would be fun if there is such a game or similar

[@bttdo6960]

Old Maid sounds similar

[@markeldcarter]

This sounds awesome!

[@turtlewalzer]

Well done

[@parinuser]

Ello

[@honeyjuice219]

Elo

[@honeyjuice219]

I wish i have money to buy the cards

[@santoshgames5937]

Play with UNO cards

[@honeyjuice219]

@@santoshgames5937 i don't have una cards

[@santoshgames5937]

@@honeyjuice219 What are una cards?

[@UnderscoreZeroLP]

Broke boiiii

[@honeyjuice219]

@@UnderscoreZeroLP ya im broke. i wised i had more money

[@ShindeReshma]

lol

[@BenjaminFeldman-o1l]

But if each player gets a suit of cards from 1-10 then they will always use the highest ranked card in their bids (which will always be down counting from 10)

[@homuraakemi103]

And if someone knows that’s what you tend to do, that is easily exploited.

[@theAstarrr]

Then I would play A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 and beat them in 9 rounds. It all depends on what the other person does If I know what the other person will do, I will lose to them using my A against their K, and beat them in all the other rounds. So I'll definitely have more points then.

[@daforkgaming3320]

If you use low cards and let your opponent win, you’ll save your best cards for when there’s higher ranked prizes