Billionarie Card Game Rules

The card game “Billionaire” is similar to the more commonly known card game “Pit.” The fast-paced, noisy game simulates stock trading or commodity exchange. Players must corner the market on a particular commodity or field, such as finance, diamonds or the movies, by trading cards with other players.

Remove sets of commodities from the deck until you have only as many sets as you have players. For example, if you have three players, the deck should contain only three complete sets of commodities. You can choose to include or remove the “Taxman” and “Billionaire” cards. Deal the cards out to all players evenly. If you have included the “Taxman” and “Billionaire” cards and you have an odd number of players, some players will have one fewer card than others.

Begin the game by ringing a bell or calling out, “Trade” or “Start.” Players then immediately begin trading cards with their opponents. Players can trade cards singly or in sets of any number as long as each card is of the same commodity. They also must trade for the same number of cards. If a player wants to trade two cards, for example, he holds those two cards up so that his opponents cannot see what commodity they represent and he must wait until he finds an opponent willing to trade two of her cards. Players indicate their desire to trade a certain number of cards by calling out the number (such as “One! One!” or “Three! Three! Three!”).

A player wins a round when he has filled his entire hand with one commodity, such as diamonds. He then rings the bell or calls out “Corner” to signal the end of the game. Each round’s winner earns a set number of points according to the commodity she cornered.

The “Taxman” and “Billionaire” cards work as wild cards of sorts. If a player is caught with the “Taxman” card at the end of the game, he loses a certain amount of points decided by players at the beginning of the game. The “Billionaire” card, on the other hand, functions as a wild card and can stand in for any commodity. Players can freely trade the “Taxman” and “Billionaire” cards with any set of cards.