Boink - Card Game

Yes this is a child’s game but it can make a great dealers choice card game, and gets a bit entertaining after a few drinks.

How To Play Boink

The object of boink is to try and knock out the player behind you, while playing your cards to avoid getting knocked out by the player ahead of you. Each player will have 4 lives which will be marked using poker chips or any kind of marker you may have. The dealer will determine the value of each life. As a player gets “boinked”, a life will be placed into the pot. The first player who loses all four lives will have an honour which is a free life to play with. An honour is only given to the first player out. The game will end when all but one player have lost all their lives. The last player standing wins the pot.

The following is the rule of thumb for losing lives

• Single Boink – Players loses one life
• Double Boink – Player A lays a 2, Player B also has a 2 and lays it down which boinks Player A. It’s Player C’s turn who also has a 2 and lays it down to double boink Player B. Player A loses one life and Player B loses two lives
• Quadruple Boink – Same pattern as above but the player who is directly after Player C has the final 2 and must lay it down. This will quadruple boink Player C. If this happens, player C is out and loses all 4 lives. There is no honour for a player who is knocked out this way.

To begin playing each player will receive 5 cards face down. The player to the left of the dealer will select one of their 5 cards to lay in front of them. The next player to act has two options. If they have a card of the same rank as the person behind them they must lay it down and call out boink. If they don’t then they can proceed and lay down any card they choose. This will continue until all the cards have been exposed. If there are still players remaining after everyone has tossed their cards, the cards will be collected and re-dealt to those who are left in the game and the game will start again.

Forced Play - Players have to lay down the same ranked cards as the person behind them. If they forget and later lay it down and it is noticed by one of the other players, that player will be out. The reason for this is if a player chooses not to boink someone for whatever reason it could mess up the actual outcome of the game.

Tips – You will have to remember which cards have yet to be exposed to the table, before deciding which card to lay down. This will help you in determining the odds of the player ahead of you holding onto your card.  This is also why the game has the forced play rule.
There are two strategies you can use when you’re holding a pair or trips. Some players like to use them as safe cards and play them all first simply because the odds of the player who can boink them having that card is considerably reduced. While others like to set up the player behind them by playing one of their paired cards and holding the second card till they see if the other player also plays one. This is a good strategy to use but can back fire on you often.

Example of how to play Boink

Four Players – Bob, Greg, John and Russ

Bob is the first to play his hand and decides to lay a J, followed by Greg discarding a Q. John has a Q and lays it down to boink Greg who is forced to give up a life. Russ doesn’t have a Q but plays a J. The turn is back onto Bob who had another J in his hand and boinks Russ (loses a life). The turn is back onto Greg and he plays a 4. John also has a 4 and boinks Greg giving the turn to Russ who also has a 4 and double boinks John. John has to put two lives into the pot. This process continues until there is only one person left who wins the entire pot.