So Just Like an L Then? – A Review of Flip 7 and Flip 7 Vengeance

I love push your luck games. They’re clearly pure strategy and have no luck components to them what-so-ever. Of course, I still don’t always win despite my strategies. Flip 7 and Flip 7 With a Vengeance are two popular push your luck games on the market today. Should you give them a shot?

Flip 7 and Flip 7 With a Vengeance are both push your luck card games. The rules are generally the same and fairly straightforward. The deck is made up of numbers 1-12 or 13 with the number of each being equal to the number. So five 5’s, eight 8’s, etc. There’s also one zero in each deck. On your turn you may take a card or pass trying to earn points based on the value of your cards. If you ever have a duplicate number, you bust and earn no points. If you ever flip 7 numbers, you end the round for everyone and get a 15 point bonus on top of your score.

Both decks also contain bonus point cards and special action cards. The original game has cards that let you have another chance if you bust, for example, while Vengeance has cards that force someone to take four more cards at once, even if they’ve already passed.

Flip 7 is a friendly game with competition. The cards are generally good and the special cards and bonus point cards want you to increase your score. The other players can mess with you a little but there are limited opportunities, and those are only able to potentially make you bust a few times out of the entire deck.

Vengeance is a mean game that wants you to fail. The zero sets your score to zero unless you flip 7. The action cards can still impact players who have passed, meaning your points are never safe. You can (with certain rule modifications suggested by the game) end up losing points in a given round, not just busting and ending with zero progress.

The big difference between Flip 7 and Vengeance is that the original is a fun light game with gentle jabs with the other players, where the latter is a game with more attacking and spite. Overall, I much prefer the original. I like some of the special cards in Vengeance, but I wish that once you passed, the points you had earned were guaranteed like in the original. Easily modified, of course, but then the mean cards don’t hit quite as hard, which is their design.

Both games are fun, and both are certainly worth trying. I think Flip 7 is more approachable and easier strategy wise. It’s more independent between players with mild attacks. Vengeance is more for players who want more direct conflict, more “take-that”, and more vengeance.

A copy of each game was provided by The OP.