Cockroach Poker

There are no winners in Cockroach Poker, only one loser. No player elimination, the cards you are dealt have almost zero impact on your chance of winning and you will spend most of the game simply passing a card to another player. It sounds like a recipe for game night disaster but, instead, you'll find multi-player mayhem of the highest quality.

In your hand you'll find a variety of ugly critters Rats, Bats, Cockroaches, Stinkbugs, Scorpions, Spiders, Frogs and Flies. You pick a card and pass it to another player stating what it is “It's a Cockroach” That player then chooses to either a.) Decide if you are lying or telling the truth by stating “I think it is a cockroach” or “I don't think it is a Cockroach.” They reveal the card and, if they guessed correctly, they put the card in front of the player who passed it to them. If they guessed incorrectly, the card goes in front of them. Get four of any one type of critter in front of you and you lose. Your b.) option is to simply say “I pass” and then glance at the card, pass it to another player who has not seen it yet and state “It is a...(fill in the blank)” As simple and silly as it sounds, imagine sitting at the table with 5 other players, each one glancing at the card, then passing it to another player. Imagine they ALL say “It's a Cockroach.” And then it comes to you, the final player (with no one else to pass to). Were they ALL lying? Were they all telling the truth? Did they plan this whole facade because you already have three cockroaches sitting in front of you and if you get ONE more, you are THE loser?

If you are going to pick up Cockroach Poker, do yourself a favor and pick up the Royals version. This has all the base cards for “normal” Cockroach Poker with, what is essentially, the Royal expansion. Simply remove the extra royal cards for typical play and add them back in when you want another level of deception and strategy. Protip: If someone passes you a card and says it's a Ladybug, they are lying. There are no ladybugs in the deck...but it doesn't make it any less hilarious.

A profoundly goofy game that brings out the liar in everyone. I'm not sure exactly why it works as well as it does, though I have ideas. It might be the one-person-loses-everyone-else-wins victory condition, allowing players to heedlessly deceive each other without too much worry. It might be the ability to pass cards to others and mutate lies into increasingly layered falsehoods filtered through numerous people. But maybe it's best to not overthink it. It's a ton of fun.