Game Vault

Thank you for stopping by our booth at eCourts 2022!

Just as you place a high value on safeguarding your records, at VaultTek we place a high value on accessible and personal relationships. For eCourts 2022, we had a lot of fun playing with a ‘Vegas’ theme and wanted whatever giveaway we put in your hands to reflect our personal approach to your data protection. Outlined below, you’ll find a few of the simple and easy-to-learn games that we play with our families. Just think, if our approach to conference gifts is this purposeful, imagine how passionate we are delivering our personal approach for your data protection needs.

Enjoy!

VaultTek Family Game One: Thirty-One

Thirty-One is a card game for two or more people played with a standard 52-card deck plus three poker chips or tokens per person. In Thirty-One, Aces are worth 11 points, face cards are worth 10 points and numbered cards are worth their face value. The objective of the game is to be the first player to have a hand equal to or as close to 31 as possible. [1]

How to play:

  • Deal out three cards face down to each player. These three cards will make up each player’s hand. Make sure the cards are face down so players cannot see each other’s hands.
  • Place the deck face down in the center and flip the top card up next to it. The remainder of the deck that’s face-down in the middle of the playing area will be the draw pile. The face-up card next to it will be the discard pile.
  • Give each player three tokens to start with. You may use poker chips, coins, or game pieces. These tokens will be used later in the game to determine which players get to stay in for another round and which ones are out.
  • The objective is to be the last player with a token left to win the game. If every other player loses all three tokens and you’re left with at least one token, you win! If you run out of tokens before the other players, you’re out of the game until someone wins and a new game begins.
  • Avoid being the player with the lowest score in each round. Thirty-One is played in rounds, and at the end of each round, the player with the lowest score gets “knocked” and must give up 1 of their tokens. Once you lose all three of your tokens, you’re out of the game.
  • Choose one suit to count toward your score at the end of each round. Instead of adding up the value for all of the cards in your hand at the end of a round, you’ll choose 1 suit—hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds—and only count the cards in that suit. Remember that you want as many points as possible, so choose a suit that you have a lot of or a suit that you have high cards in.
    • For example, if you end a round with a two of clubs, a six of spades, and a 10 of diamonds, you would want to choose diamonds as your suit since that would get you 10 points.
    • If you ended a round with a 10 of clubs, a five of clubs, and a 10 of spades, you would want to choose clubs as your suit since you have two cards that are clubs and they add up to 15, which is higher than the 10 points you would get if you chose spades.
  • Say “Blitz” if you have 31 points in your hand at any time during the game. A hand worth 31 points is known as a “blitz,” and it’s an automatic win for that round. A player can say “Blitz” at any point during the game, even if it’s not their turn. Once a player announces they have a blitz, that round is over, and every other player must give up a token.
    • A blitz hand is scored like any other hand—the cards must be the same suit to be scored together.
    • For example, if a player had a 10, king, and ace of spades, that would be a blitz since they’re all the same suit and they add up to 31. However, if the player had a 10 and king of spades and an ace of diamonds, that would not be a blitz because the cards aren’t the same suit.
  • Start with the player to the left of the dealer. Play moves clockwise, and the dealer will go after everyone else has played.
  • Draw from the deck or the discard pile on your turn. These are the two main options you have at the beginning of each turn. Whether you choose from the deck, or the discard pile will depend on the cards in your hand and your strategy.
    • Drawing from the discard pile is a good idea if you think the top card on the discard pile would help your hand.
    • If you don’t want the top card on the discard pile, draw the top face-down card from the deck instead.
  • Discard 1 card at the end of your turn. Place the card you want to discard face up in the discard pile.
    • You can discard any card in your hand unless it’s the face-up card you just drew from the discard pile. You can’t pick up a card from the discard pile and immediately discard it.
  • Knock at the beginning of your turn if you want the round to come to an end. Once a player knocks on their turn, the round starts to wind down and every player has 1 more turn before the round is over. Only one player can knock per round. Since knocking triggers the end of a round, you usually don’t want to knock unless you are satisfied with the cards in your hand and you think you have a high score.
    • You can knock by saying “Knock” or knocking on the table.
    • If you knock on your turn, you don’t have to discard since you’re not picking any cards up.
    • If you’re dealt a good hand to start with, you can knock on your first turn or early on in the game, so the rest of the players don’t have as many chances to draw the cards they need.
  • Pass on your turn if you don’t want to pick up after someone has knocked. You aren’t allowed to skip your turn in Thirty-One unless it’s after someone has knocked. In that case, if you’re satisfied with your hand and you think you have a high score, you can say “pass.”
    • Keep in mind that if you pass you won’t get any more chances to draw or discard before the round is over.
  • End the round after someone knocks and everyone has had their last turn. A round can’t end until someone knocks. Once they do, the rest of the players get one more turn and then the round is over.
    • At the end of a round, all of the players can reveal the three cards in their hand.
  • Tally your scores for the round and take a token from the lowest scorer. Each player should choose their suit for that round, add up their total score, and announce it to the other players. Whoever has the lowest score gives up one of their tokens—if it happens to be their last token, they’re out of the game.
    • If two or more players are tied for the lowest score, then the player with the highest card in the suit they chose wins.
    • If the player that knocked for that round is the one with the lowest score, they must give up two tokens instead of one.
  • Continue playing rounds until only one player is left with a token. To start a new round, shuffle all of the cards and deal them out just like you did when you started the game. Keep taking a token from the losing player at the end of each round until eventually one player is left standing.
    • If you’re playing with a large group of people and the game is taking a long time, try playing with two tokens instead.[2]

VaultTek Family Game Two: Kings in the Corner

Kings in the Corner is a multiplayer card game that’s similar to solitaire. Like solitaire, the object of the game is to get rid of all your cards, but unlike solitaire, Kings in the Corner is played with two to four players. You’ll need a standard 52-card deck, without the jokers.

How to play:

  • Deal out seven cards to each player. If your deck of cards came with jokers, extra cards, or instruction cards, remove them from the deck so there are only the 52 standard cards. Shuffle the deck to mix up the cards before dealing.
    • When dealing, deal one card to each player in succession until every player has the right number of cards.
    • Always deal in a clockwise direction, starting with the player to the left of the dealer.
  • Turn up four cards. Turn over the top four cards in the deck and lay them out in a cross-pattern on the table with one card each facing north, south, east, and west. If any kings come up, move them to one of the corners (the open spaces left between the four cards of the cross). Fill the space left by the king with a new card from the deck, face-up like the others.
    • The piles created by these four (non-king) cards are called the foundation piles.
    • Place the remainder of the deck in the middle of the four foundation piles.
  • Have the players pick up their cards. In Kings in the Corner, players hold their cards to conceal them from the other players.
  • The person to the left of the dealer will go first.
  • Tell player one to pick up a card. Each turn begins with the player drawing a single card from the top of the deck.
    • Player one can then begin to discard cards. The object of the game is for each player to try to get rid of all their cards before the other players do.
  • Let player one discard any allowable cards. There are two ways a player can discard. For one, if a player has a king, they can place the king in an empty corner to start a king foundation pile. Otherwise, a player can discard cards onto any of the foundation piles on the table:
    • To discard onto any pile, the discarded card must be the opposite color of the top card, and it must be one number smaller.
    • The sequence of cards in the game is king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ace. So, for instance, on a black king, you could only place a red queen. On a red five, you can only place a black four. On a red two, you can place a black ace.
    • When a player discards on top of a foundation pile, make sure the cards overlap so all the cards underneath can still be seen.
    • If the last (or only) card in a foundation pile is an ace, nothing can be played on this card: the pile can only be merged with another pile.
  • Let player one merge piles. Any player (when it’s that player’s turn) can merge piles on the table if the cards complete the sequence. Once a foundation pile has been moved, the player who moved it can fill the empty space with any card or card sequence from their hand.
    • To merge piles, they must match the red-black alternation, and the pile on top must complete the numeric sequence. For instance, if you have a foundation pile containing a six, five, and four, you can place those cards (in that sequence) on top of another foundation pile with a seven as the top card, as long as the seven and six from the separate piles are opposite colors.
    • When a pile is completed and contains all the cards from king to ace, that pile can be shuffled back into the deck in the center.
  • Let player two go. When player one has discarded all the cards possible, merged any possible piles, and filled the space with any empty cards, it is time for player two to have a turn, followed by any subsequent players, before play returns to the original player.
    • Always remember to pick up one card at the beginning of each turn.
    • Player two is to the left of player one, so that the game is played in a clockwise direction.
    • When it’s any player’s turn, if they cannot discard after drawing from the deck, play passes on to the next player.
    • When the center deck runs out, continue playing without drawing cards.
  • Play until one player goes out. Since the object of the game is to discard all your cards, the game is over as soon as a player is able to discard every card from their hand, including the last card picked up at the beginning of the final turn.[3]

VaultTek Family Game Three: Pass the Trash (aka Anaconda)

Pass the Trash is a seven-card stud poker game that is played with the basically the same rules with a few exceptions.

How to play:

  • Seven cards are dealt to each player face down. Then a betting round commences.
  • After the round, the players each pass three face down cards to the player on his or her left. This is followed by another betting round.
  • Next, two face down cards are passed to the player on the left, and another betting round ensues.
  • After this round, each player passes one more face down card to the left, followed by another betting round.
  • After the betting, each player chooses his five best cards and puts them, face down, in a pack before him on the table.
  • When the dealer says so, the players roll the top card. Once everyone’s top card is exposed, they have another betting round starting with the player with the highest card.  Each card is exposed in this fashion until all cards are exposed. This game can be played for high or low.[4] 

VaultTek Family Game Four: Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a classic dice game that uses five six-sided dice for one or more players. The object of Yahtzee is for each player to roll dice and fill out their score card over the course of a series of rounds, trying to obtain the best rolls they can in 13 different combinations. The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins.

Needs:

  • Five 6-sided dice
  • A Yahtzee score card for each player
  • A pen or pencil for each player
  • A dice cup (optional)

How to play:

Choose a starting player by any method (oldest player, youngest player, highest roll of the dice, etc.)

Beginning with the starting player, players will take turns one at a time in clockwise order. The game consists of thirteen rounds and at the end of the thirteenth round then the game will end. (All the categories on the players’ score cards will be completely filled in at that point.)

At the start of a turn, the player takes all 5 dice and rolls them. They can then roll some or all of the dice up to two more times, setting aside any dice they’d like to keep and rerolling the rest. The dice can be scored after any of the rolls, but scoring the dice ends the player’s turn. Setting dice aside after one roll does not prevent one or more of them from being rolled again on any subsequent roll if the player so chooses.

Each player’s goal is to try and score as high as they can in one of the thirteen categories shown on their score card.

To score the dice, the player selects one of the categories on their score card and writes the score into it. Each category can be scored only once per game (except for the Yahtzee category). Categories can be filled in any order. A player must score the dice on their turn even if it turns out that there are no good categories remaining to score in. Once a category is filled it may not be changed.

A player may write a score of zero in any category if they have rolled no point-generating results or if they simply choose to do so. For example, a player could put a roll of 2-4-5-6-6 into the Ones category even though it would score zero points.

After marking their score on their score card, the player’s turn ends and play proceeds to the player on their left.

The categories on the score card are divided into two sections. The categories in the Upper Section are:

  • Ones
    What is needed to score: Ones
    How many points are scored: Receive one point for each 1 rolled
  • Twos
    What is needed to score: Twos
    How many points are scored: Receive two points for each 2 rolled
  • Threes
    What is needed to score: Threes
    How many points are scored: Receive three points for each 3 rolled
  • Fours
    What is needed to score: Fours
    How many points are scored: Receive four points for each 4 rolled
  • Fives
    What is needed to score: Fives
    How many points are scored: Receive five points for each 5 rolled
  • Sixes
    What is needed to score: Sixes
    How many points are scored: Receive six points for each 6 rolled

Ultimately, each player will want to try and score a grand total of 63 or more points in the Upper Section by the end of the game. If they do so, they receive a 35-point bonus.

The categories in the Lower Section are:

  • Three of a Kind
    What is needed to score: Three dice of the same number
    How many points are scored: Add up all the spots on all the dice. (For example, rolling 2-2-2-3-5 would score a total of 14 points.)
  • Four of a Kind
    What is needed to score: Four dice of the same number
    How many points are scored: Add up all the spots on all the dice
  • Full House
    What is needed to score: Three dice showing the same number, and two dice showing another number.
    How many points are scored: 25 points
  • Small Straight
    What is needed to score: Any four consecutive numbers (for example, 3-4-5-6)
    How many points are scored: 30 points
  • Large Straight
    What is needed to score: Any five consecutive numbers (for example, 1-2-3-4-5)
    How many points are scored: 40 points
  • Yahtzee (or Five of a Kind)
    What is needed to score: All 5 dice showing the same number
    How many points are scored: 50 points
  • Chance
    What is needed to score: Any combination of dice
    How many points are scored: Add up all the spots on all the dice

It’s possible that a player will end up with a combination of dice that could be used in more than one category. For example, a roll of 3-3-3-4-4 could be scored as threes or fours in the Upper Section, or as a Full House or a Three-Of-A-Kind, or Chance in the Lower Section. The player has the option of scoring the dice in any one of those categories as long as they have not been used previously in the game. 

Special Yahtzee Scoring

If a player rolls a Yahtzee on their turn but they have already filled in the Yahtzee category in a previous turn, then special scoring rules apply:

If the player has already filled in their Yahtzee box with a score of 50, they receive a Yahtzee bonus of 100 additional points. However, if their Yahtzee box was previously filled in with a score of zero then they don’t receive the Yahtzee bonus.

The player then selects another category (other than the Yahtzee category) to score the dice as normal.

  • If the category in the Upper Section that corresponds to the numbers in the Yahtzee is unused, then the player must use that category.
  • If the corresponding box in the Upper Section has been used already then the player may choose to score one of the unused boxes in the Lower Section. In this case, the Yahtzee that the player has rolled acts as a “Joker” so that it can be placed in the Full House, Small Straight, and Large Straight categories if the player so wishes, even though it may not meet the standard requirements for those categories.

If the player can’t use a box in either the upper or Lower Section, they score zero points.

Winning

Once all players have taken thirteen turns (and subsequently filled in all the categories on their score card) the game ends.

Players add up their scores in the following manner:

Upper Section
Mark the total sum of the Upper Section score in the corresponding total score box. If a player scores 63 or more points in the Upper Section then they receive a 35 point bonus.

Lower Section
Mark the total sum of the Lower Section score in the corresponding total score box. Add 100 points for each check in the Yahtzee bonus box. 

Grand Total
Add the total sums of the upper and Lower Sections together. This is the player’s total score for the game.

The player with the highest total score is the winner! In the case of a tie, all tied players share the victory.[5]