Game Spotlight: Cockroach Poker Royal (2012)
Designer: Jacques Zeimet
Publisher: Drei Magier Spiele
Player Count: 2-6 players
Game Length: ~15 – 25 minutes
Mechanisms: Party Game, Bluffing, Hand Management, Set Collection
Cockroach Poker Royal (or Kakerlaken Poker if you have the German version) has nothing in common with poker – except the bluffing element! Players work from a deck of cards containing various “ugly” insects: Bats, Cockroaches, Rats, Stink Bugs, Flies, Toads, Scorpions, and “Royal” cards (all of these various animals with a crown on their head).
There is no winner in Cockroach Poker Royal, only a loser – players are trying to make sure one person ends up with four of the same type of animal in front of them, thus causing that person to lose the game. To do this, players attempt to pass on as many cards as possible and bluff their opponents into taking cards.
How to Play: To start, the 55-card deck is shuffled and a “penalty pile” is created of 7 cards face down. The top card is then flipped face-up. The remaining cards are dealt out evenly among the players. If there are extra cards, the first player will receive an extra card and the rest are then added to the penalty pile (making sure to turn back over the current face-up card and turning the new top card of the deck face-up instead).
The starting player will choose a card from their hand and pass it face-down to another player of their choice and state what that card is: Stink Bug, Cockroach, Bat, Fly, Toad, Scorpion, Rat, or Royal. If the player says that the card is a Royal, this means that it is (or could be) any animal with a crown. The starting player can choose to be truthful in what he claims the card to be, or he can choose to bluff about what animal it is instead.
Example: Noah passes a card face-down to Ellie and says, “This is a Bat”.
The player who the card is being passed to then has two options:
Option 1 – Judge the claim and reveal the card. This means the player judges the other player’s claim and verbally decides whether or not they agree before revealing the card to see what it is. They will say “Correct” if they think the other player is being truthful, or they will say “Bluff” if they don’t believe the other player’s claim. When they reveal the card, if they guessed right, the other player must keep the card and place it face-up in front of them. If they guessed incorrectly, they must keep the card and place it face-up in front of themselves. The player who had to keep the card then takes the next turn.
Example: Ellie believes Noah and says, “Correct”. She flips the card over and it is a Toad. Since Ellie guessed incorrectly, she must keep the Toad face-up in front of her. If she had been right, and it was a Bat, then Noah would have had to take the Bat back and keep it face-up in front of him.
Option 2 – Pass the card on. If the player chooses to take this option, they must CLEARLY state “I choose to pass” before they view the card. They then look at the card secretly, place it back face-down, and pass it on to another player of their choice, making a claim about the card (either the same claim or a different one). That player then has the option to either judge the claim and reveal the card or pass it on. If the card continues to be passed on around the table, the final player to receive it cannot choose to pass it on – he or she has no choice but to judge the claim and reveal the card.
Example: Since she was forced to keep Noah’s Toad card because she guessed incorrectly, Ellie takes the next turn. She passes a face-down card to Laura and says, “This is a Stink Bug.” Laura then has the choice to either judge the claim and reveal the card or to pass it on. Laura says, “I choose to pass”, and views the card. She passes it face-down to Graham and says, “This is a Rat.” Graham then has the choice of judging the claim and revealing the card or passing it on, etc.
Royal cards have TWO correct claims: the pictured animal and the claim “Royal”. Every time a player has to place a Royal card face-up in front of them (from having judged a claim incorrectly), that player must also take the top card from the penalty pile and place it face-up in front of them. If that card is also Royal, they must draw another card from the penalty pile. Afterwards, the top card on the penalty pile is turned face-up (this way, all players can see the incoming consequences if they judge a potential Royal incorrectly!) For scoring purposes, the Royals turned face-up in front of a player are counted as one type: “Royal”. This means that if a player has 3 regular Rats in front of them and they must take a Royal Rat as well, they do not lose the game – the Royal Rat counts as a Royal and not as a fourth Rat. However, 4 Royal Rats would lose the game.
The game also includes two special cards. One is a picture of a crown with a big red “X” through it – this card is a joker for all animals without a crown. No matter what claim a person makes, this card is always “Correct” with one exception – “Royal” is wrong. There is also a blank card. No matter what claim a person makes, it is ALWAYS wrong. If a player is forced to take one of these two special cards, they do NOT place it in front of them. They instead add it to their hand and then they have two options: they can choose to place one of the cards from their hand face-up in front of them that matches the last claim made (ex: if the last claim made was “Fly”, the player could choose to place a Fly from their hand face-up in front of them), OR if they cannot or do not want to do this (such as if they already had 3 Flies in front of them and a fourth Fly would cause them to lose the game), they can instead choose to place two other cards from their hand face-up in front of them.
When a player either has 4 animals of the same type face-up in front of them (e.g. four Toads or four Royal Bats, etc.) OR when it is a player’s turn and they have no more cards in their hand, that player loses the game. Everyone else has won!
Play Variants / Expansions: Technically, Cockroach Poker Royal is an alternate version itself. The original is simply titled Cockroach Poker, and you can choose to purchase that one instead if you’d like. The original Cockroach Poker, instead of including the Royal cards and the two special cards, contains a 6th animal set of spiders. The rest of the rules are the same as far as gameplay. However, if you’re going to get one, it’s usually better to go with Cockroach Poker Royal – that way you have the Royal and special cards and penalty pile rule if you want to play with them, and if you want to just play without those cards you can still play the original game with the 5 regular animal card types included. Plus, nobody likes spiders anyway.
There are also multiple games in this “ugly animals” series, and they’re all quick and light! If you and your gaming group like Cockroach Poker Royal, try checking out Cockroach Soup or Cockroach Salad, Schummel Hummel / Cheating Moth, or Assel Schlamassel / Woodlouse Chaos! (Many of the games are more readily available in the German versions, unfortunately. Also check out details on Schummel Hummel vs. Cheating Moth before you buy one - there are more differences between those two games than the other translations. Of the two, I personally prefer Schummel Hummel).
Who Will Like It? : Players who enjoy bluffing and pressing their luck will enjoy Cockroach Poker Royal immensely. It’s silly, quick, and lighthearted fun. It can also be sneaky and does have depth to it, if you really want to go all Princess Bride with it and try to psych people out and play mind games. People who don’t like the idea of being the one loser with everyone else winning may not have the most fun with this game.
Where to Buy: Both Cockroach Poker Royal and the original Cockroach Poker are available on Amazon. Also try searching your local game store or other online retailers (Cardhaus, Noble Knight Games, CoolStuffInc and Ebay are good sources for discount games). Each version usually retails for around $12 or $13. You can also buy the German version, Kakerlaken Poker, if it’s cheaper – none of the cards have text, so the only thing unreadable aspect would be the rulebook, and I’ve already gone over all of the rules right here on this post! (Except for the rule modifications for a two-player game, which don’t allow for passing cards and basically just make the game into Russian Roulette, so it’s not worth bothering with, to be honest).
Links and Resources: If you want to see more or would like other opinions, Quintin “Quinns” Smith of Shut Up & Sit Down has an amazing review here (and it has a dog in it!) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1fGg-MKMVU . There’s also a live playthrough here so you can see how it’s done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfQ-_nZzEOM
If you’re playing with first-time players, it may be helpful to leave the two special cards and the Royal cards out for the first game or two until they pick up the subtle strategy of the game. With the Royal version of the game, it’s possible to play a normal game of Cockroach Poker just using the Bats, Scorpions, Cockroaches, Rats, Stink Bugs, Flies, and Toads (and with the Royal and special cards excluded, there will be no penalty pile). Then try adding in the Royals and penalty pile rule, and once that’s mastered, give those two special cards a go.
Remember to keep an eye on that top card of the penalty pile. It’s helpful to know what you might end up having to take if you misjudge a Royal card, or what other players might be trying to PUSH you to take if it’s an animal you already have a lot of!
It’s also possible to do a little probability work to figure out whether claims are likely to be true or false. There are 8 of each regular animal and 7 royal cards in the deck, so if there are already 7 scorpions out on the table and someone passes you a “scorpion” -- while there is a small chance that it is a scorpion, it’d be more likely that it’s a bluff. If there are 8 scorpions out on the table... hopefully you get what your next move should be.
Don’t get too attached to your game plan. Since Cockroach Poker is full of bluffing and variance, just because James has three Bats and you pass a Bat card to Annie saying “THIS IS A FLY”, it doesn’t mean that she’ll take the hint and pass it on to Evelyn saying “THIS IS A FLY” until eventually it gets to James as the last player and he’s forced to make a terrifying decision. Some people are just chaotic and love the adrenaline rush of attempting to call others out on their claims. The best way to play Cockroach Poker is to appreciate its silliness and just have fun!
