Cover Your Assets

In Grandpa Beck's Cover Your A$$ets, a.k.a. Big Deal, players compete to collect items to become a millionaire. The game consists of 110 cards, with each card being either an asset (e.g., home, yacht, stamp collection) worth $5-20,000 or silver (worth $25k) or gold (worth $50k); silver and gold are jokers and can represent any other asset. Each player starts with 4-5 cards in hand, and on a turn a player takes one of four actions:

• Play a pair of asset cards (or an asset and a joker) from hand, placing it mostly on top of any other cards acquired earlier.
• Play a card from your hand that matches the top card of the discard pile, then place this pair on your other assets.
• Attempt to steal the top assets from another player's collection.
• Discard one card from your hand.

When trying to steal, point to the top assets you want to take, then place a matching card (or a joker) from your hand onto the table. The player who owns these assets can then do the same thing. Players go back and forth this way, and the last player to play such a card keeps all of the cards played and the original assets.

At the end of each turn, players refill their hands to 4-5 cards as needed. Once the draw pile runs out and one player has no cards left in hand, the round ends. All players tally the value of all cards in their collection and add this sum to their total score. If a player now has at least $1 million, she wins; otherwise, players shuffle the cards and start a new round.