A strategic memory card game where players try to end with the lowest score by remembering and swapping cards, with special powers that can peek at or exchange cards.
Cabo
2 - 4 players
5 minutes
Objective: End the game with the lowest score
Setup:
- Discard Jokers
- Each player gets 4 face-down cards in a grid; peek at 2
- Place remaining deck face down, start discard pile with top card face up
Take your turn, either:
- Draw from the deck and peak at the card:
- If it’s a power card, you can use it (discard after)
- Or exchange (see below)
- Draw the top card from the discard pile and exchange (see below)
- Call Cabo to end the game after others get one more turn
Exchanging cards, either:
- exchange the new card for one of your face down cards
- exchange the new card with matching multiples of your face down cards
A failed matching requires picking up a penalty card.
Power cards:
| Card | Power | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 7 - 8 | Peek | Look at one of your own cards |
| 9 - 10 | Spy | Look at one opponent’s card |
| Jack or Queen | Swap | Swap one of your cards with another player’s |
Scoring: Lowest points = 0 points, Calling Cabo and losing = card points + 5 points, Ace = 1, 2 - 10 = face value, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, Black King = 13, Red King = 0
After the round ends, score up everyone's remaining cards and keep track of the total points everyone has accumulated. When a player gets to 100 points, the game ends.
Based on the rules originally printed by Mandy Henning and Melissa Limes, adapted to a 52 card deck:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232751/http://www.playcabo.com/instructions.html