How to Play Cambio

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As far as this researcher can see Cambio is a corruption of the 2010 game Cabo. While Cabo had its own dedicated deck, you can play with a standard 52 card deck. The game is built around memory and manipulation, two players is the least you need, but I’d recommend a minimum of 4 for the best experience. Lets get into how to play Cambio.

Table of Contents

How to Set up

  • Standard 52 card Deck
  • 2+ players
  • Pen and Paper (For Scoring)

Complexity

3/5*

Play Time:

45 mins – 1 hour+

Objective:

To win Cambio you must have the least amount of points by the end of the game – this is a points total designated by you and your friends. We would suggest 100 for a short game, 1 hour.

How to Play

  • The game is split into multiple rounds
  • Four Cards are dealt to each player face down, they remain facedown for the rest of the game, but we will call these cads your “hand” (step 1)
  • At the beginning of the game a player must check and memorize their two closest cards (step 2). Then, the cards must be returned face down.

This how you start the game Cambio
  • A players turn starts by picking (1) a card from the deck or (2) discard pile (other than first turn). They can then choose to discard that card, or replace it with one they have face down and then discard that instead.
This is the beginning of every turn for this example of how to play cambio
  • When a card is discarded it is activated and it’s abilities appear as per the card rules section below.

In Cambio you can either choose to keep the card you picked, or discard straight to the discard pile.
When a card is picked you can chose whether or not to replace the faced down card. in this example we kept the drawn 6 and discarded/activated the 9
  • Additionally when a card is discarded you may further discard any other cards of the same rank on the table from either your hand or your opponents hard. Therefore you can go from 4 cards in your hand to 3. If you flip your opponent’s card correctly, you may give them one of your cards. If you flip incorrectly, draw a card from the deck and add it to your hand.
  • When you are confident in your hand as the lowest on the table you can call “Cambio” and is called the caller, no further cards can be swapped with this player – the game then continues for one more round
  • If the game ends and the player who calls cambio has the least amount of points total in their hand they finish the round with 0 points, if another player has less points though, the caller gets 25 points.
  • All other players add the points in their hand and add this to the games tally.
  • The game ends when one player breaks the points tally established at the beginning of the game. E.g. 100

Points

  • Face cards: 10 points
  • Red King: -1 (i.e. very good)
  • Ace: 1
  • Joker: 0
  • Every other Card: number that it is e.g. 6=6

In this example the player has finished with 23 points – 7+6+6+4. Is is added to their game total

Cambio Card Rules

  • 7 or 8 – Look at a card in your hand
  • 9 or 10 – Look at a card in someone else’s hand.
  • Jack – Blind swap, without looking at the card, you can switch one of your own with someone else’s.
  • Queen – swap, you may look at both your card and your opponents and swap

Tips and Tricks

Memory is key, use the 7s and 8s to your advantage remember your cards and be sure to flip them out when the opportunity arises. Keep a track if your opponents pick and cards from the discard pile and try to keep track of those too. Remember the aim is have the least amount of points, 0 cards = 0 points.

The difference between Jacks and Queens are that with a Jack you may not look at the opponents card. Use 9’s and 10’s in previous rounds to build an understanding of your opponents hand. This way, you can consciously decide which cards you would like to take from your opponents.

The longer the game goes on, the more likely your opponents will have good cards, they are improving their hand with every turn. In this way, the strength of hands decrease over time.

How a Hand In Cambio Gets Weaker Over Time

“Tactical Cambio” – if something has gone very wrong in your game and you know you’re sitting on over 25 points. Maybe you miscalled an opponents card and had to pick an extra from the deck. Calling “Cambio” will limit your loss to 25 points, if you don’t call Cambio you can end up with more points. The most I’ve ever lost with was 50…

FAQ

Q: What if someone has flipped out all their cards and has no cards faced down in front of them?

A: They must call Cambio on the turn they got rid of their last card

Q: What if they player who called Cambio has the same number of points as another player

A: The player who called Cambio gains 25 points. They must have the least amount of points on the table.

Conclusion

Well, that’s how to play Cambio. We hope you enjoyed it, its a super quick game that can be played with any pack of cards.

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