Frontier

Frontier is a betting game for 2 to 8 players, played over five rounds. Each round, players secretly commit cards from their hand, bet on their strength, and reveal. The highest configuration takes the pot. Build your hand. Read the table. The player with the most cash when the dust settles wins.

The Deck

Frontier uses the full 50-card American Playing Cards deck. There are five suits of ten, numbered 1 through 10:

  • Two Red suits (the Red Alliance)

  • Two Blue suits (the Blue Alliance)

  • One Black suit (Wildcards)

Wildcards are neutral — they cooperate with any color and can complete any configuration.

Round Structure

The game lasts five rounds. Hand capacity starts at 1 and increases by 1 each round, reaching 5 cards in the final round.

At the start of each round, players draw cards until they reach their hand capacity. Cards played in the previous round are reshuffled into the deck before drawing. Unplayed cards remain in hand.

Each round proceeds in three phases:

1. Action In turn order, each player chooses one of four actions:

  • Mulligan — Once per game, before committing anything, a player may discard their entire hand and draw fresh cards to their current capacity. The mulligan replaces a player's turn action.

  • Bet — Commit any number of cards face-down to the table, then place a cash bet.

  • Raise — If a previous player has bet, you may increase the bet amount.

  • Call — Match the current bet without raising.

  • Fold — Withdraw from the round. Folded players place no bet and contest no pot.

Committed cards cannot be taken back.

Bet Limits: A player may never bet more than the poorest remaining active player can match. If a player cannot match the current bet, they must fold. If only two players remain, the maximum bet is capped at the lesser player's total cash.

2. Resolution All committed cards are revealed simultaneously. The player with the strongest configuration wins the pot. If two or more players hold configurations of equal strength, the pot is divided equally. Any single leftover dollar is awarded to the first tied player in turn order.

3. Discard and Draw Played cards are shuffled back into the deck. Players draw to reach their new hand capacity.

Configurations

A configuration is scored by its tier and, within a tier, by the number of cards it contains. More cards always beat fewer cards, regardless of tier — five unmatched cards beat four of a rank.

Suit Relationships

Pure

Two cards of the exact same suit

Coalition

Two cards of different suits, same color — or any card paired with a Wildcard

Divided

Cards of opposing colors

Mixing suit types within a hand breaks its purity. Four matching cards and one intruder score as that intruder's configuration, not as the four — it is almost always a losing trade.

Tiers

Tier 1

  • 5 of a Rank

  • 5-card Pure

  • 5-card Coalition

  • 5-card Campaign (consecutive numbers, e.g. 3-4-5-6-7)

Tier 2

  • 4 of a Rank

  • 4-card Pure

  • 4-card Coalition

  • 4-card Campaign

Tier 3

  • 3 of a Rank

  • 3-card Pure

  • 3-card Coalition

  • 3-card Campaign

Tier 4

  • Pairs (2 of a Rank)

Tier 5 — Skirmishes Unmatched cards score by their suit relationship:

  • Pure (all same suit): cards multiplied together, result doubled

  • Coalition (same color or including a Wildcard): cards multiplied together

  • Divided (opposing colors): cards summed

Rank 1 Rule

The 1 card is context-sensitive.

In Campaigns (sequences), the 1 remains a 1 — it anchors the low end of a run.

In all other configurations, including Skirmishes, the 1 takes the value of the highest-numbered card in the hand for scoring purposes. A hand of 4, 3, and 1 scores as 4 × 3 × 4.

In Round 1, where a single card is played, raw rank decides — a 5 beats a 3.

Victory

The player with the most cash at the end of Round 5 wins.

Play Frontier: