Gambling With Success – The Gang Review

Poker can be a really hardcore game, and quite cutthroat too.

Bluffing your opponents into thinking you have an unbeatable hand when you have nothing but crap is a mainstay of the game.

Why is he betting so much on that flop?

But what if…and just hear me out before scoffing…what if, it was a cooperative game?

I know, right?

The Gang takes Texas Hold ‘Em poker and makes a cooperative game out of it, and does a really nice job of it.

It’s basically turned into a deduction game where you can only hint at what you have, but it’s important for the other players to actually have an idea.

Designed by John Cooper and Kory Heath (RIP), with artwork Fiore GmbH, the game was published in 2024 by Kosmos.

And it is surprisingly addictive if you like working out hidden information.

Do you need to know how to play poker?

Not necessarily, as there is a player aid that ranks all of the hands and the instructions do tell you what it all means (for those of you who think “flop, turn, and river” are Greek words).

It helps to have somebody knowledgeable about the game just for advice (in between rounds, of course) in how to read some of the tells from other players.

In this game, tells are good!

The game comes with a basic set of cards plus some additional cards I’ll get to in a minute.

The cards are really nice, but you could of course play this with any standard deck of cards.

Briefly (for those who don’t know the rules), two cards are dealt to each player. Then the flop is played out on the table, three cards.

Then the turn (a 4th) card is played. Then the river (5th) card is played.

The strength of your hand is based on the best set of 5 cards between your hand and the table cards.

That could conceivably be the five cards on the table.

Anyway, instead of betting (which happens in between your two cards, the flop, the turn and the river), what The Gang does is make players indicate to everybody else what the approximate strength of their hand is.

Because the goal is to rank each player’s hand from lowest to highest, without actually knowing what they have.

Each betting period, players will take a chip ranked from one to whatever the player count is, indicating how strong they feel their hand is.

That can change with the next dealing of cards!

You may take a 1 chip because you only have a 2 and a 5 in your hand.

Then the flop comes out and suddenly you have a full house!

You instantly take the highest chip instead.

Of course, somebody else might have a better full house (maybe Kings & Queens?) so instead of taking a chip from the table, they can take your chip.

This all continues until everybody has a chip, which then produces the next card draw and chips are taken again.

Once the final round’s chips are taken, reveal the hands in order from lowest to highest.

If that actually is the rank order of the hands, everybody wins that round.

If there is any error (I chose 1, James chose 2 but his hand is lower than mine), everybody loses the round.

That’s it!

Ok, there is a theme (kind of) that actually makes this a best 3 out of 5 round game.

Ostensibly, players are doing a series of bank heists. Each success makes the next job harder while each failure makes the next job easier.

I guess because you’re so incompetent, the police stop paying attention to you?

I don’t know. Just run with it.

Anyway, if you succeed, then the next round you will draw a card that makes the round harder.

If you failed, you get something that will make life easier.

These can be quite powerful cards, though most of them will just give you a one-time benefit.

The Getaway Driver can be quite useful in the last round because you can get a good idea of where you stand in relation to one of the other players.

That’s pretty much the game!

Best 3 out of 5.

For me, The Gang is a brilliant concept and quite innovative in its own way.

It’s like many hidden information cooperative games in that you have to hint at what you have, maybe by immediately grabbing the “one” token because you know your hand is shit, or maybe immediately grabbing the “five” token because you have something wonderful!

However, one aspect of the game that can be tricky is reading people, which many people find hard to do.

First, somebody really needs to know how Texas Hold ‘Em works to advise, because sure, the rules of the game are clear in the rulebook.

But the nuance?

That’s where people will fail if nobody really knows what they’re doing.

I have never played Texas Hold ‘Em as game in itself, so I had to be educated a little bit on reading my hand the community cards.

One time I had a pretty strong hand after the turn, but how quickly I grabbed the five token (we had five players) indicated to everybody else that my hand was almost unbeatable.

We ended up losing because one person had a bit of a higher full house than I did.

I love The Gang but sometimes that reading of people can be frustrating, and I know that it can turn some people off of the game.

I get it.

What makes the game especially good for me is the good/bad results of failing/succeeding in the round.

I love the special one-off powers or penalties, and I think they make The Gang a game that I would love to keep revisiting for a while.

I would rate The Gang quite highly (probably not Top 50, but still fairly high), but definitely keep you and your game group in mind when you decide whether or not to try this one out.

If you love poker, then you would probably like this game, unless the reason you like poker is the bluffing and cutthroat nature of it.

Then you would be out of luck.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go use this Ace of Spades to crack open that vault.

Time’s a-wasting.

(This review was written after 5 plays)