Board Game Arena

I decided to write this guide because I still see a lot of players (mostly beginners but not exclusively) play the game suboptimally.

The most important points are, in my opinion:

• Evaluate your current hand, not your possible future hands: This best tells your teammates your current hand and avoids unnecessary adjustments on river. This is particularly important to poker players.

• Show your absolute hand ranking, but be prepared to adjust depending on what others have. At the end, only the relative ranking matters. For example, if you first take white 4 with Q5, and everyone takes white 3 or lower, they show you they are all weaker than you. Remember, someone has to take the 6, and because you have reason to believe that you have the relatively highest combination, you should be the one to take it. (As an extreme example: I had a game where 94 correctly took the white 6 after a while!)

• On future rounds, you should usually take the same chip as before, unless one of the following happens:
  • your hand improved, in which case you take a higher chip that best shows your improvement (or re-take the highest chip if you already had it in the previous round)
  • someone else's hand improved and is now higher than yours, in which case you go down by what you think however many people below you passed you
  • someone got new cards because of "Motion Detector" or "Laser Tripwires" and you need to find out what they have now
  • your relative ranking might have changed due to a community card. For example, if you have 55 and the community cards are KK828, you might have to go down on river because your 55 doesn't matter anymore, so your pocket pair got transformed into a low kicker.
  • you think the current chip distribution is wrong. Use this with caution because it has a lot of potential for confusion. Usually you should do this after everyone has taken their chips on river, just before the showdown. That's because community cards might solve the issue, eliminating the need to correct. Make sure others know you're trying to correct and not improving!

• Trust in others that they give you the best possible information. For example, if you take the white 1 with 52, the flop is J92, you take the yellow 2 to show improvement, and everyone else now takes the yellow chip 1 lower than their white chip, it means that no one can beat your pair of 2s and you should take the 6 without further ado.

• Take only your hand into account when taking your first white chip. This gives your teammates more info and helps to sort at the start. I find good ranges are pair/A=6, K=5, Q=4, JT=3, 98=2, 7-=1. (with Security Cameras: triple/pair=6, A=5, K=4, QJ=3, T9=2, 8-=1, though some people also take 2 with J and 1 with 9.) Importantly, always sort yourself where you think you belong and sometimes fight a bit. Don't just take the last chip that's left! The more chips move, the more communication happens. Having agreed upon ranges is helpful because it makes sorting easier. For example, if 3 people start at white 6, anyone who doesn't should end up with at most a 3.

Credits to Romain672, whose guide inspired me to write this one. You can find Romain's guide here.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions about the game or this guide or feel like I should add or change something, feel free to ask me.

While "take the first white chip based on your hand range" is true, stealing the White 6 chip from someone else shows a stronger hand than taking White 6 from the center. Similarly, taking the White 1 from someone else shows a weaker hand than taking the White 1 from the center.

Another guide that's desperately needed is when you're playing with 3 card hands. Most people don't have the right intuition. With 3 card hands, it's a lot easier to have a pocket pair and a lot easier to make a straight or flush or full house. With 3 cards you can have an unexpected flush or straight, where you need to use all 3 of your cards. I.e., a hand of 3 hearts on a board with 2 hearts. Other people might not realize that's a possible flush board.

3 cards open up a LOT of new card ranges. In one game I saw 5 different community cards and the best hand was 4 of a kind, because someone hit their pocket trips. So it makes the fight for the chips harder and you needs to take that into account. Every game could be a straight, flush, full house and the mentioned 4 of a kind, even if the community cards would not allow for these in regular games.

FSKFSK wrote: ↑27 July 2026, 05:40 While "take the first white chip based on your hand range" is true, stealing the White 6 chip from someone else shows a stronger hand than taking White 6 from the center. Similarly, taking the White 1 from someone else shows a weaker hand than taking the White 1 from the center.

I don't agree. For example, if you have A2 and someone else already took the 6, how do you tell others you have an A? You take the 6. Of course, you won't keep it. You'll immediately put it back and take the 5 instead. That way, kings know to not fight with you. Similarly, with 76 I'll still take the 1 away from someone else, only to then give it back and take the 2. It is to tell everyone who has an 8 to not even try to drop below me.

You can just don't show them you got an A. But I know you put lots of value on 'high card promesse'.
On that case (with A2/A3/A4), I take the chip leftover between 5 and 6. Or I put myself between 5&6.