Is Flip 7 Worth Your Time? A Full Review

Welcome to this week’s review! I thought I would mix things up this week by discussing one of the smallest and lightest games in my collection. So without further ado, let’s jump into my thoughts.

Flip 7 feels like one of the most unexpected surprise hits from last year. I wasn’t expecting much from Flip 7 after I managed to snag a copy promotional copy during last year’s PAX Unplugged. A small, push-your-luck card game, I thought I would play it a few times and then donate it. Oh, how I was mistaken. A little over six months later, I’ve played the game over a dozen times, and it has become one of my go-to filler games.

The game is simply a deck of cards with each round consisting of players drawing cards from the deck until someone manages to successfully flip over seven cards (hence the name) or all players are out of the round (either by choosing to exit the round by folding and banking their points or busting). The catch is that the deck is not a standard deck of number cards – rather there is one 1 card, two 2 cards, etc. all the way up to twelve 12 cards. If someone draws two of the same number, they bust and effectively score no points that round.

There are also a handful of special cards. For example, one card grants you a second chance, so if you bust, you just discard your second chance and remain in the round. There’s also a card where you get to choose a player (including yourself), and that player has to immediately draw three cards which could cause them to bust. There are only a few of these special cards, but I do enjoy how they mix things up without the game becoming too chaotic.  

The game lasts until one player manages to reach 200 points, which feels like a nice sweet spot since games don’t last too long and you still manage to play enough rounds to cycle through the deck at least once. However, I don’t see why you couldn’t easily adjust the point target depending on whether your group wants to play a shorter or longer version of the game.

By far the biggest reason that this has made it to the table so often is that it’s small (essentially pocket sized since it’s just a deck of cards), quick to teach and play, and can be taught to anyone (young and old, new gamers and hardened veterans of the hobby).  

One thing that you need to know going into Flip 7 is that the game is almost entirely all luck. Yes, you could try to calculate your odds of busting each time, but sometimes you’ll just draw back to back 2’s and there’s nothing you could have done or can likely do differently next time. For some, I imagine the luck aspect will be a turn-off, but for anyone that enjoys push-your-luck games, this game does provide that addictive feeling of wanting to draw one more card. For example, when you’re one card away from flipping seven, but you already have a 10, 11, and 12 card.

The only other slight negative is that if you start off slowly over the first few rounds, it is often difficult to catch back up. Naturally, since you are farther behind, the tendency will be to push-your-luck more, which can snowball, and I’ve had games where one player finishes the game on zero points. The only real catch-up mechanism is that players are incentivized to play the “take-that” cards on the players in the lead.

Overall, almost everyone I’ve taught Flip 7 to has thoroughly enjoyed the game to the point where multiple friends have mentioned they’ve bought their own copies. Look, maybe I’ll grow tired of the heavy push-your-luck mechanic and the fact that the game is almost entirely all luck, but for now, Flip 7 remains a strong crowd pleaser!

With that, I’ll wrap up this week’s review! If you’ve played Flip 7, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game, and do you have any other favorite pocket-sized games? I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned or future content suggestions in the comments below. Happy gaming!

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