Racko!
Encyclopedia
Rack-O is a Milton Bradley
card game
with the objective of obtaining 10 numbers, in numerical order, in one's hand. Score may be kept on a separate piece of paper, based upon either a custom system or the system provided in the rule book. Rack-O allows between 2-4 players, and is recommended for players age 8 and up. Rack-O celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2006.
A dealer will shuffle the cards and deal 10 random cards to each player. The players will take one card at a time, without looking at what number is on the card, and place it in the first available slot in their rack until the rack is full. For example, in slot 10 you might have 3, in slot 9 you might have 23, in slot 8 you might have 59, etc.
Each player's goal is to replace cards that are not in ascending order with cards that are in ascending order. The cards need to be in order from lowest to highest, but they do not need to be consecutive. For example, if a 58 appears in slot 1, you know you have to replace it with a smaller number. This is where the strategic thinking comes in, as you must decide what numbers to discard and what numbers to keep. A player may not switch the numbers within his own rack; only numbers drawn from the deck or taken from the immediately previous player's discard can be used.
It is not necessary for numbers to be a certain number value or in consecutive order as long as they are in numerical order from lowest to highest. You are considered the winner if, for example, you get an order such as this: 1, 27, 31, 39, 43, 46, 50, 56, 59, 60, even though the jump from 1 to 27, for example, is large.
The play: Each player, in their turn, will either draw a card from the remainder of the deck, or will take the card discarded by the previous player. He will then put that card into one of his own 10 slots and will then discard the card which he has replaced in that slot.
To win, you must yell "RACK-O!" as soon as your 10 cards are in numerical order.
The first player to achieve and call RACK-O! is awarded 75 points. Bonus points may be distributed for a sequence of three or more numbers on the rack that appear in EXACT numerical order, meaning if your rack looks like this: 1, 7, 8, 9, 33, 41, 47, 54, 57, 59, you may be awarded points for the exact sequence of "7,8,9". However, the players are not bound to any of these point rules.
Also, once RACK-O! is called by the winner of the round, every other player scores 5 points for each card he/she has in order (low to high), starting with the first slot in the rack and ending when the sequence breaks. A player can thus score between 5 and 45 points without winning the round.
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley , an American game pioneer, was credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company....
card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
with the objective of obtaining 10 numbers, in numerical order, in one's hand. Score may be kept on a separate piece of paper, based upon either a custom system or the system provided in the rule book. Rack-O allows between 2-4 players, and is recommended for players age 8 and up. Rack-O celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2006.
Game play
The deck consists of 60 cards, each containing a number from 1 to 60. Depending on how many people are playing, the deck may be reduced in size. If two people are playing, only the cards from 1 to 40 are used; if three people are playing, the cards from 1 to 50 are used; and if four people are playing, the entire deck is used. Each player has a rack containing 10 slots to hold his cards.A dealer will shuffle the cards and deal 10 random cards to each player. The players will take one card at a time, without looking at what number is on the card, and place it in the first available slot in their rack until the rack is full. For example, in slot 10 you might have 3, in slot 9 you might have 23, in slot 8 you might have 59, etc.
Each player's goal is to replace cards that are not in ascending order with cards that are in ascending order. The cards need to be in order from lowest to highest, but they do not need to be consecutive. For example, if a 58 appears in slot 1, you know you have to replace it with a smaller number. This is where the strategic thinking comes in, as you must decide what numbers to discard and what numbers to keep. A player may not switch the numbers within his own rack; only numbers drawn from the deck or taken from the immediately previous player's discard can be used.
It is not necessary for numbers to be a certain number value or in consecutive order as long as they are in numerical order from lowest to highest. You are considered the winner if, for example, you get an order such as this: 1, 27, 31, 39, 43, 46, 50, 56, 59, 60, even though the jump from 1 to 27, for example, is large.
The play: Each player, in their turn, will either draw a card from the remainder of the deck, or will take the card discarded by the previous player. He will then put that card into one of his own 10 slots and will then discard the card which he has replaced in that slot.
To win, you must yell "RACK-O!" as soon as your 10 cards are in numerical order.
Point System
While it is very easy to play with a custom point system or none at all, the game has a default described in the rulebook:The first player to achieve and call RACK-O! is awarded 75 points. Bonus points may be distributed for a sequence of three or more numbers on the rack that appear in EXACT numerical order, meaning if your rack looks like this: 1, 7, 8, 9, 33, 41, 47, 54, 57, 59, you may be awarded points for the exact sequence of "7,8,9". However, the players are not bound to any of these point rules.
Also, once RACK-O! is called by the winner of the round, every other player scores 5 points for each card he/she has in order (low to high), starting with the first slot in the rack and ending when the sequence breaks. A player can thus score between 5 and 45 points without winning the round.