Sabacc Rules Explained

Did you just purchase a Sabacc deck from Galaxy's Edge?

Are you confused on the rules?

Is the rule book kind of unclear?

Other online rules not make sense?

This is the post for you. 

I'm going to cover the rules of Sabacc, what they actually mean, what not to do, how to play, and everything else in between. Consider this the beginners guide to Sabacc. If you want to check out the rules as they appear in the instructions, click here.

Overview

Sabacc is kind of like poker and black jack mixed together. The objective is to have a hand totaling closest to zero at the end of three rounds. Each player starts off with two cards. In the middle is the Draw Pile and the Discard Pile. The Draw Pile remains face down, and the Discard Pile has the cards face up. You have three main actions you can do during your turn. But watch out, your hand could change at any time during the end of the rounds.

First we'll cover what all comes with a Sabacc deck and what they do. Then I'll go over the basic rules and actions.

Fun Fact: This "variation" of Sabacc is called "Corellian Spike".

The Deck

There are 62 cards in the deck. For whatever it's worth there are also 3 "Staves" or suits. These are triangles, circles, and squares. 

Han Solo Card Game on top
GE Sabacc on the bottom

All of these Staves, suits, shapes, whatever, are of the same value. Previous versions of the game (See - The Han Solo Card Game) only used triangles. By breaking it down into different shapes the cards are easier to identify (sometimes) and differentiate. Plus it just looks better. So basically, they don't really matter.

The cards run from 1-10. Each Stave/suit has a run of positive 1 through 10, and negative 1 through 10. So 20 cards in each Stave. The GREEN cards are positive, and the RED cards are negative.

The cards 7, 8, 9, 10 in any Stave or color are all indicated by images instead of pips. You can call these "face cards", but also just remember that doesn't always make them the best cards. The image below shows what each of these cards look like. While somebody may know HOW these cards signify their value, I wouldn't bother trying to decipher it. Just memorize them however you can.

However I do like to call the 10 card "The Sarlacc". If you have any other ideas for the 9,8,7 cards, please comment below with your ideas.

You will struggle with remembering these at first.
From the top 10, 9, 8, 7 (all of them GREEN, so that means positive)

Aside from these 60 numbered cards, there are also two zero cards called Sylops. These equal zero and make up some of the best hands. They have no Stave.

So pretty, yet so rare. Consider these the Jokers of the deck.

Fun Fact: In Legends Canon a Sabacc deck had 76 cards and the objective was to make it to +-23.

The Dice

Both have identical symbols on them, but the Solo version has them engraved

Rattling around in your box of Sabacc cards will be two dice.  Instead of pips, you'll notice cool symbols modeled after Han Solo's lucky dice. Any six sided dice can be used.  These are rolled at the end of each round. If you roll doubles everybody turns in their cards and gets new ones. Then the same number of cards are dealt out to each player. (Be sure to remember the number of cards you had)

This is called the "Sabacc Shift", and can happen at the end of any round. If no doubles are rolled, nothing happens and play continues as normal.

Sabacc Shifts DO NOT extend play. If a Shift happens on the third round, you are dealt whatever cards and do not get a turn to better your hand.

All cards go in the Discard Pile, and new cards are dealt from the  Draw pile. While the rules are unclear about this. You do NOT need to reshuffle everything together. The Discard Pile can stay. However there is a small variation on this I'll discuss later.

This was from a previous post where I was only demonstrating
with two players.

Fun Facts: 

There is a 16%  chance of doubles being rolled during any round.

A hand with only two cards is 60%~ more likely to win over 3 or more cards after a Sabacc Shift.

Originally a Sabacc shift had to do with the cards somehow changing, but thankfully this was all simplified by using dice.

Gameplay

Each player starts off with 2 cards.

Choose somebody to be the dealer. (They play too)

After all the cards are dealt you'll put the remaining deck in the middle. This is the DRAW Pile.

Turn the top card over and put it right next to the DRAW Pile. This is the DISCARD Pile.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first.

ACTIONS

This is probably the most confusing and misunderstood part of the game. You can GAIN, SWAP, STAND (and JUNK). So let's break down what each of the three actions means, and what you can and can't do. 

GAIN:

Take the top card from the DRAW pile and add it to your hand. This is a BLIND DRAW.

You also have the option of DISCARDING a card from your hand before you draw from the DRAW Pile.

You CANNOT draw from the DRAW Pile and then DISCARD another card from your hand.

An unclear rule about GAIN is whether or not you can draw from the DRAW Pile, and then DISCARD that same card. While it doesn't immediately break a rule of the game, it doesn't really add to the strategy necessarily. As you end up drawing a card to only discard it looking for a zero.

This is not part of the Gain rule. Nor does it make the game better. Disregard about drawing a card, then discarding that same card.

GAINING WITH DISCARDING

-8, not a good total. So I decide to GAIN with a DISCARD

Turns out it was the right decision

GAINING WITHOUT DISCARDING

*start not stat

The top card of the DRAW Pile is added to his deck without discarding.

The above images are from an Instagram post where I covered how to practice by playing against yourself. More on that another time. But the images do the trick.

You might also be thinking to yourself, "is it really a GAIN if you're discarding first and end up with the same number of cards"? Think of it more as you or the game in general is GAINING a card from the DRAW Pile that was otherwise inactive. 

SWAP:

Switch a card from your hand with the top card in the DISCARD Pile.

You CANNOT just take the card from the DISCARD Pile without putting one from your hand in.

You CANNOT DISCARD without SWAPPING.

Don't be a bad swapper

Not only did this not help, it's also wrong 

I suppose you can draw the card and then discard.
It doesn't really matter with the SWAP. You just can't DRAW without discarding.

STAND:

If you feel that your hand can't really be improved by GAIN or SWAP, you can choose to do NOTHING.

After gaining a card, Ferris decides his hand is good enough and decides to do nothing.
You can also do nothing with only two cards, or four.

JUNK:

This action is really only useful if you're going to include betting in your game. I'll cover that in another post. But I suppose you still could decide to do it in regular play. You are essentially folding and then your cards are put in the DISCARD Pile. You are then out for the remainder of the three rounds.

The most common errors I've seen are usually with the GAIN and SWAP. You can never GAIN a card from the DRAW pile and then DISCARD another card. Nor can you just take the top card from the DISCARD Pile during a SWAP without discarding.

You can call it a "variation" or "house rules", but more than likely you are just playing wrong. The rules as they are written encourage a certain amount of strategy to the game and help keep it balanced. 

That's why I'm still split on whether or not to include the GAIN/DISCARD. The rule book seems to indicate that you can draw a card from the DRAW Pile, and then DISCARD if you don't want it. But it also might be indicating how you have to discard first before drawing. Either way I've tested it out and it does add to the game without just making it easier. So Again, I'll say this is completely optional.

EDIT---WHAT TO DO WITH SYLOPS IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN ESTABLISHED HAND

There is no OFFICIAL rule about how to handle Sylops in non-established hand. I use the term "established hand" to mean any of hands ranked higher than a two card Sabacc. So basically the YEE-HEE, Full Sabacc, FLEET and Pure Sabacc. But honestly, the main Sylop hands you'll see are the Pure Sabacc and the YEE-HAA. 

So what do you do with the odd Sylop in a hand that doesn't total zero?

The best methods I've found are as follows:

1. Treat it as a +1 or -1 as needed to improve your hand (ie---make it closer to zero). But an important part of this rule is that the Sylop then loses all other properties. This is pretty clear if your other non-Sylop cards do not total zero.
   You would then rank the hand according to how many cards it has. So in the above example the Sylop becomes a -1 to make a hand total of zero. But it would still be considered a 3 card Sabacc. Same thing for NULREK.
2. The strategy I've seen work pretty well is to treat a Sylop in a non-zero hand as something to NOT want. For example, if you had the above cards shown in the picture at the end of the third round. Barring a Sabacc shift, you would immediately lose. This is kind of similar to the whole "bombing out" thing in traditional Sabacc.
3. BUT WHAT IF YOU HAVE TWO SYLOPS AND ANY OTHER CARD
   ----This is probably my FAVORITE rule addition. Because this WILL pop up at least once if you play with any regularity. And it always, always, always, always causes arguments. A hand consisting of 2 Sylop cards (0,0) and any other card, let's say a +3. Your hand is (0,0,+3). It's not a Pure Sabacc, it's literally not anything and this is a problem. 
   
   It CAN be treated as a Pure Sabacc.....BUT only if you roll the dice the number of times you are over zero. So for example the (0,0,+3) hand would have to roll the dice 3 times at the end of the third round. You could also choose to not do anything and just take the total of your hand with factoring in the above Sylop Wild Rule (I had names for these at some point).
   
   
4. 
   
   

As you can tell from the above rule additions, they not only help fill in the holes. But they also maintain a balance within the gameplay. Plus for the most part they are pretty simple to remember.

This is probably the number one mistake most people make when altering or adding rules to a game. Because if you don't take into consideration how the balance of the game will affected by the change, you may very well have a broken game on your hands. Or at the very least a game that kind of ends up like how most of us play Monopoly. It's fun for awhile and then everybody loses interest because the same person always wins. 

OTHER THINGS

If you have looked around enough online, you have probably come across a few different variations of the rules. These are usually people trying to "fix" rules they don't understand, or make the game closer to what it was in Legends Canon. 

Unfortunately there is just as much confusion with these rules as the established ones in the book. More than likely if you try these rules without first understanding the game (especially if you're teaching others), you'll just have an awkward card game with inconsistent rules.

While the included rule book from the Sabacc deck found at Galaxy's Edge has a few issues. The basic gameplay and mechanics of the game are solid. Sure a few rules can use a clarification or two. And the winning hands page has a lot of errors. But still, these are your best best. 

They are actually updating this at some point.

And for those playing with the Han Solo Card Game, throw those rules in the trash. That game was the first iteration of what would later become the Galaxy's Edge Sabacc. So they are either overly simplified or just plain contradictory now. But the deck works, and the dice are actually better.

Notice that "Sabacc" is nowhere to be found

WHAT TO FOCUS ON DURING YOUR FIRST GAMES

I'll cover the winning hands in another post as there is a lot to go over. So with that in mind, don't worry too much about ALL the winning hands for right now. Just try and get your hand closest to ZERO. If you try to make hands for the sake of getting FULL SABACC or something, you'll probably just end up losing.

The easiest and best hand to try and get is the ONE PAIR SABACC. Which is just one positive card and one negative card totaling ZERO (example; -1, +1). 

One pair (despite what the winning hands page says is TWO CARDS). Unless they officially change it to be more clear, one pair is two cards. 

ONE PAIR SABACC beats SABACC WITH MOST CARDS.

But if you can't get to zero with two cards, more is fine and will probably beat out most other hands.

Anything else is called NULRHEK, or closest to ZERO.

A positive total is better than a negative total of the same integer.
(example; a total of +1 beats a total -1).

The top hand only got to a +6.
The bottom hand is a +3, so winner winner

Both hands -1, but the top hand has more cards.
If both hands had the same total and the same amount of cards,
it would then come down to who has the highest positive card total.
And then if still tied, whoever has the highest single positive card.

Another important thing to remember is that the LOWER integer wins in most cases when talking SABACC hands. So while it might be tempting to think that a ONE PAIR SABACC with +10 and -10 is unbeatable. It is actually a pretty weak ONE PAIR SABACC. (example; (+2)(-2) beats (+10)(-10).

Fun fact: Han knew that Lando was cheating because the Sylops were already played. More than likely this was because a player either had a hand with a Sylop that wasn't going to win and folded, or because there was a Sabacc Shift and he saw that the Sylops were already played.

This is also why the cards shouldn't be shuffled after a Sabacc Shift happens. Knowing what cards have already been played can come in handy.

Final Thoughts

I know there is a lot here. But honestly Sabacc is easier to learn than Skip-Bo (at least at first). I've taught many, many people the game of Sabacc with these rules and we were good to go in a matter of minutes. I also regularly post about the game on my Instagram of the same name.

There is a lot of replay value here, especially if you play according to the rules. 

Another aspect of the game that is missing entirely from the Galaxy's Edge version is anything about betting. Playing Sabacc with betting TOTALLY CHANGES the experience. I will cover that in yet another post.

But if you want to try it out, use modified Poker/Texas Holdem betting rules.

Have fun and total zero!

Edit-----

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