Card Game (pricing game)
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- This article deals with the pricing game. For card games in general, please see Card game.
Card Game is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting on July 4, 1974, it is played for a car.
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[edit] Gameplay
First, the contestant draws a card from a special deck of seven cards to determine how close he/she must come within the car's price to win, without going over. As of 2005, the values in that deck include two cards each of $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000; and one $5,000 card.
The contestant is then given an opening bid of $12,000, and asked to draw cards from a standard deck of 52 playing cards, used to close in on the desired bid. The value of each card 2-10 is multiplied by $100, while jacks, queens and kings are each worth $1,000. Aces are wild, and can be made any non-negative value the contestant desires (often used to state the final bid).
After the contestant decides to stop drawing cards, the car's actual retail price is announced. If the contestant's bid is within the chosen price range without going over, they win the car.
[edit] Changes to the game
Introduced in 1974, Card Game has undergone a series of rules changes, mostly because of inflation. Those updates were as follows:
- 1974-1983 - No opening bid. The deck used to determine the winning range had cards from $200 to $1,000 (in increments of $100), with one card for each value. Aces were worth anything up to $1,000.
- 1983-1993 - The opening bid was $2,000. At first, the deck was changed to two each of $500-$1000; and later, three each of $500, $1,000, $1,500 and $2,000. Aces from this point forward had no upper limit.
- 1993-2001 - The opening bid was $8,000. The opening deck did not change.
- 2001-2005 - The opening bid was $10,000. No changes to the opening deck.
- 2005-Present - The opening bid is $12,000. Because of so many players losing the game from 2001-05 (stopping thousands of dollars earlier than they should have), the opening deck was changed to two each of $1000, $2000 and $3000, and one $5000.
[edit] Trivia
- When the game's rules were changed in 1983, the game was briefly retitled "New Card Game." In addition, the table received a new logo and paint job. Toward the end of the year, when the game dropped the "New" from its title, the game received another new paint job (as well as a new 5-digit bid display).
- The first playing of Card Game supposedly used only the special deck, and the second playing only the standard deck. The separate special and standard decks are believed to have debuted on the game's third playing.
- The standard deck is a deck of Bicycle's "Big Bicycle" cards which can be found at magic shops and some toy stores.
- On the February 17, 2006 show, Tyra Banks modeled Card Game's car. She also assisted in It's in the Bag on the same episode.
- The closest known winning bid in the game's history was under the car's price by $11.
