About Play Your Cards Right

Bruce Forsyth is the 'Lucky Jack' accompanied by his gorgeous dolly dealers as two pairs of contestants compete for cash by moving along a row of playing cards trying to predict whether the next card is higher or lower than the preceding one.

At the beginning of some shows, Bruce Forsyth would usually say, "What a lovely audience! You're so much better than last week." The joke was that the same audience was used for more than one show, therefore it was the same one. Bruce started each show with his trademark "It's nice to see you, to see you nice", whereby the audience join in on the last "nice".

Main Game
The couples alternated who went first on each question. The questions were based on surveys of 100 people and usually had some comedy value. The first couple would guess how many of the 100 gave a certain answer to the question, and the second would guess whether the actual number was higher or lower than the other couples guess. The couple that gave the closest answer would play the cards.

There were five cards for each team laid out, and they had to guess if the next card was higher or lower -- ace being the highest card, and two being lowest. The first card could be changed if the couple wished. If the guess was correct, the couple would continue with the next card, and so on. Correctly guessing all cards to the end won the game, but if the couple guessed wrong at any time, they would retreat back to the card where they started and the other team would have a free attempt at their own cards.

After any correct guess, a couple could 'freeze', which would protect their cards. A marker would be placed by a dealer beside the frozen card, which meant that on the next question, a wrong guess on their cards would put them back no further than where they froze. This was usually done when the card shown was of a middle rank, such as a seven, eight or nine. After a couple froze their cards, play would continue to the next question. Should the couple regain control of the board, they will be allowed to change the frozen card, due to it now being the card the couple would start on.

If the next card was the same rank as the card showing, it counted as a wrong guess; indeed, this is the only way to be wrong when an ace or deuce appeared. "You get nothing for a pair, not in this game," was Forsyth's catch phrase on such occasions.

If no team had managed to predict the last card correctly within the first three questions sudden death was played. The couple who gained control of the cards (either though their own correct prediction or the other couples incorrect) had to make a decision, either to "Play" and correctly predict the remainder of their cards to win, or "Pass" and force their opponents to achieve the feat. An incorrect prediction now caused their opposition to win the round.

Starting with the 90's version, the winner of each of the two games in the first half would get a "Brucie Bonus". The overall winner was the first couple to win two games. If a third game was required, three cards were played by each couple instead of five, with a tie break occurring on the third question instead of fourth.

The Prize / Cash Cards
The winning couple got 200 points to begin with. Bruce would then ask a question, if they got it right, they'd win an extra 50, if they got it wrong, they lost 50. There were two rows of three cards dealt out and one final card at the top. At the start of each row they could change their card. At the start of the second row, they got an extra 200 points. The rules are the same as in the previous game, but they had to bet on their answer (minimum of 50). When they got to the final card, if they had 4,000 or more, they could play for the car. They were asked a simple question (usually to name 5 of something), and then predicted higher or lower for the final card. If they were right, they would win the car. If not, they won a prize based on their score.

In the 90's version, points became pounds, but the rules remained the same. Also, on the final card, if they have £4,000 or more, and they were wrong, they would just have the money. What was emphasized was that their money was safe.

If the couple got to the final card with under £4,000, they could choose to take the money, or gamble all of it on the last card - with Bruce emphasising thus: "The rules are strict here - it is all or nothing". The maximum amount of money that could be won was £17,600, which was never achieved.

Comments

1. Hello

   I appeared on the show many Years ago . The episode was recorded 9th March 1994. Will you be showing this episode on TV and if not would you be able to send me a copy. My name at the time was Sammy Cross and my partners name was Peter Launder . Thank you so much for your help.

   Kind Regards

   Samantha Jouan

   samantha jouan 28 January 2012

2. My email address is samantha.jouan@virginmedia.com
   

   samantha jouan 28 January 2012

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