I played a lot of Coruscant Shift Sabacc this weekend and decided the rules need a bit of cleaning up. Less about changing the game, more about clearer language to define the process, and expounding upon betting. It turns out, a lot of new players haven’t played poker, so the mechanics of betting are foreign concepts. Let’s get into the rewritten rules of the game, and know that everywhere I say “BET” will be clarified later in this article. I’ve also included links to the original rules and other materials I am sourcing, so you can decide for yourself which to follow. Nothing I’ve added here is absolute, but I hope it’s a clearer set of instructions for new players.
Game Summary
Coruscant Shift is a variant of Sabacc. It uses a deck with 3 suits (circle, square, triangle) and cards numbered 1-10, and negative versions of those plus 2 zero cards (called Sylops). That’s 62 cards total.
The goal of playing a hand is to get your cards to ADD UP to the target number (10,5, 0, -5, or -10) and the tie breaker is who has the most of a given suit. The target number and suit are rolled on a set of dice with those values on them.
The goal of the game is to win all the credits (points, chips, what have you). Like monopoly, or more aptly, Texas Hold’Em poker. I’ve played A LOT of Texas Hold’Em, which is why I noticed the betting part of the rules is incomplete and causes confusion. While I think I can simplify the explanation of the basic game, the betting part will take a lot more words. I’ll do my best.
Materials
You will need the following (I got my deck and dice from Hyperspace Props)
· Coruscant Shift Deck
· Coruscant Shift Dice
· Chips or credits (see betting section)
· Clean table to play on (keep your cards clean)
· A Dealer token (small object that indicates which player is the dealer)
Playing a Hand
We’ll explain this game like an onion, from the inside out. First, let’s cover what the original rules do, how to play a hand. Once that’s clear, we can wrap it with explaining betting, and then the whole thing put together.
As stated before, there are 62 cards, 2 of which are wild cards with zero marked on them called Sylops. They represent any suit you need. The rest of the cards are divided into 3 suits (circle, square, and triangle), each containing a card marked -10 through -1 and 1 through 10. You will have to do some math with positive and negative numbers. Clever, but it takes a moment to work out in your head.
Let’s say we’ve identified a player to be the dealer and go from there on the process:
Dealer shuffles the deck
Dealer rolls the Sabacc Dice
This tells players what the goal is for the hand
Dealer deals out 5 cards to each player
It is customary to deal 1 card to each player and loop around 5 times
This spreads out cards if they were “conveniently placed”
Blinds put out their required bets
Small Blind puts their bet out (1/2 of the minimum bet)
This is the player to the immediate left of the dealer
EX: If minimum bet was 2 credits, they’d put out one
Big Blind puts their bet out (minimum bet)
This is the player to the immediate left of the Small Blind player
EX: If minimum bet was 2 credits, they’d put that out
Players look at their cards (keeping them secret)
Players try to pick out cards that will add up to the numeric die
EX: if the die says -10, pick out cards that will add up to that
SELECTION: place the cards you want to keep face down on the table in front of you
You can peek at them to remind yourself, but these stay on the table for the rest of this hand
SHIFT: put the cards you did not select into the discard pile in the center of the table, face down
BET: see the betting section
Betting starts with the player to the left of the Big Blind (they’ve already bet)
Do not go out of turn, seeing what other people bet is how you guess the quality of their hand
REPLACE: the dealer deals out cards to replace the ones players discarded
Like regular dealing, rotate through players, giving out one card at a time.
IMPROVE: like selection stage, pick out which cards improve your hand that you want to add to your SELECTION on the table.
Remember, the goal is ALL the cards you keep need to add up to the target number on the die
If the number die is -10, you want all the kept cards to add up
The tie breaker is most cards of the suit on the other die
EX: if the die is a circle, you want more circle cards
SHIFT: put the cards you did not select into the discard pile in the center of the table, face down
BET: see the betting section
Betting starts with the player to the left of the dealer (because nobody has bet this round of the hand)
Do not go out of turn, seeing what other people bet is how you guess the quality of their hand
REVEAL: Everybody still in the hand reveals the cards on the table
The winning hand is the player who is closest to the target number on the die. Tie breakers are:
Player with the MOST cards in their SELECTION matching the symbol on the suit die
If it is a full tie, the pot is split, and any change is left in the pot for the next hand
Playing a Hand - Explained
Let’s zoom in on what we mean by making a hand. The Dealer has rolled a -5 and a Circle. So our target number is -5, and circles are the main tie breaker. The dealer gives us five cards. Here’s what we got:
Bob’s Initial Hand | Jane’s Initial Hand |
-8 Square -4 Circle 2 Circle 5 Triangle 0 Sylops | -5 Circle 10 Triangle 7 Circle 3 Square 2 Triangle -6 Circle |
Bob’s got a great starting hand. It adds up to -5 (-8 + -4 + 2 + 5+ 0 = -5). And there’s 3 Circles (Sylops is wild, so it’s any suit you need). He’ll keep everything (and discard nothing during the Shift).
Meanwhile, Jane has a hand, but it’s not strong. She hit -5 with one card, and it’s a Circle. Not bad if Bob hadn’t done so well (which she doesn’t know yet). She’ll keep the -5 and discard the rest.
When it comes to betting, Bob didn’t discard anything, so Jane suspects Bob has a good hand, but nobody raises, so Jane stays in the hand.
During the Improve stage, Bob gets no new cards. Jane picks up a -3 Circle, -2 Triangle, 5 Circle and a Sylops. It’s rare to get replacement cards that perfectly help your hand. These new cards zero themselves out and they’ll add 3 more circles for a total of 4 circles. She has Bob beat on the tie breaker.
During Betting, Bob raises 3 bronze chips to try to entice somebody to play. After all, he has a great hand. Jane responds with a call and raises to 4 bronze chips. That’s one more chip to Bob. Of course he’ll call.
The hands are revealed, and Bob is flabbergasted. His great hand of -5 and 3 circles lost to Jane’s -5 and 4 circles.
Now the curse of my example here is that both hands used all five cards. That’s rare. In most cases, 2-3 cards are used, the rest are discarded in the second Shift. The important thing is to remember that you are choosing what cards to keep that add up to the target number. In the first round, you could discard all five cards, or keep one that doesn’t hit your number, but hope to catch it on the draw.
Betting
Imagine a world where everyone tells the truth. Betting is how you signal the value of your hand without revealing exactly what you have. It also creates a metric to determine who won the game by virtue of who has all (or the most) credits. Once you learn how the betting works and how to “signal the truth” you can then handle the part everybody is thinking about. Bluffing. Which is understanding those signals and sending fake ones.
This is what shifts the game from shuffling a lot of cards and doing math to one of strategy and psychology.
Types of Bets
We’ll get into explaining the Blinds (those force bets) in a moment. Let’s say it’s your turn. You’re first to bet (the player after the Big Blind). There’s 3 credits on the table (1 from small, and 2 from big blind). What can you do?
Fold
If your hand is bad (doesn’t hit the target), it is free to fold
Put your cards in the discard pile and say “Fold. "
Call
If you like your hand, and want to continue, match the bet (currently 2 credits)
Slide those credits in front of your cards on the table and say “Call”
Raise
If you really like your hand, and want to get more money/chase players out, put MORE than the required bet (more than 2 credits)
Slide the 2 credits and the extra ones in front of your cards and say “Raise”
If a player raises, betting has to continue around the table until everybody has Folded, or Called (stopping when you reach the player who last raised)
Check
If you are the Big Blind, or an early better in the second betting phase, you can “Check”
This means you are not raising the bet, and since there’s nothing due to play, it is free
Let’s go over this with some words, because it is simple, but nuanced. Making a bet puts a requirement on the other players to match that bet in order to continue playing the hand. This is what Calling and Raising do. Players with bad hands should fold because paying money to keep playing with a bad hand is a bad investment. This is also why the Blinds exist. It commits two players to the hand, before they see any cards (thus they are blind). It also forces money to move around the table so players don’t fold forever until they get a good hand.
Checking is a little more subtle. In the first round of betting, there’s money on the table, because of the blinds. The initial players to bet are typically calling the Big Blind’s minimum bet, or raising. If nobody raises, the Big Blind can just check. On the second round of betting, betting starts with the player to the left of the dealer (the original Small Blind), but nothing is due (yet). They can check. And each subsequent player can check. Literally, everybody could decide to not put more money into the pot.
Pot and Chip Placement Protocol
I’m particular about where to place the betting chips, so it is very clear what’s going on during the rounds of betting. Assuming a round table (it doesn’t have to be, but pretend), your chips go right in front of you, at the edge. Cards are dealt (and placed for SELECTION) in front of those chips. When you make a bet, you place them in front of your cards (closer to the center of the table, but still in front of you). This matters for raising and calling because everybody can see what has been bet so far and who has not yet matched a raise. Once everybody has matched the bets (not counting folds), push all those bets to the actual center of the table.
This is the Pot. For the second round of betting, this is how you can differentiate what’s already in the Pot, what you’ve bet versus what’s been raised by another player.
The exact placement can vary, but the separation is important.
Split Pots and All-Ins
An early question people ask is “what if I don’t have enough to call somebody’s bet? They have more money than I do.” That’s what we call “Going All-In,” and it creates a split pot.
First, don’t worry, at least not about the math. It’ll work out. Do worry that you might be out of the game. Push the chips you have to the betting position (in front of your cards). If somebody wants to know how much it is, tell them. There’s two scenarios when you go all-in, but it turns out all roads lead to the same process.
Scenario 1: Your all-in is less than the current bet. Don’t worry, the split-pot system will take care of it. Other players will be calling/raising based on the current bet amount, not you.
Scenario 2: Your all-in is more than the current bet. Congratulations, you are now the current bet amount. Somebody still might raise above that and the Split-Pot process will take care of that.
Because it’s possible for there to be multiple split-pots (usually from multiple all-ins), so you will iterate from the smallest bet to the largest in slicing out side-pots.
Look at the lowest “all-in”, let’s say it’s 20 credits. Everybody else bet 30. You will pull 20 credits from each of the other player’s bets and make a side pot. If the low-player wins the hand, this is what they get. The rest goes to the second best winner (or over-all hand winner along with the side pot).
So if somebody other than the all-in bet player wins, they get both pots. If the all-in player wins, they get their side pot of matched money. And then we re-examine who won, excluding them, and that player gets the rest.
When you have multiple All-Ins, the process repeats, working from the smallest all-in side pot and victory determination, to the next smallest, and so on.
While we are on the subject, here are the reasons people go all-in:
They are losing and this could be their final hand
Hopefully, they chose to do so with a decent hand
Stealing the pot (usually the blinds if they are first better)
It’s a bullying move to intimidate and get some easy money
Don’t call unless you think you can beat them
Chips and What They’re Worth
Every table is different in how they value the chips. I’ll give you two styles, but always ask when you join a game. Maybe take notes.
Simple Chips: every chip or doodad is worth 1 credit. This is what the Halcyon Hotel used. Otherwise, here’s what Hyperspace Props recommended with some additions.
Chip/Object | Credit Value / Each |
Bronze/Copper | 5 |
Silver | 50 |
Gold | 100 |
Beskar Ingot/Unique Item | 1000 |
Gem/Crystal | 200 |
DooDad | 500 |
Notice that the main money comes in 3 colors: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. So whatever somebody has (and it could vary in actual Star Wars Currency type), go by the color. If somebody has unusual items like a gem, or Ingot, or maybe even Plans to a Death Star, you can use that as well. It can be fun if everybody has a different starting currency to reflect the diversity of the Star Wars universe.
Stakes and Re-Buy-Ins
For starting money, here’s what Hyperspace Props recommends:
10 Bronze, 4 Silver, 2 Gold
You might double or quadruple that for a bigger stake game, which also allows for some of the unusual items as currency.
Buy-in is the initial starting money and everybody should get the same amount. Even in Casino Mode (see below), you should not
OPTIONAL: At the start of a hand, if you ran out of money (in the previous) and have a Special Item (ex: Beskar Ingot, keys to starship, etc), you can put that in front of you as an act of final desperation, and bet it. This lets us play out the cool scenes where Lando loses the Millenium Falcon.
OPTIONAL: Casino Mode: If all the players made/brought their own credits, play for keepsThere're no Blinds, and what you win, you keep. You can come and go to the table as you wish (akin to folding/not playing). The stakes are inherently the chips you brought.
Dealing With The Whole Game
Now that we know how betting works, and how a hand works (with 2 rounds of selecting, discarding, and betting), let’s put the whole thing together.
1. Determine who will start the game. They are the Dealer, and place the dealer token in front of them
a. Draw cards, high card wins, ties, redraw to settle
2. Do the main sequence of play (blinds, shuffle, roll, deal, select, shift, bet, improve, shift, bet, reveal)
3. Every time the dealer token returns to the original dealer, the blinds double.
4. The last player to get all the credits wins
If it’s that simple, why’d I write so many words? I kid. But once you understand general betting in poker games, and the basic rules of Sabacc, it really is simple.
Changes and Why We Made Them
The core thing I changed is adding blinds and explaining how actual gambling betting works. It more than doubled the text it took to explain the game, but betting was already in there, just not fully explained. The blinds ensure that on every hand, somebody is losing money. Otherwise it could be fold city forever and the game takes longer. This is basic game design stuff.
I also moved (or clarified) when the betting takes place to be AFTER the discard (called a Shift). Without it, a player is juggling cards they want to keep and discard in their hand, while trying to do math in their head, and there’s no clear signal that all the players are actually done and ready to bet. In this way, players are done and ready to bet because all the cards are on the table and their hands are empty. This matters because a player can feel interrupted when you’re asking them to bet and they’re still trying to figure out their hand. This also means that there’s more to signal to betters on the quality of your hand. They saw you discard 4 cards. They know at best you have 1 of the suit, a weaker hand.
Betting Advice
Now I put a little of advice in the Side Pot section about going all-in, but let’s cover the basics. First, remember that imaginary world where everybody tells the truth. That’s our baseline. You need to know what a rational bet is.
In theory, the better your hand, the more you should be willing to pay to see the end of the hand. The worse your hand, the least you would want to pay to see the end (because it will probably lose). By paying, you are hoping to drive out weaker hands who might stick around and get lucky. You are also hoping to seize the current Pot by demonstrating that you think you have a great hand, and others should not take the chance.
That’s all based on knowing the value of a hand. If your cards do not even add up to the target value on the die, you have a bad hand. The odds that another player has a hand that can hit the target are better than you getting lucky on the Shift. This chance of losing goes up, the more players are in the hand, because rational players fold bad hands. So, when only 3/10 players stay in the hand, and you have nothing, you are probably beat. Fold.
If your hand adds up to the target, but there’s no matching symbols, you have the bare minimum of a playable hand. If it only took 1-3 cards to get there, you could discard and maybe get lucky with a Sylops or two cards that negate each other and include the suit. This could be worth a weak bet. Call if you are the Big Blind and nobody has raised.
If your hand adds up to the target, and there're matching symbols with the Suit Die, and the more matches, the better. This means you should be willing to raise and call raises. We’ve seen that getting 3 matches is pretty rare, so if you have that, odds are good nobody else does.
Now let’s talk about lying. Bluffing. If you have a strong hand, you want to entice people to put more money in the pot, because you are going to win it. Playing weaker, uncertain with modest raises and calls, will get somebody to swagger and try to bluff and intimidate you. But if you really do have the strongest hand, you know what they don’t. Equally, if you call their raises with confidence, they’ll suspect you have them beat, because they know their hand is modest. That’s why you have to tame your bets and play weak.
If your hand is weak (maybe just hits the number), you want to steal the pot by driving everybody else out. You’re after avoiding confrontation, because you know your hand won’t hold up at the end. So you raise a bit more early on. See who stays. If everybody folds, you make a profit. If somebody keeps up with you, worry that they have you beat. You’ll have to decide whether to keep up the façade of strength and raise on the next round, or check and see what they do.
This is the psychological aspect of betting. Now that you know the basics of rational betting, you should see how you can behave like you do or do not have the best hand. However, be mindful that the more you play with weaker hands, the more risk you take, and eventually, somebody is going to get lucky and catch you. It is often the best strategy in poker to only play better hands, to bet “truthfully” which sets a pattern other players expect, and also reduces your risk per hand. Additionally, if you can’t trust that your opponent to play rationally, you can still control that since they will play anything, eventually you will get a good hand and take them out.
References
I found and purchased my deck, dice and 3D printing files from Hyperspace Props. Nice folk. They didn’t pay me to say that. There are plenty of places to get your stuff. The Outer Rim Sabacc League is a good place to find other players.
Hyperspace Props Coruscant Shift Rules Article
Hyperspace Props Coruscant Shift Rules PDF
Poker Betting Rules
Outer Rim Sabacc League Chip Values
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