Card Sharks (1978–1981)

This is chronicling the 1978–1981 version of *Card Sharks*.

## Game Format

### Main game

Two contestants competed against each other on all versions of *Card Sharks*. Each contestant was assigned a row of five oversized playing cards. Each contestant had a standard 52-card deck; the ace ranked highest and the deuce (two) ranked lowest. The champion played the red cards on top, while the challenger played the blue cards on the bottom. In case of two new players, a coin toss was used to determine who played red and who played blue.

#### Toss-up questions

Control of the board was determined by asking a survey question similar to the surveys done on *Family Feud*. Questions were posed to 100 people of the same occupation, marital status, or demographic (“We asked 100 teachers, ‘Has a student ever given you an apple?’ How many said yes?”). The contestant who received the question (with the red-card player, usually the champion, going first) then gave a guess as to how many people gave the answer that the host gave (and usually his/her reasoning, although this is not required). After hearing the guess, the opponent had to choose whether the correct number was higher or lower than that guess. Choosing correctly gave control of the board to the opponent; otherwise, the initial contestant gained control. The initial contestant would also gain control of the board if he/she correctly guessed the survey answer.

Starting in Fall 1980, an exact guess won a $500 bonus for the contestant; the contestant keeps it regardless of the game's outcome. Up to four toss-up questions were played per game.

#### Playing the cards

Beneath each contestant's row of cards was a moving bracket bearing the contestant's name which would mark one of the cards as the "base card". Each contestant's base card was the first card in the row of five. The winner of the question could choose to either play and keeping his/her base card, or have it replaced with another card from the top of the deck. The contestant then guessed whether the next (face-down) card in the row was "higher" or "lower"; if correct, he or she could continue to guess the next card after that and so on (if both cards were the same, the guess counted as incorrect).

On an incorrect guess, the contestant loses his/her progress and returns to the base card with the other revealed cards being discarded and replaced by new face-down cards before the next question in the round. In this event, the opponent received a free chance to play his/her own row of cards but could not change the base card. Contestants could also choose to "freeze", thus making the last revealed card the new base card and preventing the opponent from receiving a free chance.

If neither contestant guessed all the cards on his or her row correctly, another toss-up question was asked and the same procedures were followed until someone revealed all the cards in the row or the fourth question in the round was asked. In the final months of the NBC run, a $500 bonus was awarded for guessing correctly on all four cards in a single turn without freezing.

#### Sudden death

The fourth question (third in the tiebreaker round) in each round was a "sudden death" question in which someone would win the game on the next turn of the cards. Whoever won control of the board had the opportunity to play the cards (and could change the base card if desired) or pass them to the opponent (who could not change the base card and had to successfully clear the remainder of the row). An incorrect guess at any point caused the opponent to win by default.

$100 was awarded for each game won, with two games winning the match and the right to play the Money Cards bonus game.

### Money Cards

The winner of the main game played the Money Cards bonus game for a chance to win additional money. The Money Cards board consisted of seven cards on three rows; three cards were dealt on the bottom two rows, and one card was dealt on the top row. The winner's first base card to begin the bonus game was dealt from the deck after the seven cards were placed.

In addition to guessing whether a card was higher or lower, the contestant had to wager money on that prediction. The contestant was given $200 to bet with and had to wager at least $50 (and in multiples of $50) on each card on the first two rows. The contestant won money for each correct guess and lost money on each incorrect guess.

After completing the first row, or if the contestant "busted" (lost everything on that wager), the last card was moved onto the second row and the contestant was given an additional $200. The contestant had to play three more cards before reaching the last card on the top row, known as the "Big Bet". If a contestant busted prior to reaching the Big Bet, the game ended. Upon reaching the Big Bet, the contestant was required to wager at least half of their earnings; there was an occasional "25" or "75" at the end if a contestant had, at minimum, $50 or $150.

The most a contestant could win on the NBC version was $28,800, which was done once in the entire show's run by contestant Norma Brown (it was also done on the 1978 version's second pilot).

#### Rule changes

Originally, only the first card on the bottom row could be changed. In mid-1978 the rule was changed so that the first card on every row could be changed.

Duplicate cards (for example, two 8s in a row) originally counted as an incorrect wager. About two months after an incident in which all four 3s in the deck came up in a row, as well as a separate incident involving all four Jacks in the deck,  this was changed on October 20, 1980 so that the contestant neither won nor lost money if a duplicate was revealed (referred to as a "push" by Eubanks and Rafferty, and a "double" by Perry). From then on, Jim encouraged the contestant to wager everything on an Ace or deuce since there was no way the contestant could lose with either card.

## References

1. ↑ Money Cards clip showing four "3" cards being revealed in a row (Episode #580)
2. ↑ Card Sharks: The Four Jacks #1
3. ↑ Card Sharks: The Four Jacks #2
4. ↑ Card Sharks: The Four Jacks #3