Traditional 76 Sabacc

For Corellian Spike Sabacc see this page.

Traditional Sabacc / 76 Sabacc is a variation of Sabacc, a high stakes gambling card game played through-out the galixy by criminals and bounty hunters in the STAR WARS franchise. The rules tend to varys from planet to planet.

Sabacc is often compared by fans to Poker or Blackjack while still having it’s own twist.

## History

The idea of sabacc came from a cut line from the second draft of the screenplay for *STAT WARS: Episode V — Empire Strikes Back* (1980). As Han Solo and Princess Leia approach Cloud City, Han reveals to Leia that Lando Calrissian won Cloud City in a game of "sabacca," but the game would never be called “sabacca.” Not even in the Legends books. The first actual use of the word Sabacc is the first word in the first book of the *Lando Calrissian trilogy.* Written by L. Neil Smith in 1983 titled *Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu*. The trilogy follows the exploits Lando Calrissian as he schmoozes, cons, and gambles his way across the galaxy in the years leading up to *Empire Strikes Back*. Throughout the book, Lando is constantly either playing or referencing Sabacc. He thinks life is just one big game of Sabacc. At one point he even uses the negative face cards in the deck as tarot cards and ‘predicts' the future. It’s speculated that L. Neil Smith took inspiration from real life tarot cards to create some of the face cards in the Sabacc deck.

In 1989 a full-fledged Sabacc game became available for fans to purchase and play. When an 84-card deck and a set of rules were released as part of a Star Wars roleplaying game titled: *Crisis on Cloud City*.

In 1998, the final book in the *Han Solo Trilogy* was released, which follows the adventures of a young Han Solo prior to the events of *A New Hope*. The third book, called *Rebel Dawn*, written by Ann C. Crispin, has Han plays Lando Corellian in a game of sabacc for the star ship, *The Millennium Falcon*. In fact the 2018 StarWars movie *Solo: a STAR WARS Story* was heavy inspired by *Rebel Dawn*.

In 2014 Sabacc got it’s first canon mention, but only a mention, with the book: *A New Dawn*, written by John Jackson Miller.

In 2015 Sabacc got it’s first on screen appearance in the 11th episode of the animated TV series *Star Wars Rebels* titled ”Idiot’s Array.”

***Note: All Star Wars Legends’ references to Sabacc refers to Traditional Sabacc where as all canon mentions of sabacc refer to Corellian Spike sabacc.***

In 2018 Sabacc got its first appearance in a movie. *Solo: a STAR WARS Story*, which was heavy inspired by the 1998 novel *Rebel Dawn* written by Ann C. Crispin. The Sabacc shown in this movie, is played with hexagonal cards, rather than traditional rectangular cards, and was played unlike any variant before it. This variant is often called Corellian Spike Sabacc by fans, with Sabacc prior to 2018 being called Traditional Sabacc or 76 Sabacc.

Along with the Solo movie came a childrens game made by Hasbro inspired by the *variant* of the sabacc from the Movie, branded as “The Han Solo card game” due to a unresolved legal battle between LucasFilms and *Ren Ventures* who in 2016 had trademarked the name Sabacc for the game developer subsidiary, Sabacc Creative Industries. The game included a deck of 62 cards, two dice and a number of cardboard tokens shaped like credits worth varying amounts, with the winner of the game being the player with the the most value.

Sabacc got a comic appearance threw a five issue miniseries by MARVAL comics from 2018-2019 titled, *Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet. W*ritten by Robbie Thompson and art by Leonard Kirk. The story focuses on Han Solo just after joining the Imperial Military filling in a gap with in the Solo movie.

In 2018 Lucasfilm was allowed to trademark Sabacc, and in 2019 Disney started selling Sabacc decks at the Galaxy’s Edge theme park in Disneyland and Disney World. The Galaxy’s Edge Sabacc features a simple 62-card deck and a pair of dice.

Present day fans have been making and selling there own Sabacc decks. Such as HyperSpaceProps with there 76 Sabacc decks, And Lucky Sylop with there Corellian Spike Decks.

Some more recent appearances of Sabacc would be in The Mandalorian (2019), The Bad Batch (2021), Star Wars: Visions (2021), and The Book of Boba Fett (2021.)

## Fictional History

Sabacc is played often by criminals and bounty hunters throughout the galaxy. Often with high stakes. The rules for Sabacc tended to differ from planet to planet. So much so it's said there are as many as 80 different variations.

Sabacc isn't played openly on the gambling city Canto Bight found on the planet, Cantonica, where the game is considered “uncivilised.”

Some of the most rememberal games of sabacc would be when Garazeb Orrelios lost an astromech droid by the name of Chopper in a game of Traditional Sabacc to the smuggler Lando Calrissian in 4BBY. Another would be the time Han Solo won the star ship, *The Millennium Falcon*. from Lando Calrissian in a game of Corellian Spike Sabacc in 10BBY.

## Card List

Traditional Sabacc gets its nickname “76 Sabacc” from the 76 card deck used to play it. There are four suits, Flask, Saber, Stave, and, Coin. Each Suit has ten numerical cards worth 1-10 and five face cards worth 11-15. There are also 16 face cards (two of each) not associated with a suit. Most of these cards have negative values, with the exemption of the “Idiot” which is worth 0.

## Rules / How to Play

### Supplies

* 1x 76 card Traditional Sabacc deck.
* 2x Six sided dice.

### Objective

Be the player with the most credits at the end of a series of hands. By aiming to have your hand as close to 23 or -23 as possible.

### Gamelay

**Before reading the rules** note that there are two pots in Traditional Sabacc. One called the *hand pot* this is the pot that is won by the top player of each hand, and the other is called the *Sabacc Pot*. This pot is won by a player who can score a perfect 23 or -23 also known as a *True Sabacc*.

###### Step 1:

Chose a dealer. The person to the right of the dealer pays a blind into the hand pot. (In a two player game this would always be the dealer.) The blind is a previously agreed upon amount which must be paid at the start of each hand. The dealer rotates to the player on the left at the end if each round. The purpose of the blind is to ensure that there is always something to win in the hand pot, even if nobody bets.

###### Step 2:

The dealer deals two cards to each plater.

###### Step 3:

After the cards are dealt, you begin the betting round of the hand. Each player, starting with the player to the left of the dealer and continuing clockwise takes turns to Bet, Call, Check, Rais, or Fold their hand much like in Poker:

* **Bet**, If no one has yet placed a starting bet you may call *bet* and place an amount of Credits in front of you (septet from both your stash of credits and the pots for easy counting.)
* **Call**, You may *call* to equal the highest bet.
* **Check**, If no one has yet placed the starting bet or if you’re curent bet is equal to the highest bet you may call *check*. (When checking, a player declines to make a bet, but wishes to keep their cards and continue playing.
* **Rais**, if a player raises they’re matching and increasing the current bet. (If a player raises the other players will continue around the table and choose to either call, check the new bet or fold.)
* **Fold**, If a player folds they believe there is no chance of wining and forfeit the hand. (they must discard their cards facedown and anything they had bet goes into the hand pot.)

The betting round continues until all the remaining players have checked or when all the bets are the same.

(If a player can’t fold or check they are forced to fold or “go all in.” [see the all in rules below.])

###### Step 4:

The next step is the trading ground. Each player takes turns choosing one or more of the following:

* Drawing a card from the top of deck.
* Trade out one card (discard a card then draw the top card.)
* Do nothing (stand.)
* Alderaan (calling the game.)

(By calling Alderaan you think you have the hand closet to -23 or 23 all players who haven’t finished the trading round may do so then cards are reviled and you move to the Show Down phase.)

###### Step 5:

The final step is the dice round. The dealer roles two dice, if those dice land on different symbols/numbers then nothing happens. If both dice land on the same symbol/number “the shift“ commences. All players’ cards are re-shuffle into the deck along with the discard pile. Each player is then dealt the same amount of cards they had before “The Shift”.

(These steps are repeated in order over & over until someone calls *Alderaan* during the trading round [step number 4.])

###### The Show Down

All players revel there hands. The winner is the person with the closest hand to 23 or -23. Negatives beat positive (-22 would beat 22 etc.) The winner of the hand claims the hand pot. If the winner had a Truce Sabacc (a perfect 23 or -23) then they would also claim the Sabacc pot.

If a players final hand is 0, more than 23, or less then -23 they “bomb out“ they must calculate what 10% of the had pot would be then they pay that amount from there own stash into the Sabacc pot.)

###### Fan Rules

- some fans choose to play without the 10% penalty when bombing out.

## Appearances

* (2016) [LEGENDS] [Video Game] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Eternal Throne (Mentioned Only)
* (2015) [Canon] [TV Series] Star Wars Rebels S2 Ep6 “Brothers of the Broken Horn” (Mentioned only)
* (2015) [LEGENDS] [Video Game] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire (Mentioned Only)
* (2015) [LEGENDS] [Short Story] One Night in the Dealer's Den
* (2015) [Canon] [TV Series] Star Wars Rebels S1 Ep12 “Idiots Array”
* (2014) [LEGENDS] [Video Game] Star Wars: The Old Republic (Mentioned Only)
* (2014) [LEGENDS] [Video Game] Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan (Mentioned Only)
* (2014) [LEGENDS] [Game] Star Wars: Age of Rebellion: Dead in the Water
* (2012) [LEGENDS] [Audio Book] Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
* (2012) [LEGENDS] [Book] Darth Plagueis (Mentioned Only)
* (2012) [LEGENDS] [Audio Book] Darth Plagueis (Mentioned Only)
* (2006) [LEGENDS] [Book] Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
* (2006) [Un-Canon] [Comic] Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace
* (2005) [LEGENDS] [Magazine] Star Wars Insider #83 - “MadStar: Intermezzo” (Mentioned only)
* (2002) [LEGENDS] [Book] Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice (Mentioned Only)
* (2002) [LEGENDS] [Book] Jedi Quest: The Trail of the Jedi (Mentioned Only)
* (2001) [LEGENDS] [Book] Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter (Mentioned Only)
* (2001) [LEGENDS] [Book] Darth Maul: Saboteur
* (1999) [LEGENDS] [Comic] Star Wars (1998) #12 (Mentioned Only)
* (1999) [LEGENDS] [Book] Jedi Apprentice: The Rising Force
* (1989) [LEGENDS] [Game] Crisis on Cloud City

## References and Notes

1. ↑ https://hyperspaceprops.com/the-history-of-sabacc/
2. ↑ https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Crisis\_on\_Cloud\_City
3. ↑ https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Rebel\_Dawn
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Sabacc#cite\_note-TOG-13
5. ↑ https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Solo:\_A\_Star\_Wars\_Story\_The\_Official\_Guide
6. ↑ https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Idiot's\_Array\_(episode)
7. ↑ https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Solo:\_A\_Star\_Wars\_Story
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betting\_in\_poker#Check
9. ↑ https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Poker
Special thanks to Mike from HyperSpaceProps.com for providing the card images and allowing the use of their Traditional Sabacc rules.