The board game Cockroach Poker is a fun reverse set collection game that has nothing to do with poker, except that the gameplay is based on bluffing... It is played with cards depicting cockroaches, rats, and stink bugs, and the goal is to force another player to collect 4 creature cards of any single kind in front of them.
The deck includes 64 cards, eight copies of each of the eight creature types. The game setup is simple: you need to shuffle the deck and deal the cards to the players.
On their turn, a player takes one card from their hand, places it face down on the table, pushes it to a player of their choice, and states the type of creature, for example, 'stink bug.' The player receiving the card must choose:

• To keep the card and say 'true' or 'false,' then reveal it. If the player is wrong in their claim, they place the card face up on the table in front of themselves; if they are right, the player who gave them the card places it face up in front of themselves.
• To look at the card, and then pass it face down to another player, either stating the original creature type or stating a new type. This new player again has the choice to accept the card or pass it in the same manner, unless all other players have already seen the card, in which case the player must choose the first option.

The player who lost the challenge and had to place the card in front of themselves starts the next round.
The game ends when a player has no cards to pass on their turn, or when a player has four cards of the same creature on the table in front of them. In both cases, that player loses, and everyone else wins.
In the board game Cockroach Poker, players struggle to avoid defeat. All players have only one goal, which is not to be the loser, because there is only one loser!

Awards and Honors:

• 2007 Hra roku Nominee
• 2006 As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année Nominee
• 2005 Japan Boardgame Prize Best Foreign Game for Beginners
• 2004 Spiel des Jahres Recommended
• 2004 Kinderspielexperten "8-to-13-year-olds" Nominee
• 2004 Fairplay À la carte Runner-up

The board game Cockroach Poker Royal is a slightly more complicated version of the board game Cockroach Poker in which, instead of the family of spiders you get in the base game, you now get the Kings and Queens of the other creatures. In this version, we now also have a component called the Penalty Deck. Instead of being able to pass a card and just name the creature, you can now pass a card and say it's a 'Prince,' which means that if that card ends up face-up in front of you, you are forced to also take the top card from the Penalty Deck, meaning that instead of getting one card, you now get two cards to place in front of you. And that's how fun turns into a headache...