Hornswoggle

The fifth Death Match is…

Hornswoggle.

In Hornswoggle, players will be taking the role of gambling pirates, trying to flip over as many doubloons as possible while avoiding skull and crossbones.

In this game of bluffing, each player will be given their own hand of six cards. Each player’s hands consist of four instances of doubloons, and two instances of skull and crossbones. Although the two Death Match players will be on a team with their respective chosen partners, each player will have their own unique hand of six cards.

At the start of each round, every player will place down one of their cards face-down onto their own pile. Then, starting with the first player (as determined by the Death Match opponent), a player will each make one of two choices. They can choose to either add another card to their pile, or challenge.

If a player chooses to add another card to their pile, they must place down a singular card on top of their card ‘pile’. Play will then move clockwise to the next player in order, who will get the same choice.

If at any point, a player chooses to instead challenge, the “placement” phase will immediately stop. No more cards can be placed. The player will then announce how many cards they think they can turn over without revealing a skull and crossbones. They may say any number, from 1 to as many cards as are currently placed down.

Play will now continue clockwise, where each player will either raise the stakes from the previous bid (claiming that they can flip over more cards), or pass.

When all but one player has passed, that player will become the “challenger” - and must flip over the number of cards they claimed. They first must flip from their pile, one at a time (from the top to the bottom, meaning their most recent card played will be flipped first). If they completely exhaust their own pile and still need to flip more cards, they can then flip from any of the other player’s piles. These, too, must be flipped from top to bottom

There are two outcomes to a challenge. If the challenger successfully flips over all doubloons, they force both their opponents to discard one of their cards permanently. On the other hand, if they draw even a single skull and crossbones, they must discard one of their own cards permanently. The player clockwise to the challenger will then begin the next round.

With a Hacked Garnet, a player may use the power of Bluff Insurance. After becoming the challenger, a player may use this power to guarantee that they won’t lose a card in the event they flip over a skull and crossbones. If the player manages to complete the challenge, they will still cause their opponents to lose their cards.

In the event a player has no more cards to place down, they must challenge. Similarly, if a player challenges that they can flip every card on the table, they will immediately become the challenger. When a player completely runs out of cards, they will be out of the game. As soon as a player and their partner are both out of the game, they will be declared the loser. The surviving player (regardless of if they still had cards or not) will be deemed the winner of the Death Match and move onto the next round. The loser will be the fifth eliminated contestant of The Genius: Code Breakers. Additionally, the winning player’s partner will take two garnets from the losing player’s partner.

In Episode 5, the two Death Match contestants chose another competing contestant to be their partner. In Episode 10, both candidates will choose any one of the five Code of Conduct guests to be their partner for the Death Match.