Strategy
A few real decisions, made well.
These assume you already know the rules — see How to Play first if you don't.
Bank or push? Read the chip, not the row
Pushing grows your row for free on your own turn, but every turn it stays unbanked is a turn an opponent could torch it. The board gives you a live read on exactly that risk. The same row is a different decision depending on what the chip says:
Most Kings already spent, one seat acts before you.
→ Push. A third King is worth 132; the odds of losing 62 are slim.
Kings still live, three seats act before you.
→ Bank the 62. It's close to a coin flip, and you lose the whole row, not the difference.
Identical cards, identical 62 on the table. The only thing that changed is the chip — that's the number the decision actually turns on.
There's also a safety net worth knowing: a still-lit row banks automatically when the shared deck runs dry. There's no benefit to banking early "to be safe" right near the very end — the risk that matters is an opponent's next turn, not the deck running out.
Torching is denial, not a payout
A torch pays you nothing. The burned row and your triggering card just become a bigger pot in the Bonfire, up for grabs by whoever draws the key next — you included, but not guaranteed. So the only question worth asking is how much it denies:
Worth it
Denies 147
Usually isn't
Denies 12
You gain 0 either way, and either way you give up growing your own row. The number on the left is the whole argument.
Track spent ranks
Every pair and every capture pulls cards out of play for good. A rank that's exhausted is dead — it can never pair you, never torch anyone, and never capture the Bonfire again. At a 4-player table the pool holds 16 copies of each rank (four decks comingled), so ranks die slowly, and knowing which ones have is a real edge:
A live rank. Your pair of 7s can still grow — and it's still a target.
A dead rank. Your pair of Kings can never be extended — and can never be torched. Bank it whenever you like; there's no rush and no risk.
The same count tells you whether a Bonfire whose key is a dying rank is likely to sit there untouched for a long time.
Watch the pot, but don't plan around it
One torch can swing the Bonfire sharply — and move the key while it does it, because the triggering card lands on top:
Before
You've been hoping to draw a 6.
Someone torches a ×2 Queens row with the Q♣
The pot tripled — and the rank you needed changed.
A fat Bonfire is worth watching, but capturing it takes one specific rank and you can't aim your flips. Let the pot pull your attention, not your plan.
Two lines: split the risk, not just the cards
Every placement is safe, so the choice is never about danger — it's about how much one opponent decision can cost you:
Everything on one line
One torch on the 7s takes all 75
Spread across both
A torch on the 7s costs 36 — the 52 survives
Stacking one rank deep is worth more per card, but it hands a single opponent one very valuable decision. Two lit lines also mean two ranks would have to come up against you.
Play your standing
The same move is right or wrong depending on the scoreboard:
Behind by 62. Torching the leader's 147 row closes more ground than any row you could realistically build this turn — and denial is one of the few ways to close a gap at all.
Flip the scores and the answer flips with them: from the front, protecting what you've banked beats spending turns on denial that no longer changes the standings.
Read the table, not just your own row.