Cambio strategy: 12 tips

Cambio rewards a good memory, but it's won on decisions: what to keep, what to throw, and when to call. Twelve habits of players who win.

Put them into practice

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Your hand

1. Fix your two known cards first. If either is 7 or higher, that's your first swap.
2. Treat unknown cards as about 6. The average card is worth roughly 6, so swapping a drawn 2 into an unknown slot is usually a good bet; a drawn 8 usually isn't.
3. Never throw away a Red King or a Joker. −1 and 0 are the best cards in the deck. Swap them in, even blind.
4. Remember where things go. After any swap, say the slot to yourself: “top left is a 3”. Most lost games are forgotten cards.

Powers

5. Use peeks on your unknown cards until you know your whole hand. Then switch to spying.
6. Spy on whoever's winning. Knowing the leader's hand tells you when it's safe to call — and what to snap.
7. Blind swaps are for dumping. Send your worst known card to the player most likely to call.
8. A King is the best power: look first, then decide. Take a rival's Joker if you find one.

Snapping

9. Only snap what you're sure of. A wrong snap gives you a forfeit card, which usually costs more than the snap was worth.
10. Watch the discard pile on every turn — including other people's. A card you've seen in a rival's hand is a free snap, and they have to take one of yours.

Calling Cambio

11. Call at about 5 or under in a 2-player game, lower with more players. The −10 is big, but the +10 for a wrong call is bigger than it looks.
12. Remember your cards aren't safe after you call. Everyone gets one more turn — and they'll swap their worst card into your hand. Call when your total can survive a hit.