Blink Card Game: Rules and Instructions

Objective of Blink

The objective of Blink is to be the first player to play all of the cards from your hand.

Setup

Shuffle the cards and deal them face down into two face down piles. Each pile should have the same number of cards.
Each player takes one of the draw piles without looking at any of the cards.
Both players take the top card from their draw pile and place it face down on the table. The players should place the two cards next to each other.
Each player takes the top three cards from their draw pile and adds them to their hand. Players can look at the cards in their own hand.

Playing Blink

When both players are ready to start the game, each player will flip over the card they put face down in the center of the table. After the players have turned over both cards, the game starts.

Flipping over the initial cards — The players have flipped over the initial cards for the two play piles. The players will now start playing cards to the piles.

You will play Blink in a fast paced manner. There are no turns as players can play cards whenever they want.

To play a card from your hand it needs to match the card on top of one of the two center piles. A card can match in one of three ways:

Color
Shape
Number of Symbols

Playing a color match — One of the players had the three green triangle card in their hand. They could play it on the two green star pile because it matches the color of the stars.

Shape match in Blink — A player can play the three red star card on top of the two green star pile since it has the same shape.

Number Match in Blink — A player had the blue lightning bolt card in their hand. They can play it on the red tear drop card since it has the same number of shapes.

If you have a card that matches in one of these ways, you can play it face up on the corresponding pile as quickly as possible. You may only play one card at a time to the center piles.

After you play a card, you will draw the next card from your draw pile to refill your hand to three cards. You may only have a maximum of three cards in your hand at any time.

No Current Matches

Occasionally there will be situations where neither player have a card in their hand that they can play. In this case you will pause the normal play of the game.

If both players have at least one card left in their draw pile, both players take the top card from their draw pile. Each player places this card on top of one of the two center piles. Once both new cards have been placed, the game continues where it left off.

Can't play a card — The six cards on the left side of the picture are the cards in the players’ hands (these would normally be hidden from the other player). Neither player has a card in their hand that can be played on one of the two center piles. Therefore both players will take the top card from their draw pile and add it to one of the play piles.

If one or both of the players no longer have cards left in their draw pile, each player chooses a card from their hand. Both players will place their chosen card on one of the center piles at the same time. Once both cards have been played, the game will resume where it left off.

Should both players only have one card left in their hand, the game ends in a tie.

Winning Blink

The first player to play all of the cards from their hand and draw pile wins the game.

You could also choose to play more than one game. Whichever players wins the most games is the ultimate winner of the game.

Three Player Blink

For the most part three player blink is played the same as the normal game.

To start the game the cards are evenly distributed into three piles. Each player gets one of the piles of cards. Each player takes the top card from their draw pile. They will all turn their card face up at the same time and place it between them and the player on their right.

When playing cards you still need to find matches like the normal game. The one exception is that you can only play a card to the pile on your left or right. You cannot play a card to the pile between the other two players.

Three player game setup — Pictured is the setup for the three player game. The bottom player whose hand cards are visible can play to the pile on their left (three gray triangles) or the pile on their right (four blue stars). They cannot play to the pile across from them (four green moons). Based on the cards in their hand (would normally be hidden), they can play the two blue triangles to the pile on their left or right, or the four blue lightning bolts card to the pile on their right.

Four or More Players/Tournament Play

If there are four or more players, you will follow tournament rules.

Players will play in two player games. You will play three games against your opponent. The player that wins two games moves on in the tournament. The last player remaining in the tournament wins the game.

Balanced Play

If one player is considerably faster than the other, you can give more cards to the faster player to make the game more balanced.

Blink FAQs

If you have any questions about how to play Blink, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Blink Components

60 cards (10 cards of 6 different colors)
Instructions

Year: 1995 | Publisher: Mattel, Out of the Box Publishing | Designer: Reinhard Staupe | Artist: Oliver Freudenreich, John Kovalic, Ariel Laden, Jürgen Martens

Genres: Card, Family, Speed

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2+ | Length of Game: 10 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

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