Card Sharks

Card Sharks was an American television game show in which contestants guessed whether a playing card was higher or lower than the card that preceded it.

2001 version

Card Sharks was revived for a brief run in the fall of 2001, but was not well received by critics due to its gameplay, which was completely overhauled from the 1978 and 1986 versions.

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Four players competed, two at a time. The opponents play in a best-of-three match, each playing a common row of seven high-low cards. A correct guess kept that player in control, but an incorrect guess gave the opponent the right to make the next call.

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At any time, a player could ask to change the card (by use of one of two special "clip chip" tokens in their possession). The player was shown a video depicting one of the following:

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• A situation (not unlike Candid Camera or Street Smarts), which was stopped before its resolution. The player had to correctly guess the outcome in order to change the card.
• Someone introduces himself/herself and then asks which of two others he/she is associated with.
• Someone trying to list answers related to a topic within 10 seconds, or sing the correct lyrics to an obscure song.

The third match, if necessary, was a three-card showdown; "clip chips" could not be used.

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The first player to win two games won $1,000 and moved on to a final one-game showdown with the winner of the second game. The winner of that match earned an additional $1,100 (for a total of $2,100), which would be used as betting money for the Money Cards.

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The Money Cards was essentially similar as the earlier runs, except just six cards ? three on the first row, two on the middle row and the one card Big Bet row ? were used and the player was spotted $700 for each row (including the Big Bet row). The maximum amount possible of $51,800 was never achieved.

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This new version of Card Sharks was most notable for a special week of shows (which were taped after the September 11, 2001 attacks) where firefighters and police officers played for charities aimed at helping victims and their families recover from the attacks.

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