Trump Card
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- For a description of the term trump card, see Suit (cards).
Trump Card was an American syndicated game show that aired in the 1990-91 television season (and was one of five syndicated shows that year to bomb after one season, joining The Quiz Kids Challenge the Pat Finn version of The Joker's Wild, the Patrick Wayne version of Tic Tac Dough, and The Challengers on the list).
The show was filmed at the Trump Castle casino hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and based on the British game show Bob's Full House, which consisted of contestants trying to answer questions to fill up a 15 square bingo board in front of them.
The Trump part of the show's name was for Donald Trump, who owned the casino the show taped at.
Former Miami Dolphins wide receiver (and now the team's current play-by-play announcer) Jimmy Cefalo hosted.
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[edit] Front game
Three contestants played. Each had a 15-square bingo style card in front of them. The format of the game was similar to that of The Big Showdown.
[edit] Round one
In the first round, the object was to fill in the four corners of the board. The round was played with four categories, each containing four questions. If a player buzzed in with the correct answer, one of the corners was filled. However, a wrong answer locked them out of the next question.
The first person to fill the 4 corners would win $750.
[edit] Round two
The second round was played similar to the first round, with two exceptions. First, to win the round, a player had to fill in the center line of the board (which required 5 answers to do). Second, before the round, each player was given a Trump Card. The card could be used at any point during the rest of the game by a player against another. When a Trump Card was in play, the player who was Trumped had their board blocked by a big T and was given a half-second buzzer delay. To get out of this, all a player had to do was buzz in and answer correctly.
$1500 was awarded to the first person to complete the center row.
[edit] Round three
The third and final round was all general knowledge questions, similar to Sale of the Century. The object was to fill the remainder of the bingo board. First person to do this won the game, an additional $3000 on top of whatever else they'd won up to that point, and a chance at $10,000 in the bonus round.
[edit] Bonus round
The Trump Card bonus round was played very similar to the one that was employed by Jeopardy! during its 1978-79 revival. The winning contestant faced a 25 square board and had to make a line of five squares either across, up and down, or diagonally with his/her answers. Before the round, the contestant was given a free space, chosen by drawing a card. If the player had not used his/her Trump Card during the game, they drew a second card for a second free space.
Once the free space(s) were put on the board, the contestant would then have :45 to make the line. The contestant would call off the numbers, and host Cefalo would read questions. Getting an answer right claimed the box. However, if a contestant passed or answered incorrectly, the number would be blacked out and the contestant would work their way around it. Completing the line before time ran out netted the contestant $10,000.
[edit] $100,000 Tournament of Champions
Towards the end of Trump Card's run, the $10,000 bonus round winners were invited back to play for $100,000. The rules, however, were slightly different.
- Each game was played for $3000. There were no bonuses awarded for the first two rounds. The endgame was still played for a $10,000 bonus.
- In the final, the two losing contestants were given $2500. The winner of the tournament netted $10,000. To win the $100,000, s/he would have to face the bonus round one final time. If s/he was to win the bonus round, the $100,000 was theirs. If not, the contestant left with all winnings earned up to that point. As it turned out, the $100,000 grand prize was never won.
[edit] Notes
- The absolute minimum a champion on Trump Card could take home for winning was $3000 (winning the final round and only the final round). The maximum amount was $15,250 (a clean sweep of the three rounds and a win in the bonus round).
