Thames & Kosmos - "The Gang"
- Matthew Lui
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos
Company: Thames & Kosmos
Game: The Gang
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Board Game, Poker
Date Played: March 27, 2025
Difficulty (based on 6 players): 6/10
Size of Team: 3-6 Players (Ages 10+)
Time: Approximately 20 Mins.
Price: $19.99
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You and your gang of elite thieves are gearing up to crack open some vaults and make a clean getaway. To get the job done, flawless teamwork and perfect coordination is needed. If you can open three vaults, the team gets away scot free, but if you trip three alarms, then the jig is up.
Video above is property of Thames & Kosmos
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Inside the sleek, shiny box is a deck of poker cards with some beautiful face cards that blends the look of western flair and classic casino styles. Also handy are player guide cards, describing the turn order and poker hand rankings as well as some Specialist and Challenge cards used during game play.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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The best way to describe this game is cooperative poker. If you know how to play Texas Hold’em, then you know 90% of the rules already. What makes this game cooperative is that during each betting phases, you and your group try to rank your current hands without talking about your cards, using poker chips marked with stars ranging from 1 (the weakest hand) up to the number of players (the strongest). Each player chooses the chip they feel best represents their hand. One of the few ways to communicate is you can take another person’s poker chip but you cannot give another person a poker chip. The only ranking that matters though is the final one. Once the final community card is revealed and everyone has made their final chip selection, the hands are revealed. If the group’s rankings are correct, bravo, you have opened the vault. If not, then an alarm has been tripped.
One of the aspects of the game that adds more depth is after each hand a new stipulation is brought in. If you have succeeded in opening a vault, a challenge card is drawn. The challenge card will give you a handicap next hand which can range from skipping one round of ranking to having someone change their hand in the middle of the round. The opposite happens if you tripped an alarm. You will draw a specialist card which will give you an advantage in the next round. Those range from having one player share their pocket cards with another player to one player sharing their hand ranking with the group. Once you have gotten familiar with the game, there is also the professional and master thief mode that raises the stakes and makes sure that there will always be at least one challenge card in play.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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If you’ve played poker and understand hand probabilities and strategy, then you know the basic strategy. We played a few times with different numbers and as the rules say, the game gets harder with more people, especially when players have tied hand rankings. For newer players, keep in mind that “high card” is a common hand. Also, pay attention to the community cards and think theoretically, what 2 card combinations could create strong hands while watching how others grab their chips. Though there is minimal communication, try to communicate the strength of your hand by grabbing chips early and with intent. If you are not sure, hold off until people who are confident they have a strong hand to grab chips first.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
"The Gang" checks all the boxes for me. It’s heist themed, cooperative, easy to learn and quick to play. While most of the cards are standard playing cards, the stylish redesign merges the traditional playing card with a slick robbery theme. For beginners, it’s best to start with a smaller group but if you are looking for a challenge, add more people to up the difficulty. Fans of poker, cooperative games or quick, engaging games would find a lot to love here. This is a perfect pick for any board game night whether you have “3 of a kind” or a “full house”.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game:
Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Thames & Kosmos for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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