My Top 10 Favorite Push-Your-Luck Games 

I like the summary page at the end of the video! Thanks for continuing to provide great content for your viewers.

Game names on screen! :clap:

Port Royal is one of my favorite “push ur luck” games. I like how one can build up mitigating cards so that one can push even further.

Ravensburger has a simple card game called ‘Push’. The game scales extremely well with 2-6 , is easy to learn and has become a staple filler weight game for my friends and family. Definitely worth a look.

Love the new format! I appreciate how you define the difference between what you thought of and how you now think of Push-Your-Luck. Monopoly has a luck aspect-you could land on an opponents monopoly or miss it by one space-but the ability to mitigate and have some choice as to how that “luck” shakes out makes for some great moments. Quacks does great things with the mechanic: you can decide if you don’t want to continue drawing; you can build a huge bag, but it’s always going to nag you that you’ve still got that white 3-chip still in there; and even if you do bust, you didn’t just waste an entire round. It’s a great feeling when you can pull out the chip that puts you in the lead, but the sting isn’t as bad when you explode because you can still buy more ingredients to try again next round. It really makes for some great moments. Thanks for the video, Jamey!

King of Tokyo is a good one. It has the push your luck of all Yahtzee games deciding how to use your 3 rolls, but the main element is deciding how long you can survive "in Tokyo".

I like Megaland a lot and we play it quite often in my group.

I would definitely put Clank in the list! Especially when one person (inevitably) goes for the rush strategy and everyone else is trying to get out in time without their cubes being pulled but with just a little more than everyone else. Then again, we all tend to think about games and sort of mentally categorize them a little differently.

Nice to the see the summary at the end. Thank you!!

@ Jamey re Trash Pandas- I don't think you mentioned that if you bust you do get a Consolation Prize of drawing one card from the trash can into your hand. Trash Pandas is a game we make sure to include when we host family game nights at my school. Good game for adults and children to play together. re Incan Gold- Another very good game we introduce to casual gamers. A few of us like Megaland because it has the running the level element that is similar to the main element in Incan Gold.

I'd suggest Mystic Vale. On your turn, you draw cards until you decide to stop, or you can see 4 or more red corruption symbols, in which case you bust and lose your turn (but gain a +1 money which you can spend whenever you like).

I have played the heck out the Dead Mans draw app as well. Great list!

I love Quacks but there is a game that does push your luck better than any game I have ever played and that is Mystic Vale, which is one of my top 10 all-time games. Good list but if you haven't tried Mystic Vale, you should try it soon. There is a wonderful steam version.

If one day you update your list, I think Wonderland’s War should make it to the top.

anybody else ever get the feel that maybe these lists that jamey makes are possible hints at mechanics that he could include in future games?

Ra, Medici, Circus Flohcati, Pickomino. As with many mechanisms, I think Dr. Knizia does this best.

I love Dead Man's Draw too (also called Captain Carcass). You gotta play the tabletop version! Have you tried can't stop express? Also have you tried Push?

Great list as always! My personal Top 10 Push Your Luck Games: 10. Can’t Stop 9. Incan Gold 8. Ninjato 7. Abracada...What? 6. Costa Rica 5. Port Royal 4. Deep Blue 3. Abyss 2. Quacks of Quedlinburg 1. MegaLand Honorable mentions to: Welcome to the Dungeon and Bomb Squad Academy

I like that you said clank basically made this list without including it. Clanks push your luck mechanic is the core of the game imo because everything revolves around clank, removing clank, and moving quickly enough to not die to accumulated clank. I am now going to have a harder problem not buying Ra or quacks. 😭

Thanks for this video. I haven't tried many of these and will have to order a few (lucky many are small, cause I'm running out of space!). I'm also a huge fan of Mystic Vale.

Ra is a great #1 choice. Port royal and quacks are definitely high on my list. I find that Incan gold is just 'ok', but I see it high on a lot of lists.

Zombie Dice was pretty fun. I am also having fun with Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection.

I found that I actually enjoy push-you-luck games quite a bit.

CV is a great game about life, where you roll your luck or get too much bad luck and bust.

MEGALAND is also a great "press your luck game." You decide how deep you want to venture into the dungeon. Then upon returning home, you can use your found treasure to purchase building for your village. The buildings produce coin or other benefits. So think of it as Celestia + Machi Koro.

My kids are yelling “Welcome to the Dungeon!”

Just going through my shelf shortly and by games with great push your luck elements: Boomtown, san juan, las vegas, blue lagoon somewhat, call to glory, dice town, the glasroad, Ra, im wandel der zeiten dicegame, azul, klong, wettlauf nach el dorado, hansa teutonica, orleons, bloodbowl team manager, colony, lost cities, dungeon roll, jaipur, ganz schön clever, sobek, würfel bohnanza, rapa nui, fugitive, 7 wonders duel, pick-a-polar-bear, Diamant, Kingdomino, Jump Drive, CV, Majesty, Coloretto, 111rummy, von drachen und schafen, kokoro, Abluxxen, Schöne Scheisse, Blöde Kuh, Portale von Moltar, Oh my Goods, FAIRY TALE!, pingvasion, sushigo, seventh hero, auf nach indien, port royal, star/hero realms, heckmeck.., qwinto, nochmal, GIER, argh, mammuz, tempel des schreckens, bang dice game, tiefe taschen, manhatten, cyclades, ultraquest, mama mia..poison, babylonia, Tzolkin, smallworld, glen more..vodoo prince, junkart ^.^ Strike, Nine tiles panic, celestia..

Oh My Goods! is my favorite push your luck game, especially with the expansion Longasdale in Revolt.

I really enjoy push your luck element in Istanbul, players can visit tea house to get liras. Basically you try to guess the number on the dice. I hope Ra gets reprinted soon, I am seeing it on many people’s lists but can’t find it anywhere

Tiny Epic Quest is one of my favorites, with a very strong unofficial Legend of Zelda theme. It also has almost no downtime as the dice you roll on your turn effect all players.

Deep Sea Adventure is so much fun. My 8yo and I love playing!

Tiny Epic Quest's night phase is completely a press-you-luck design that builds tension and works very well.

Love the new format ( still prefer the old room though)!

My favorite part of the genre is the fun in watching someone else go for a very risky play. Even if it upsets the scores and I lose, I still got to see something exciting. If a more strategy-focused game, seeing someone else win by pure luck has a bigger sting of disappointment.

Thoughts on Port Royal? One of my fav games!

Costa Rica (Lookout Spiele) and Cosmic Run: Regeneration (Dr. Finn's Games) would be my top picks for underrated PYL games. Have had a great time with both of those.

I love push-your-luck games and Pairs is the absolute best. Dead Man's Draw comes second.

it's a stretch to label feast as push your luck. Just a few action spots on the board have that mechanism. At the end, most players will go there with odds on their favor for claiming what they want. It would be very wasteful and lead to low scores to "gamble" if you are going for raiding/pillaging.

For another push your luck game, Legend of the Cherry Tree by iello is good, and your game Euphoria has a push aspect with the intelligence of the workers which I enjoy as well.

I tend not to like most 'pure' push your luck games. I could see liking something along the lines of Feast of Odin, though. And I enjoy Space Clank very much, which has push your luck elements at the end. In the last Space Clank game I played, I stayed in one more round to get a chance to buy more before heading out, and then right after my turn the number of cubes being pulled from the bag jumped to 7, so I went from having around 2 health loss to being around 2-3 away from dying. And if I hadn't drawn boots, I probably would have died. The last player just needed to make it to an escape hatch and probably would have won, but he stayed in too long and was knocked out. As a result, I won by 2 points over the other player to make it out. So I guess I enjoy push your luck when it is integrated into the theme and there feels like real choices on whether to stay in or not. But the more straightforward push your luck games where that is all the game is, whether it is rolling a die one more time or pulling a card to see if you bust, I never feel like I have done anything really substantial no matter how well I roll/lucky I am at staying in. I don't mind luck in games, but if that is all the game is, then I just don't find much enjoyment from that.

the grizzled!!!! best push your luck game ever made!! so much tension!!! so many hard choices and suffering!!😰

Would you count Formula D as a push-your-luck game?

Can’t Stop is a great game! - But, sadly, the iPhone version is no longer available. There is a remarkably similar game here: www.rollordont.com/playonline/

If you love Dead Man’s Draw you’ll love Push the card game!

You must haven’t played Port Royal yet! It’s the best in the filler league by far 😂