Pay Cards!

Hosts

Paul Hanover 1973-1975 Art James 1981-1982

Hostess/Announcer

Mary Lou Basaraba

Broadcast

CTV 1973-1975 Syndication: 9/14/1981-4/23/1982

Packagers

Nicholson-Muir Productions Champlain Productions

Based on the original Pay Cards! in syndication in America from 1968 until 1969. It was later revived in both America and Canada as Super Pay Cards! Two contestants (male vs. female) competed in a classic game of poker.

Gameplay

Two contestants (male vs. female) competed, and faced a board of 16 playing cards instead of 20. At the end of the third round, the player with the most money won the game and advanced to the bonus round for a chance to win $5,000. The losing player received a copy of the show's home game in addition to whatever money they had earned.

Five Card Draw

Four cards were revealed to the players at the start of the round before being concealed. The player in control selected three cards and attempted to build the best possible five-card hand with them. If a pair or three of a kind was revealed, the player automatically kept the three cards and tried to build the hand. As before, the player selected a fourth card and could keep it or refuse the card and pass control to their opponent. The process repeated with the fifth card. This continued until one of the players completed their five card hand, forcing their opponent to select cards to complete their hand without having the opportunity to refuse any of the cards.

As in the original U.S. version, players received money based upon the rank of their hand.

Payout	Hand
$20	Each Pair
$50	Three of a Kind
$100	Full House
$200	Four of a Kind
$300	Five of a Kind

Also as in the original U.S. version, a $50 bonus was awarded to the better hand in the round.

Round Two

Round two was played in four ways.

• Four-of-a-Kind-Four sets of four-of-a-Kind were on the board, making it possible for both players to receive $200 in this round.
• Seven Card Stud-Mary Lou presented each player a choice of two sets of two cards to see for themselves and placed the cards in front of their podiums. The players used their own two cards and built their hand in the same method as the first round. The two extra cards were not revealed to their opponents until both players kept all five cards.
• Two Three Four Five-One set of cards had a fifth duplicate in addition to two sets of pairs, a three-of-a-kind set and a four-of-a-kind set.
• Strategy-Three cards were revealed at the start of the hand and remained exposed for the entire round. The players took turns calling off two additional cards and selected two cards from the five showing to add to their hand. Each player on their turn called off one card and selected one from the four displayed to complete their hand.

Wild Card Hand

The Wild Card Hand was played similar to round one but with jokers shuffled into the cards to make a hand of five-of-a-kind possible.

Bonus Round

In the first phase of the bonus round, the champion was given four seconds to memorize the location of the four cards. After four seconds, the cards were concealed and the champion selected a card from a deck Basaraba was holding. If the champion correctly recalled the location of the hidden card they won $50.

The second phase involved memorizing eight cards for eight seconds. Correctly locating the selected card increased the champion's winnings in the bonus round to $500. If the champion reached the final phase, twelve cards were presented for twelve seconds and the champion won $5,000 for selecting the correct card.

If the champion made an incorrect guess in either the first or second phase, they forfeited the chance at $5,000 but could win the lesser amount from that phase with a second guess. The cards reshuffled and displayed again for either four or eight seconds depending on the level. The champion kept the $500 from the second phase if they made a mistake on the final phase.

Audience Game

Basaraba asked a member of the studio audience to study eight cards for eight seconds, then pick one of those eight cards from her hand, The audience member won a prize (e.g., a small appliance) if they could recall where that card was located on the board.

The audience game was included due to regulations for programs taped in Canada which state that at least one Canadian citizen must appear on camera within each program. However, the audience game was edited out of episodes aired in the United States.

Trivia

• The Super Pay Cards! version was taped in Montreal, Canada for both countries.
• This version featured a musical theme that was a remix of the theme to the earlier American game show Spin-Off (not to be confused with the 2013 Mark Burnett Canadian game show of the same name).
• The original Pay Cards! board game by Whitman was released in America only in 1969.
• A board game of this version (Super Pay Cards!) was published in 1981 and was plugged on-air (given to the losing contestants), however, there was no evidence it was ever mass-released.

Inventor

Based on the American game show of the same name