How to play Cash Stash

How do you win Cash Stash?

Finish with the most valuable stash when the draw pile and every player's hand are empty. The highest total asset value wins; there is no minimum score.

Which rules should I choose?

Simple: just the core game, with no Swap, Move, or Penny Jar cards.

Simple with Action Cards: adds Swap, Move, and the Penny Jar wild card.

Advanced: bigger hands (6 cards) and up to two actions per turn. Adds an Improve a Set action, and makes a rival's second-from-top set challengeable too, not just their top one. This is the default.

What can I do on my turn?

Do one of the following: form a set from two matching cards in your hand, complete a set using the top discard, discard a card, challenge a rival's set, or play a Swap or Move card.

Advanced rules only: afterward, you may take one more action (the same kind or a different one), or end your turn.

How do I build and protect a set?

A set is two cards of the same asset (like two Yachts), or one asset plus a wild card. Two wild cards can't pair with each other; you always need at least one real asset.

Sets you form stack up in front of you. The set currently at the bottom is always protected from challenges. Simple and Simple with Action Cards expose only the top set above the bottom. Advanced exposes the top two sets, except for the bottom set. Sets covered below those positions are safe from challenges. A Move card changes positions, so it can change which set is protected.

Improving a set (Advanced only)

Add one more matching asset card to your own top set, making it worth more. Wild cards can't be used this way.

What do wild cards do?

Silver Bar and Gold Bar can each stand in for any asset when forming a set, opening a challenge, or defending a challenge.

Simple with Action Cards and Advanced also include the Penny Jar, a wild that counts double toward keeping a challenge alive.

How do I steal or defend an asset set?

First build at least one set of your own. On your turn, choose an exposed rival set and play a matching asset card or a wild card to challenge it. The rival can concede and hand it over, or reveal matching cards to defend. Players take turns responding until one concedes.

Most cards count as one toward what's needed to keep a challenge alive, but the Penny Jar counts as two. Whoever runs out of matches (or gives up) first loses the set, and everything revealed along the way, to the other side.

Advanced rules only: challenging a rival's second-from-top set takes two matching cards (or a single Penny Jar) to start. After that, one card at a time keeps it going. If you lose, you can't challenge that same rival again until your next turn.

Swap & Move

Simple with Action Cards and Advanced only.

Swap trades your top set for a rival's top set, useful when theirs is worth more than yours.

Move reorders a stack: send its top set to the bottom, or bring its bottom set to the top. Play it on a rival to expose their protected set, or on yourself to bury and protect your best one.

Draft Piles (2–3 player variant)

An optional twist for 2- or 3-player games, toggled at setup. Three face-up piles sit in the middle, and drafting from them is available alongside your other turn options.

To draft: pick one card from your hand plus the top card of a draft pile that together form a valid set (in a 2-player game, you may combine the top cards of more than one pile at once). The claim isn't placed in your stack right away; an opponent gets to challenge it first, just like a normal challenge: reveal a matching card to contest it, or concede and let you keep it.

2-player: either player may challenge, and you may draft from all three piles at once. Hands are dealt 6 cards, and Mansion, Silver Bar, and Gold Bar are left out of the deck. The Penny Jar wild card remains available in Simple with Action Cards and Advanced; Simple excludes it.

3-player: piles are arranged so each one sits between two seats. You may only draft from one pile at a time, and only from the two piles touching your own seat, never the one sitting entirely between your two rivals. Only the neighbor who shares that pile with you can challenge what you draft from it; the third player has no say.

When does the game end?

Once the deck and everyone's hand are empty, the game ends. Whoever's stack is worth the most wins; no minimum needed.

Still have a question?

Find direct answers about protected sets, why a challenge is unavailable, joining an online room, and how the Hard AI plays fairly.