“Read ‘em and weep, chicken lickers!”, snickered the stranger. “4 aces.”
The stranger made a greedy grab towards the money, but was stopped by the feeling of nose against barrel, staring into the sheriff's revolver.
“Not so fast, partner. You are not the only one with 4 aces…”

The game is designed to lean on a classic game of Texas hold ‘em poker. The poker element has been minimized, though, and the main game experience is centered around playing the characters.

Ace up the Sleeve is a card game that revolves around a game of poker in a saloon in the old wild west.
You play a typical inhabitant of an archetypical western town playing poker, while they attempt to cheat and manipulate the game to their own advantage.
Since everyone is trying to cheat, there will be many more cards in the game than usual. Cards will change hands, vanish and magically reappear, and more shenanigans will happen.

All the characters you can play have varying abilities supporting the role. The role determines how you can attempt to manipulate the game.

The goal of the game is to be the one with the best poker hand at the end of the game. This hand however has to be legal within normal poker rules. Otherwise you have been cheating. And cheating is of course not to be tolerated.

The focus of the game is on the character play and fun, more than on tactics, since it is almost impossible to control the changes that will happen during the game. Luckily you have one little piece of certain influence at the end. Since you will always have an Ace up the Sleeve.

The game is designed as a filler game, with short play time, high entertainment value, and elements of light roleplaying. The game is turn based without long down time.

An Ace up the Sleeve is easy to play, but hard to master. Knowledge of Texas hold ‘em rules in advance will let you recognize elements of the game, but it is in no way necessary.

It is estimated that you can play 3 or 4 games during the time slot.

“Se mine kort og græd, hanesuttere!” snerrede den fremmede. “4 esser.”
Den fremmede lænede sig frem i et grådigt greb mod pengene, men mærkede pludselig sheriffens revolver mod sin næse.
“Ikke så hurtigt, makker. Du er ikke den eneste med 4 esser…”

Spillet er bygget op omkring et klassisk spil Texas hold ‘em poker, hvor selve poker-elementet er minimeret. Hovedoplevelsen skal findes i karakterspillet.

Et Es i Ærmet er et kortspil, der kredser om et klassisk spil poker i en saloon i det vilde vesten.
I spillet er man traditionelle western-karakterer, der spiller pokerspillet, mens de forsøger at snyde og manipulere kortene til deres egen fordel.
Siden alle forsøger at snyde, er der langt flere kort i spil end det normalt er tilladt. Kort skifter hænder, forsvinder sporløst, og dukker op på mystisk vis, og meget andet.

Alle de karakterer man kan spille har varierende evner svarende til rollen. Rollen bestemmer hvordan man kan forsøge at manipulere spillet.

Formålet er at være den, der til sidst sidder tilbage med den bedste pokerhånd. Denne hånd skal dog være tilladt inden for normale pokerregler. Ellers har man snydt. Og det må man jo ikke.

Spillet har fokus på karakterspil og morskab mere end taktik, da det er næsten umuligt at overskue alle de forandringer der kan og vil ske gennem spillet. I det mindste har man en lille smule kontrol over spillets udfald, for man har selvfølgelig altid Et Es i Ærmet.

Spillet er designet som et kortvarigt, let tilgængeligt spil med høj underholdningsværdi og light rollespil. Spillet er turbaseret uden lange ventetider.

Et Es i Ærmet er let at gå til, men næsten umuligt at mestre. Forhåndskendskab til Texas hold’em regler vil lade dig nikke genkendende til elementer af spillet, men er på ingen måde en nødvendighed.

Det forventes at man kan nå at spille 3 til 4 spil i løbet af spilblokken.