Full Count Club
Baseball for poker players. Poker for baseball fans. Each at-bat is a hand from the Shoe: pocket the keepers, foul off the rest, and swing when the cards are right. A flush is a double. A royal flush is a home run. Two eras, one rule: the better the hand, the bigger the hit.
Full Count Club is a baseball game played with poker hands. Seven cards come off the shoe, you build the best hand you can, and what you swing decides what happens on the field: the better the poker hand, the bigger the hit — a modest hand nudges a runner along, a big one clears the fences.
Pick your era: the 1990s, where you build a lineup, or the 1920s, where the shoe is all you get.
Every at-bat is a hand
Every at-bat gets seven cards, fresh off the top of the shoe. Three things you can do with them:
POCKET — set a card aside to keep it safe. A foul-off replaces everything in your hand, but a pocketed card stays put. When you swing, your pocketed cards ride forward to the next batter, so you can build toward a bigger hand by passing cards to the man on deck.
FOUL OFF — throw back everything you didn't pocket and draw fresh. Twice an at-bat.
SWING — lock in what's left in your hand and take the big swing.
That's the core of the game: you read the shoe and make the call, every at-bat. No auto-resolve, no dice roll behind the curtain, no hand that plays itself.
The shoe is honest
No hidden odds. The shoe is on screen the whole time: every card left, by rank and suit. So is the paytable, and your odds of making each hand. Reading it is the skill.
Mixed into the shoe are Strike cards, dead cards that take up a spot in your hand. They're why a straight or flush is hard. What helps depends on the era: Wildcards in the Circuit's shoe, or the ability men in your Longball lineup, like the Janitor, who sweeps a Strike card out of every shoe.
THE LONGBALL — the 1990s road trip
The Longball takes you on a 1990s road trip: fifteen cities, coast to coast, under the jumbotron, with a lineup you have to earn. Win a city's series and a new set of ability men becomes available, two or three at a time: Table Setter and Wheels off the rookie rack, the Comeback Kid and Cleanup Man from the veterans, Lip Reader and the Ghost among the All-Stars, and at the top, Legends like Big Country and the Professor. Each is a card with his own edge on the shoe.
At every city, you build your team on the Sign Your Nine page: nine men, one salary cap, and never quite enough money for all the stars you want. A cheap rookie who sets the table, or the pricey Legend who clears the yard?
Legends carry an aura. A Legend's edge doesn't stop at his own at-bat. It carries to the man hitting right after him, so where you slot him in the order matters as much as signing him.
Almost every city plays by its own house rule: a hand that's off the table, a suit gone from the shoe, a deck shaved thin. Build the right nine for the right city.
THE CIRCUIT — the 1920s barnstorming tour
The Circuit takes you back to 1920s dead-ball baseball: a barnstorming tour through eight towns, from a dusty sandlot to the grandest ballpark on the circuit.
Win games in each town to build your purse and collect Wildcards along the way to help you advance.
Every game gets written up like a 1920s newspaper story, and a ballpark organist plays along, especially when you're in a jam.
Solo Developer
I'm a dad with two wonderful little kids and a full-time job, and Full Count Club is a game I've wanted to make for a long time. So I build it on nights and weekends — two eras, one core, every rule and every call mine. I read the feedback and keep building. Wishlists help a small game get noticed on Steam, so if this sounds like your kind of ballgame, I'd appreciate one.
Features
Poker-hand batting — seven cards and your call, every at-bat
Pocket, foul off, swing — pocket a card to keep it safe from a foul-off, then carry it forward to the next batter
A fully visible shoe — every card left and your odds on screen, nothing hidden
Two eras, one core: the lineup-building 1990s Longball and the dead-ball 1920s Circuit
The Longball: fifteen cities, ability men you unlock by winning series, and a nine-man lineup you sign under a salary cap
House rules in thirteen of those cities — outlawed hands, missing suits, shaved decks, warped rules
The Circuit: an eight-town barnstorming tour where you build your purse and collect four Wildcards to help you advance
Made by a solo dev and dad who loves baseball and poker
Baseball for poker players. Poker for baseball fans.
Wishlist Full Count Club.