Broadcast history
Cardsharp, the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production, debuted on NBC on April 24, 1978. Jim Perry hosted this version, which lasted until October 23, 1981. A indicate returned to CBS on January 6, 1986, where it ran across March 31, 1989, with Bob Eubanks hosting. The syndicated version, hosted by Bill Rafferty, also aired when you took a 1986-87 year. a short-passing syndicated revival, by owning different system than a former versions, aired in the period of the fall of 2001 with Pat Bullard as host.

Gene Wood was the primary announcer of everthing ternary 70s-80s versions, by having Johnny Olson, Jack Narz, Bob Hilton, Charlie O'Donnell, Johnny Gilbert, and Jay Stewart taking turns filling in for Wood on occasion. Gary Kroeger announced the 2001 version.

For the 1978-81 version by owning Perry, Wood's voice was heard above the opening visuals reading a verse form: That custom was shortly changed to getting Wood inta single the verse form that changed daily -- one submitted per viewers. For instance:

Reruns of the Jim Perry version surfaced on many stations nationally between 1982 and 1984 (some pairing it using Perry's Sale of the Century), and late began airing on the CBN network (which is now a ABC Personal Channel) from either 1984 to 1985. Reruns of a lot versions except a 2001 revival presently air in GSN. Inside April of 2005, the cable channel began showing reruns of the 1986 syndicated version regularly, and higher until that point, virtually all game indicate places writers experienced on the face of it forgotten that this obscure edition got happened the least bit.

The board game based on Card Sharks was mass produced by Endless Games in 2004. Although it used a logotype of a failing 2001 revival, a system were au fond the equivalent when victims of the Eighties version.

A music to the 1978 version was composed by Score Productions, who got utilized a theme for an earliest indicate (a 1976-1977 version of Double Dare). A 1986 theme was composed per "Liberace of game shows", Edd Kalehoff.

The main game
2 contestants competed to look at world health organization may complete the row of 5 swimming cards number 1. Both rows of cards, of these for every contestant, were set on a stake board per 2 dealers world health organization assisted the carrier. For each one contestant experienced a standard 52-card deck (there is no jokers); the ace ranked highest & a deuce (deuce) ranked last.

Toss-up questions
Control of the board was determined by whoever was extrthe precise inside predicting the effect of a toss-even chance wonder according to a survey of Centred humans. (case: "We asked 100 teachers, 'Has a student ever given you an apple?' How many said yes?") A contestant world health organization received a wonder got to believe how else numerous humans gave a guide that a persons gave; a opponent experienced to believe whether the correct total was higher or even moo than that believe. Whoever was nigher to the right total earned control of the board. (Starting in the fall of 1980 an exact believe netted the $500 bonus for the contestant.)

Additionally to the regular 100-human survey questions, the few questions on the CBS & foremost syndicated versions were according to the panel of tenner studio audience members world health organization shared a most common profession or even characteristic. (Accurate guesses in victims questions netted the $100 bonus.) A panel continue the indicate for an entire week. General-knowledge "educated guess" questions that experienced numerical answers (lesson: "How fast is the world's fastest snake?) were also asked.

Playing the cards
After the first card in the row of five -- the "base card" -- was revealed, the winner of the question had the option of either playing that card or changing it with the top card from the deck, hoping to play a better card. The contestant then had to guess whether the next card was higher or lower; if correct, he or she had to guess the card after that, and so on. An incorrect guess brought the contestant back to the base card, and it gave the opponent (who was not allowed to change his/her base card) a chance to play. Contestants also had the option to "freeze" instead of guessing higher or lower, thus making the last card that was played the new base card; if the winner of the toss-up question opted to "freeze," the opponent was not given the chance to play the cards. If neither contestant guessed all the cards on his or her row correctly, another toss-up question was asked and the same procedures were followed until someone cleared the row or the fourth question in the round was asked. (In the final months of the NBC run, a $500 bonus was awarded for anyone who guessed correctly on all the cards without freezing.)

The 1986-87 syndicated version included prize cards that were shuffled into the main decks (and replaced with another card from the deck if one came up). The contestant only won the prizes if he or she won the match (2 games).

Sudden death
The fourth question in each round was always a "sudden demise" question. Whoever won control of the board had the opportunity to play the cards (and could change the base card if desired) or pass them to the opponent (who had to play the cards that were given). An incorrect guess at any time caused the contestant to lose the game. The winner of each game won $100 (except for most of the 80s sydnicated version, in which case s/he wins any prizes accumulated from the prize cards that s/he accumulated upon winning the match).

Tiebreakers
The first player to win two games won the match and a chance to play the Money Cards bonus round. If the match was tied after two games, a tiebreaker game was played to determine the winner. Contestants played rows of three cards in the tiebreaker instead of five, and three questions were asked instead of four, with the third being sudden death (by 1988 the tiebreaker was changed to only one sudden death question).

The Money Cards
The winner of the main game played the Money Cards for a chance to win additional money. The Money Cards board consisted of seven cards on three rows; three cards were dealt on the bottom two rows, and one card was dealt on the top row.

In addition to guessing whether a card was higher or lower, the contestant had to wager money on that prediction. The contestant was given $200 to bet with and had to wager at least $50 (and in multiples of $50) on each card on the first two rows. The contestant gained money with each correct guess and lost money on each incorrect guess.

After completing the first row -- or if the contestant "busted," i.e., lost everything on that wager -- the last card was moved onto the second row and the contestant was given an additional $200 (changed to $400 in 1986). The contestant had to play three more cards before reaching the last card on the top row, known as the "Large Bet." (If a contestant "busted" after this point, the game ended.) The contestant was required to wager at least half of his or her earnings on the Big Bet.

The most a contestant could win on the NBC version -- by wagering everything on every card -- was $28,800 (adjusted to today's dollars, an amount over $87,000); that was done exactly once by contestant Norma Brown in 1978. Contestants could win up to $32,000 on the CBS and first syndicated versions, but the top prize was never won. However, big payoffs of over $25,000 has been awarded several times. The highest Money Cards win on this version was $29,000.

When a person lost all of their money in the Money Cards on the 1978-1981 version, an abbreviated version of the Losing Horns (from The Price is Right) would play (which followed the so-called "NBC Claxon Buzzer", which was later used on Scrabble and Hit Man). For the 1986-1989 CBS Eubanks version and the 1986-1987 syndicated Rafferty version, when a person lost on the Big Bet or busted in the Money Cards (as well as losing the car game), the full version of the Losing Horns would play. When Gene Wood described the cars on the Eubanks and Rafferty versions, it would also be accompanied by the many car cues used on The Price is Right (the main car cues were Big Banana, Beanstalker, the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour theme, and a 1983 cue mainly used for trucks and vans).

Rule changes
Originally, a contestant could only change the first card on the bottom row. In mid-1978 the rule was changed so that the first card on every row could be changed. In the CBS and first syndicated versions, one card on each row could be changed by choosing one of three pre-dealt cards. Originally, on this version, the contestant was given three opportunities to change a card (thus, a player could change one card more than once).

Duplicate cards (e.g., two eights in a row) originally counted as losses against the contestant. In the fall of 1980, this rule was changed so that the contestant neither won nor lost money if a duplicate was revealed (which were called a "click"). From that point on, hosts encouraged the contestant to wager everything on an ace or deuce since there was no chance that the contestant could lose on either card.

Car games
Starting in the fall of 1986 a second bonus round following the Money Cards, giving players a chance to win a new car, was added. Two different car games were played. The first was played using jokers; the contestant earned one for winning the main game and could win more if any of the three jokers that were placed in the deck for the Money Cards came up. The contestant then placed the jokers in a row of seven numbered cards; if any of the chosen cards revealed the word "CAR" after it was turned over, the contestant won the car. In mid-1988 that game was replaced with a survey question based on the current week's ten-member studio audience panel. The contestant moved a pointer (on a board with a scale of 0 to 10) to what he or she thought was the right answer, winning the car if the guess was exactly right or $500 if the guess was one number away from the correct answer.

Early on in the 1986 syndicated version, Gene Wood would add this catchphrase after describing the car: "This car may be yours if you play the cards perfect."

2001 version
Card Sharks was revived for a brief run in the fall of 2001, but was not well received by critics due to its gameplay, which was completely overhauled from the 1978 and 1986 versions.

Four players competed, two at a time. The opponents play in a best-of-three match, each playing a common row of seven high-low cards. A correct guess kept that player in control, but an incorrect guess gave the opponent the right to make the next call.

At any time, a player could ask to change the card (by use of one of two special "clip chip" tokens in their possession). The player was shown a video depicting one of the following:

A situation (not unlike Candid Camera or Street Smarts), which was stopped before its resolution. The player had to correctly guess the outcome in order to change the card.

Someone introduces himself/herself and then asks which of two others he/she is associated with.

Someone trying to list answers related to a topic within 10 seconds, or sing the correct lyrics to an obscure song.

The third match, if necessary, was a three-card showdown; "clip chips" could not be used.

The first player to win two games won $1,000 and moved on to a final one-game showdown with the winner of the second game. The winner of that match earned an additional $1,100 (for a total of $2,100), which would be used as betting money for the Money Cards.

The Money Cards was essentially similar as the earlier runs, except just six cards – three on the first row, two on the middle row and the one card Big Bet row – were used and the player was spotted $700 for each row (including the Big Bet row). The maximum amount possible of $51,800 was never achieved.

This new version of Card Sharks was most notable for a special week of shows (which were taped after the September 11, 2001 attacks) where firefighters and police officers played for charities aimed at helping victims and their families recover from the attacks.

Other comments
Card Sharks held many special tournament weeks over the years, including the famous 1980 "Game Indicate Hosts" week, a three-week tournament which pitted eight game show hosts against each other. Allen Ludden, Gene Rayburn, Bill Cullen, Tom Kennedy, Alex Trebek, Jack Clark, Wink Martindale and Jim Lange participated in the tournament. Amusingly, on the first day of the tournament, in an opening very similar to that of ''What's My Line?, announcer Gene Wood introduced the first participant, Gene Rayburn, whom introduced the next host, and one by one, introducing the next entrant up to its host, Jim Perry. Trebek beat Cullen in the finals of the tournament and won $25,000 for his charity, the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Versions outside the USA
The British version of the show was known as Play Your Cards Right, the German version was known as Bube Dame Hörig and the Swedish version was known as Lagt kort ligger''.