Miner Game (Double-sided Poker)
9 players are split into teams of three.
Team A are Jongbum, Yeonjoo and Yeonseung.
Team B are Yuhyun, Hyunmin and Junghoon.
Team C are Dongmin, Sujin and Ahyoung
Teams take turns "mining" by putting a hand into a prop that symbolizes a mine and grabbing cubes out of it. Different types of cubes are worth different points. Special black cubes are "bombs". If team mines three bombs or more — their mining turn is over and they get nothing. Until then, team is free to mine further until they decide it's enough and stop.
When one team is mining, players from 2 other teams secretly tell dealers amount of points they want to get (from 1 to 50). If miners extracted more than or equal to sum of ordered points — spectators get what they ordered and miners themselves divide the rest of the points between them. If miner extracted less — spectators get nothing, and miners divide their entire haul. Also, the most greedy spectator with the biggest ordered amount gives that amount of his/her points to people with the least ordered amount. If miners get three bombs — they get nothing, but spectators still get their ordered amount (somehow).
Despite players assigned to teams this is not a team game because both winner(s) and loser are determined from individual points. Fellow miners are more competitors rather than teammates. Game's rules encourage players who can create alliances between members across several mining teams and it is so much easier to ruin your fellow miners than actually trying to work with them. This is why Dongmin realizes that this game will be hard for him when he and Sujin (who he wants to keep around) are forced into one team.
In round 1 Sujin bids 18 points and miners mine less than that, so she gets points deducted for being greedy and becomes last. Dongmin makes it his goal to save her and Ahyoung. To that end he partners up with Hyunmin from team B. When Dongmin's team mines, Hyunmin orders 50 and Dongmin's team keeps mining until they eventually get 3 bombs, so that Hyunmin can get these points. On the last round Dongmin's team all order around 50 points and now it's Hyunmin's turn to pull 3 bombs out of a mine. All of them get a lot of points. Hyunmin is the sole winner and he gives extra token of life to Dongmin.
Yeonseung happens to be last place and he is elimination candidate. Dongmin tries to barter with Yeonseung, asking him not to pick Ahyoung or Sujin in exchange for 6 garnets and Dongmin's support in the next round. However, Yeonseung decides it isn't worth it, when the possibilities are 1) he becomes one of Dongmin's followers or 2) Dongmin flakes on him. In the end, Yeonseung picks Sujin (to the visible indignance of Dongmin).
They play Double-Sided Poker, and Yeonseung wins, eliminating Sujin.
Tropes:
- Chekhov's Skill: Dongmin's sensitive hands allow him to differentiate between bombs and regular cubes (bombs are heavier than regular cubes). Hyunmin and Jongbum also realise something is different about the bombs, but they don't manage to figure out what it is.
- Dwindling Party: Dongmin keeps losing allies. First Hweejong, now Sujin.
- Father to His Men: Dongmin does everything he can to protect his followers. This episode, it's Ahyoung and especially Sujin.
- Rivals Team Up: Up to this point Hyunmin and Dongmin had to work against each other, especially evident in Fruit Stand and Swords and Shields where Hyunmin was directly targeting Dongmin for Deathmatch. This episode marks the first time Hyunmin and Dongmin work with each other.
- Sliding Scale of Cooperation vs. Competition: Miner's game is unique becuase it is a combination of "Fixed teams" and "Free for all".
