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Time's Up

Time's Up rewards celebrity familiarity across three escalating constraint rounds. Experts memorize card contents in round 1 for round 3 one-word dominance.

Quick winning principles

  • Round 1: memorize every card pulled—round 3 is one word only.
  • Round 2: use exactly one gesture per card, no more.
  • Skip obscure cards in round 3; bank time on cards you memorized.
  • Team echo: shout partial names early in round 1 to lock memory.

Ideal strategy

  1. 1

    Round 1 memorization: assign each card a unique one-word hook your team agrees on—'Beckham' becomes 'cross' internally.

  2. 2

    Round 2 gesture library: develop 5 standard gestures (sports, movie, politician) that cover 80% of cards.

  3. 3

    Round 3 skip discipline: 3-second skip on unknown cards; 40% of round 3 time is recoverable via skips.

  4. 4

    Celebrity tiering: prioritize memorizing Tier 1 celebrities (Obama, Beckham, Titanic) that appear in multiple games.

  5. 5

    Opponent card denial: in round 1, deliberately slow on cards opponents struggled with—you see their weak spots for round 3.