Play your best hand — Gottlieb’s Card King is an electromechanical single-player wrapped in a playing-cards theme, and it comes from the legendary team of designer Ed Krynski and artist Gordon Morison, the partnership behind an incredible run of Gottlieb’s most cherished classics. With reel scoring and a confirmed run of 2,340, it’s a handsome woodrail-era Gottlieb — this particular example configured for the Italian market, taking 100 lire per play.
The strategy is a satisfying bit of EM craft. The core wisdom is to complete the drop targets, then go up-and-through (UTAD), trying to send the ball through one of the 500 lanes at the upper sides for a lucrative reward. That interplay — clearing the drops, then working the ball up top to thread those valuable upper lanes — gives the game a clear, rewarding rhythm that a thoughtful player can settle into. It’s the kind of clean, objective-driven design that made these Krynski-Morison machines such enduring pleasures, rewarding accuracy and smart ball control, all in service of the classic card-table theme.
Card King is a fine showcase of the celebrated Krynski-and-Morison team’s craft, pairing an evergreen playing-cards theme with a satisfying, drop-and-lane strategy and Morison’s warm artwork. The card-game motif was a perennial favorite, and this Italian-market configuration is a charming reminder of how widely Gottlieb’s machines traveled. For the collector who loves the golden age of EM pinball and its greatest creative teams, it’s a rewarding find. Clear those drops, work the ball up through the 500 lanes, and play your best hand. Some machines reward a smart, methodical approach, and this Gottlieb card classic is one of them. Ante up and drop a coin.