The NFL Players $20 draft, played live.

What is in the deck

The NFL Players deck has 37 cards. You won't see the order. A few of the names you might draw:

• Patrick Mahomes
• Travis Kelce
• Aaron Rodgers
• Jayden Daniels
• Baker Mayfield

A worked spend

You have $20 for 5 picks. Spend $9 on Patrick Mahomes and you've got $11 for four more cards. The reserve rule keeps $1 back for every slot you still owe, so your next bid tops out at $8. Win Joe Flacco, Von Miller, Stefon Diggs and Baker Mayfield at $1 each and you finish with $7 left over. That's your score. Try $5 on every card instead and the rule stops you on the fourth: $5 left, two slots to fill, so $4 is the most you can bid.

How to draft NFL Players

With 37 cards and 10 picks between you, most of the deck never gets dealt, so there's no point saving for a quarterback who may never come up. The expensive mistake is paying $9 for the first star and then finding the next three are also stars. Veterans past their peak, like Flacco and Rodgers, are where the cheap wins are, because the other player has to decide whether an older name is worth a dollar.

The rules are the same for every category and take a minute to read: how to play, or why an auction beats a snake draft.