At the beginning of the game everyone will compete in a challenge, where the two best performers will become the first team captains. These two players are responsible for choosing the season's teams, where one or more players not selected will get their check voided and be immediately eliminated from the game.

Moving forward, each team will vote for one person to become the Team Captain. A person can never be the captain consecutively. The teams will then compete in a challenge, with the winning team earning safety from elimination and their Team Captain becoming the Paymaster. The losing team then heads to the Vault, where they must vote three people from their own team into the Strong Box to face potential elimination. The power then shifts to the the Paymaster, where they get to decide which of the bottom three's checks they want to void, effectively eliminating them from the game.

Once there is a certain amount of players remaining in the game, the teams will merge together. There is no change in format except for the removal of Team Captains. Instead, whoever wins the individual challenge will be declared as the the Paymaster for the episode. In addition, the player who comes in last place (The Dead Last Loser or DLL) automatically has their check placed in the Strong Box and is eligible for elimination. Everyone besides the Paymaster then votes for the two remaining players to go into the Strong Box.

The game continues in this way until we reach three players, where a jury vote will take place to void the check of one of the final 3. The final two will then compete in a final showdown challenge to determine the winner of I Love Money.