Dice Games Properly Explained

World-renowned game designer Reiner Knizia has written the absolute classic on dice games and strategies. Straightforward and easy-to-read, this little gem gives detailed instructions, comprehensive odds, and insightful strategies on nearly 150 dice games and variations-several of which appear only within these pages.

If you have never played cards before, this book is the ideal introduction. Or if you have a basic idea of the rules of some games, it will help you extend your existing knowledge and add new games to your repertoire. You will learn all the basic rules, understand the reasons why players play certain cards, discover the winning strategies and always be able to play the right card at the right time. The book covers all the most popular card games, including: Whist, Solo, Napoleon, Clobbiosh, Belot, Black Maria, Piquet, Five Hundred, Poker, Brag, Cassino, Rummy, Kaluki, Gin Rummy, Canasta, Cribbage and Pontoon.

World-renowned game designer Reiner Knizia offers 50 new easy-to-play games featuring cards and dice. These fun and novel games can be played with easily available items like standard playing cards, dice and a few counters. This book is perfect for everyone from casual game players to dedicated game designers.

An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television—but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Dice games have been played for centuries and are a staple of the playground, board games, and casinos alike. This pocket guide spans the history of dice and offers clear explanations of popular dice games, including farkle (played since the Middle Ages), Gluckhaus (a German game of fortune, played since the medieval era), craps, and Jacks! This guide also includes tips on winning and how to avoid being tricked by loaded or “crooked” dice. Famous dice players, such as the Roman emperors Augustus and Caligula, lost money playing dice and quickly stole other people’s to continue their gaming sprees. In the early nineteenth century, fortunes could be won and lost at the roll of a die and it was not only money which was gambled away, but estates and even marriages. Full of fascinating facts and useful tips, this is a must-read book for everyone interested in family fun, games, gambling, or social history. Did you know? • Dice derives from the Latin datum, meaning “ought to be played” • The black marks showing the numbers are called pips • Dice were first played in India around 3000 bc • Dice were originally made from bones, including knuckle and ankle bones • Traditionally cubed, dice also come in other geometric shapes, incuding the zocchihedron, the 100-sided die, and the deltoidal icositetrahedron, where each side is shaped like a kite

Frank Scoblete and Dominator are two of the best dice rollers in the nation, and they're back to share even more secrets and tips for craps players looking to get an edge on the game. The authors thoroughly explain their proven "Cutting Edge Craps" technique with photos and words that make their system easy for anyone to learn, whether you're a veteran of the craps table or new to the game. The authors have a variety of elements to their teaching system, including how to set the dice to improve the odds of hitting different sets of numbers, how to throw the dice in a controlled manner, why using the 5-Count will reduce the house's edge, and how to push the casino to offer a better game for you than others get. Everyone else at the craps table is gambling, but you'll be the only one with improved odds at the table after reading "Cutting Edge Craps."

According to Roger Caillois, play is an occasion of pure waste. In spite of this - or because of it - play constitutes an essential element of human social and spiritual development. In this study, the author defines play as a free and voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life.

Covering all aspects of gambling, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic is mathematically sophisticated, but can be read for what it says about the games and strategies, skipping the technicalities. The material is fascinating and detailed, and the analysis is masterful.