In our AIPLAY88 blogs, we’ve talked about poker in depth and looked at it from every which side, from poker variants and different values of poker hands to poker positions, but here’s something we’ve never explored before – how to play poker with dice.
Have you ever seen poker dice? Ever had a chance to play a poker game using dice? Would you like to learn the basic rules and background of the game?
If the answer to the last question is yes, we suggest you stick around because we’re about to dive into the wonderful world of poker dice and explain all there is to know about this dice game.
What Is Poker with Dice?
As the song says: let’s start from the very beginning. What is poker with dice?
Poker with dice is both a dice game and a poker variant that uses a set of specialised dice whose sides stand in for a card deck’s top six cards: ace, king, queen, jack, 10, and 9.
The other cards aren’t represented because a die only has six sides. Additionally, instead of suits, poker dice use colours. Namely, red is used for kings, green for queens, and blue for jacks.
History of Poker with Dice
Poker with dice dates back to the 19th century. Believed to be first played in New Orleans, Louisiana, poker with dice soon spread across the rest of the United States and was patented in 1881.
While the game gained in popularity over the years, it never managed to go head-to-head with traditional poker.
How to Play Poker with Dice
Before we dive into how to play poker with dice, let’s recap the dice values:
- Ace = Single Club = 6
- King = Red Royal = 5
- Queen = Green Royal = 4
- Jack = Blue Royal = 3
- 10 = Ten Diamonds = 2
- 9 = Nine Spades = 1
As you can see, you can even play dice poker with regular dice.
The basic poker dice rules state that each player can have three rolls. A player may keep or set aside some dice during each roll. The dice that are not set aside are not locked. You can re-roll these dice to try and get a better hand.
After every player gets through their final roll, the player with the highest-ranking hand wins the round.
How to Win Poker with Dice: Hands and Probabilities
As said before, the highest-ranking poker hand wins a round. The poker dice hand rankings, from the highest to the lowest, are:
- Five of a kind (probability: 0.08%)
- Four of a kind (probability: 1.93%)
- Full house or three of a kind and a pair (probability: 3.86%)
- Straight (probability: 3.09%)
- Three of a kind (probability: 15.43%)
- Two pair (probability: 23.15%)
- One pair (probability: 46.30%)
- Bust or a high-ranking die, starting with aces (probability: 6.17%)
What Equipment Do You Need?
If you think it’s time to try your hand at poker with dice and wish to invite friends over for a game or two (playing online poker with friends is fun but so is the real thing!), here is what you’ll need to make the idea a reality:
- A large table with enough room for rolling the dice
- Enough chairs
- A score sheet
- Poker chips for tracking wins and losses
- Snacks are optional, but can’t hurt
- Oh, and don’t forget the dice! Regular dice can do, as we’ve shown, but special poker dice do make the game feel more authentic and exciting.
Varieties of Poker with Dice
There are several dice poker variants. Some are played with regular dice, others with special dice that have even more sides.
Some of the most famous dice poker variants include:
- Spanish poker dice
- Eight-sided dice which use additional 8s and 7s
- 12-sided dice game called “Jimmy the Greek Odds Maker Poker Dice” from 1974
- 12-sided dice game called “Royal Poker Dice” from 2000 with all 52 cards
- A Liar’s dice variant where players roll poker dice behind screens
Basic Strategies
Whether you decide to play online poker or to branch out, having an understanding of basic strategies is always advised. Surely by now, you’ve realised that no poker strategy is foolproof. Games of chance are always going to be games of chance.
However, when AIPLAY88‘s player playing poker with dice, our advice is to keep duplicates, such as pairs and triples or a straight, and re-roll the other dice. The rest is up to fate!
