Poker Dice

poker dice, game involving five dice specially marked to simulate a playing-card deck’s top six cards (ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9). The object is to throw a winning poker hand, with hands ranking as in poker except that five of a kind is high and there are no flushes. After a player’s first throw, he elects either to stand pat or to draw (throw again), as in draw poker; in the latter case he separates out his best-showing dice and rolls up to three of the dice again, after which his result stands. In a version called horses, a hand of five aces loses. The game of Yahtzee evolved from poker dice.

A variant of poker dice, liar dice, as the name suggests, permits bluffing. Each player shields his throws and announces his hand, either truthfully or not. The second player, named the caller, or doubter, may either attempt a better hand or call the bluff. If the caller is correct in his call, he wins; if not, he loses.

Poker dice is known from the latter half of the 19th century. Several variants exist—for example, Spanish poker dice with differing rules and eight-sided dice marked with ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, and 7. Poker dice may also be played with ordinary six-sided dice; the sides then count 1 (aces)-6-5-4-3-2 in descending order.