Lucky

This article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2011 issue of World Gaming magazine.

The unique game of lucky (or dice poker) combines poker skills and luck at the dice. It’s traditionally played to while away the hours at a bar. If you’re lucky you might even win enough to cover your drinks for the night.

In the West, games like 8-ball, pool and darts keep patrons entertained over a beer, but in Asia (especially China, Hong Kong and Macau) the sight of people shaking a cup and slamming dice onto their tables is more familiar.

‘Liar’ is the most common of all the dice games played in bars but there is a huge range of dice games to keep you entertained if you feel like playing something else. We featured an article on liar in our Sep/Oct issue last year and you can pick up some strategy tips for liar in that story, which you can find on our website www.wgm8.com (select the ‘Gaming’ menu then ‘Asian games’).

Lucky is very simple and is best played by two to four players, but you can play it with more. A basic knowledge of poker hand rankings is essential but is easily learned.

A poker ‘hand’ is made up of five cards. You might have more cards at your disposal in some poker variations (like Texas holdem) but in every variation of poker your final hand is made up of five cards only. Lucky replaces cards with dice, but almost everything else remains the same. The only differences are that there are no suits (and therefore no flushes) and a new super-hand is possible: five of a kind. The standard poker hand rankings apply: pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, full house and four of a kind; then followed by ‘five of a kind’. ‘Kickers’ count, so a hand of 55542 beats a hand of 55532. Unsurprisingly, the best possible hand is 66666. The worst possible hand is 64321.

The game starts with all players rolling their dice. 1s are not wild in lucky (as they are in liar). The person with the lowest hand must roll again in an attempt to get in front of at least one of his opponents. The method is the same as in draw poker: you hold on to the dice you want to keep and re-roll the remaining dice.

This process continues, with the worst hand rolling again (‘the draw’) until a person fails to improve. If they still have the worst possible hand after their draw, they lose and drop out of the game. The winner is the person who outlasts all of his opponents.

Here’s an example. Let’s say three players roll their dice. They all lift up their dice cups and this is what we see:

In this case Francis is coming last with just one pair and must improve to stay in the game. He chooses to keep his pair and re-rolls his other three dice. Let’s see how he does:

Francis improves to three 5s which leaves Sheldon in last place with his two pair. He holds on to his two pair and hopes to improve to a full house by rolling one die and going for a 3 or 4.

Now this puts Stanley in last position. He decides to hold on to his three of a kind and hope he can improve by hitting a 1 with the two dice he will roll, thus making four of a kind (also known as ‘quads’).

Stanley fails to improve and comes last. Now it is down to heads up play between Sheldon (who has 33443 for a full house) and Francis (who has 55235 for a set of 5s). Francis has the worst hand and must improve. He holds onto his 5s and rolls the other two dice hoping for another 5 or a pair. Let’s see what he gets:

Bingo! Now Sheldon has to improve as his full house (3s full of 4s) is smaller than Francis’ (5s full of 3s). Sheldon decides to keep his 3s and drop his pair of fours in an attempt to get four of a kind.

Sheldon was unable to improve so Francis wins.

This game moves very quickly particularly if everyone knows the basic poker hand rankings, and what the optimal draws are. You can play for drinks or shots, or just kill some time by out-rolling your friends. Money has also been known to change hands on this game! You will find cups of dice at most bars. Those little dice provide hours of fast-paced action, and unlike some other bar pursuits, you never have to wait for a game.