Sycarion Diversions

Requires: 1 standard deck of 52 playing cards and three dice for each player.

Each player rolls the dice at the beginning of hand and leaves them visible to all players. A round of betting begins.
Then each player is dealt three cards and another round of betting continues. This can be done one time after all three cards are dealt or one at a time after each card is dealt.

The dice are used either as face value for extra cards (sixes, fives, fours, threes, twos, ones). A player may also combine two or three dice to generate a higher value card. Face card values are: 14 = Ace, 13 = King, 12 = Queen, 11 = Jack.

For example, if a player rolls three sixes, he may opt to use them as three cards (three sixes) or two cards (a King and a six). If a character rolls 6,5,3, he may opt to use them as three cards (a six, a five, a three), two cards (Queen and three, eight and six, nine and five) or as one card (Ace).

Note: Ones as lower than twos and ones are not Aces. It is therefore possible to have a pair of ones.

This, of course, makes six of a kind sixes the highest hand.
The hand rankings are as follows: (lowest to highest)

• High card – six different cards – no combination of dice and cards permit any higher hand.
• One pair – same as traditional poker.
• Bobtail – Four Card Straight that does not start with a one or an Ace. There are no wrap-around straights allowed.
• Two Pair – same as traditional poker.
• Three of a Kind (Barrel) – same as traditional poker.
• Three Pair – Just what it sounds like
• Odds or Evens – five or six cards in alternate sequence like A, Q, 10, 8, 6 or J, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1
• Full house – same as traditional poker.
• Straight – Five card straight, same as traditional poker. No wrap-around straights are allowed.
• Four of a Kind – Same as in normal poker
• Longtom – A ‘Four of a Kind’ plus a ‘Pair’
• Double Barrel – Two barrels (two sets of ‘Three of a Kind’)
• Five of a Kind – same as traditional poker.
• Major Straight – six card straight
• Six of a Kind – just what it says

There are no flushes in Dice Poker, the dice are not wild, they are their own suit called by various names (half-suit, monkey suit, crazy suit, etc) but usually referred to as Dice. Referring to values used to create hands, you would say that you have an Ace of Dice or a two of dice.

A variation of the venerable favorite, War! It sounds more complicated than it really is, just give it a shot and you’ll see. Because there’s three different stacks of cards at any given time, the rules can sound overly-technical.

Needed: One standard deck of 52 cards (No Jokers)

Rules of Play:

• Deal 26 cards to each player, face down. This will form the draw pile.

• Each player takes five cards from the draw pile and places them face up in a row. This is called the skirmish line.
  Each player then takes four more cards from the draw pile. Three are placed face down in a separate stack called a skirmish pile. The fourth card is placed face up on top of that pile. Whichever player has the highest face up card on the skirmish pile, takes the other player’s skirmish pile.

• Both skirmish piles are placed facedown in the winner’s discard pile.

• Starting with the winner of the skirmish pile, the player chooses one of his face up cards in his skirmish line and takes a card of lower rank from his opponent’s skirmish line and places both facedown in his discard pile.

• The other player then takes one of his face up cards in his skirmish line and repeats the same action.

• Play continues by alternating turns until the skirmish line is empty or neither player can take another player’s card. If cards remain on the skirmish line, they are put in the discard pile.

• When the draw pile is empty, a player must shuffle their discard pile and use it for the new draw pile.

• Play ends when a player concedes defeat, or one player has four or fewer cards.

Other rules:

1. Any time a player needs to add cards to his skirmish line or skirmish pile, he must shuffle his discard pile and use it for a new draw pile.
2. If a player has fewer then 9 cards total. In other words, the total number of cards from the draw pile and discard pile is less than nine, the player places as many cards as he can on the skirmish line, saving four for the skirnish pile. For example, if a player has seven cards left, he places three on the skirmish line and uses the last four to create the skirmish pile.