YAHTZEE
Yahtzee’s goal is to get as many points as possible by getting certain combinations of dice. The game uses 5 dice, and the two players may throw the die up to three times per turn. They are allowed to keep some dice on the second and third throw if they choose to. The player chooses which scoring category to be used after each round; that scoring category cannot be used again during the game. Some scoring categories have fixed points while others’ points depend on the value of the dice. There are 13 rounds in the game. The player with the highest amount of points by the end of the 13 rounds wins.
The scoring category combinations are similar to the card combinations in poker.
I played Yahtzee three times online. I lost the first two times and won the third time. I found it fun, and wanted to beat the computer program. The elements of the game are fairly simple and easy to understand as long as one is familiar with the dice combinations, which were helpfully laid out for me on the website so I could glance back at it whenever I needed to. The element of chance in rolling the dice was exciting, and picking which score category each round’s points should go in was frustrating in a good way. It would be interesting to see how the game would work if we added or took away the number of dice, like if we used three dice instead of five, or eight dice instead of five, and changed (took out/added) the scoring categories to match the number of dice.
POKER
Poker’s goal is to win the money in the pot. The player places a bet, hoping that they either have the best combination of cards out of all the players or can give off the impression that they have the best combination of cards out of all the players, imploring the other players to fold/withdraw their cards. Poker uses the standard 52-card deck and something representing money to bet with, usually poker chips and less commonly loose change, candy, etc. The number of players can range from two to ten or more.
I played poker both online and with real people. I lost every time. It was more fun playing with real people; we could talk and make faces at each other to throw each other off. While these interactions made the game more difficult, it was also more entertaining, and the use of candy as betting pieces made everything more lighthearted. Online, I played on Neopets, so I would lose Neopoints (the currency in the Neopets universe) if I lost, which would make me sad. Playing online was boring due to the lack of real people interactions, but I still played the whole game through three times in hopes that I would win. The card combinations are fairly simple and easy to memorize. The element of “faking it” and knowing when to raise and fold are the hard parts.
There are already a lot of variations of poker. An interesting thing to include would be if players had to switch one to three cards with the person next to them every time someone raises their bet.
