Wednesday, November 30th -0001
Wanna Shake? Bar Dice & Rules
By Chip Bush
If you’re in a bar in Milwaukee, perhaps you’ve seen a group of people repeatedly slamming a leather cup onto the bar top, with what might seem like a dizzying and foreign list of words and phrases. Perhaps you’ve even heard these two words spoken to you. Chances are the person you’re hearing them from doesn’t want to firmly grasp your hand in a congratulatory gesture, nor do they want to offer you a frozen ice cream or custard-based beverage. No, It’s far more likely that they wish to engage you in a popular pub pastime known in these parts as “Bar Dice.”
SO WHAT IS “BAR DICE” AND HOW DO YOU PLAY?
Hold onto your hats, folks, because we’re about to get technical up in here! Bar dice is the term for several varieties of a game… played with 2 or more people… at a bar… with dice! Yes, all you need are some friends, (or at the very least, your friendly bartender), some dice and a dice cup. Don’t worry if you don’t have the last two, the bar usually has one or more of these on hand and is almost always more than willing to engage patrons in this lively endeavor. While many different dice games exist, we will be covering the 5 most popular varieties played in conjuncture with some sort of drinking as the prize and/or punishment.
BAR DICE:RULES
Bar Dice, in its most common form, involves 5 dice and a minimum of two players. Play begins with each player rolling a single die. Highest roll starts and play continues clockwise. Each player loads the dice into the dice cup, (Never load another player’s dice, Bad form!), shakes them and rolls them onto the bar. The aces count as ‘wild’ and at least one ace is required for the roll to count. No aces and you must re-roll. Aces are paired with the most number of the other dice numbers, (not necessarily the highest.) For example: A Player rolls two ace, two threes, and a six. The aces are wild, paired with the two threes, equaling four threes, which is expressed as “forty-three.” The next player then rolls in an attempt to surpass that roll with a higher number. In this case, four fours, fives or sixes (forty-four, forty-five, forty-six) or 5 of a kind (including wild aces) for fifty-two fifty-three and so on. Be careful though, rolling all five Aces usually results in an automatic loss or a stiff penalty such as buying everyone in the bar a shot. The person with the highest, or best roll of the round, is out of the game. This is a good thing, because the last person standing loses and has to buy a round of shots.
While there are variations and house rules which differ from bar to bar and also on what side of town you’re on, when there are more than three players, everyone just gets one shake. When the game gets down to three players, the number of rolls goes up to three, as determined by the first player to shake in the round. (Setting the pace) The first person shakes, (again, aces are needed for the roll to count,) and determines if they want to stay with that hand or re-roll. IF any aces are present, they may be kept, along with any other dice, in what’s known as farming. Be careful though, sometimes farming works against you. For example, let’s say you have rolled an ace, a three, two fours, and a five, a roll of “thirty-four.” You elect to keep the ace and the two fours, re-rolling the two and the five. If on the re-roll, two sixes come up, it might seem to give you a better hand of “thirty-six,” but they are invalid. Since, in this example, you were farming for Fours, only Fours or aces would have counted.
The player can shake up to three times (all day) in an attempt to get the best hand, but may elect to stop after just one or two. If a subsequent player rolls better than the first player in fewer rolls, but is not the last person to shake in the round, they may continue to improve their hand up to the number of rolls that the first player took. If, at any time the highest roll in the round is equaled by at least one other person, a one-tie/ all-tie occurs, which means if just one person ties, everyone ties and the round starts over, sometimes fully fresh, sometimes with each remaining player shaking only once (“one flop”).
Finally, when down to the last two players, each person rolls up to three times, but in this case, it’s best two out of three. The first loss is a strike against them or, as it’s known for some reason, a “Horse”. Whoever loses for a second time is the last one standing and has to buy the round.
STRATEGIC TIP:
Never farm anything less than two 5’s on the second roll. Better to leave that one or two aces and re-roll the rest.
SEE our other articles on different versions of Bar Dice from Chip!
