Aces in the Pot Dice Game Rules

Aces in the Pot needs two dice and a pile of chips. Every player takes two chips, and the middle of the table is left clear for the pot. It works with three players, though four or more is better, because then the chips get to travel before the pot swallows them. The name comes from the card table, where a one is called an ace, and aces are what feed the pot. Anyone can start, so roll a single die each and let the highest number go first. From there play moves to the left for the rest of the game.

Roll both dice on your turn and settle up straight away:

• Every one puts a chip of yours into the pot, where it stays for the rest of the game.
• Every six hands a chip to the player on your left.
• Nothing at all happens on any other number.

Then pass the dice to the left. A roll of 1-6 costs you two chips, one to the pot and one to your neighbour, which clears you out if you still had only the two you started with. Roll 3-5 and nothing happens at all, which is how nearly half of all rolls end.

Each die counts on its own, so doubles hit twice as hard. Double ones put two chips in the pot, and double sixes send two chips to the left. English rule sheets name those two throws aces in the pot and sixes to the side, and the first of them gave the game its title.

If you are down to a single chip when such a throw lands, you hand over the one you have and the rest of the throw goes unpaid. With one chip and a roll showing both an ace and a six, the chip goes to the pot.

Empty hands do not knock you out. You miss your rolls while you have nothing to pay with, but you keep your seat, because the player on your right can hand you a chip with their next six and put you straight back in.

Only the pot takes chips out for good, which is why the game keeps shrinking even as chips shuttle back and forth between neighbours. Three players hold six chips between them, and five of those have to reach the pot before anyone can play for the win.

In the end every chip but one sits in the pot, and that final chip is not allowed to follow. Whoever holds it gets a shot at the whole pot instead: three rolls of both dice, and not one of them may show a six. Aces count for nothing during the attempt, so the pot is out of the picture while you roll.

Get through all three rolls without a six and you win the pot, which ends the game. A six ends the attempt there and then, and the chip and the dice go to the player on your left, who tries the same three rolls. Round the table it goes until somebody manages it. Roll 4-2, then 5-3, then 6-1, and you fall at the final hurdle and pass the chip on.

The chips are the entire stake, so use something you have plenty of: buttons, matchsticks, dried beans or ordinary game chips. Starting with two each means everybody puts in the same, and the winner collects whatever has piled up in the middle.

For several games in a row, the tidiest way is to write down how many pots each player has won and treat the chips as equipment. Everyone then begins level each time, and nobody sits down empty handed for the next game.

These rules follow the version set out in English sources: two dice, two chips per player, ones to the pot, sixes to the left, and a finish where the holder of the last chip has to roll three times without a six. Very little is written about the game, and the few descriptions disagree about when that finish starts. The fuller ones wait until a single chip is left in play, and the alternative, where one player still holds several, is under Variants.