Intro:

Chess like other games too has many variants and the Three-handed chess is a family of chess variants specially designed to be played by three players. Enthusiasts of Three man chess usually use some non-standard board with hexagonal shape or a three-sided board connected in the centre in a customized way.

Three player chess is the hardest to master mainly because of the imbalance that is created when two players join each other against one, which normally is difficult for the player to withstand. Some rules book avoid this problem by deciding victory in a manner that the third player loses along with the checkmated player, leaving the player who first delivers checkmate as the winner.

Strategy:

With the inclusion of a third player the style & strategy of the game changes drastically, although standard pieces are used. In normal case in Three man chess the opening moves are useless since its an extended board and also there is a third player. When the 3rd players plays, at times the game reaches a situation of deadlock. To clarify it further here is an example, if a black piece is undefended and simultaneously attacked by both red and white pieces. Red cannot take the black piece, since white would then capture the red piece in the following turn. Thus the red and white pieces are both simultaneously attacking the black piece and defending it from attack by the other player. In similar situations, a piece can move quite safely into a square where it is attacked by both opponents, since neither opponent would take the piece and risk capture by the third player. Each player must doubly think as far ahead- anticipating the moves of both opponents, with the added complexity that the next player may move to attack either of his opponents.

In a strategic game where the third player also loses along with the checkmated one, players must concentrate not only on their own attack and defense, but also on preventing the two opponents from checkmating each other. Its a battle to survive. Normally, every player can take advantage of one opponents position to checkmate the other, but must be careful that the third player does not checkmate first. White could checkmate red, only to have his piece captured by a black piece, which checkmates red. In this situation, white would lose since black delivers the final checkmating move. This strategy also applies to games which give the checkmating player command of the checkmated opponent’s pieces- a player who allows the second player to checkmate the third would surely go on to lose due to the increased power of his remaining opponent, now armed with the third player’s pieces.

Do you know of any other interesting chess variant like the Three man chess?

Popularity: 46% [?]

Apples to Apples is an interesting board game for all age group people above 12 yrs. You can call it a party game as it can be enjoyed with entire family and friends or an educational board game as it can also be played within a classroom. 4-10 players are required to play the game. This game has become very popular because of its simple rules and the variations it has.

Rules to play Apples to Apples Board Game:

Each player is dealt seven “red apple” cards; with a noun printed on each card.

One player is selected as the judge of the game.

The judge will be the first dealer who draws a “green apple” card on which an adjective is printed and places it face-up on the table for everyone to see.

The judge also distributes seven cards to all players (clockwise direction) including himself.

How to play Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples
The judge draws a green topic apple card from the top of the pile.

All players should select the red apple card that is the most appropriate match to the green topic card and place it face down in the middle of the table.

All the cards are collected and shuffled by the judge. The judge then decides which card best matches the green card. The player who had placed the winning red card is the winner of the round and collects the green card signifying the win.

All players then draw red cards until they have seven again, and the next round begins with a new judge. Generally, it is the next player in line playing the role of new judge.

The final winner is the player who succeeds in collecting pre-designated number of green apple cards.

This game has various variants too.. I have read some of them at wikipedia.. and found

them pretty interesting.. So I thought I’ll share it with my readers…

Variations of Apples to Apples (courtesy: wikipedia) -

Apple Potpourri: Each player selects a red apple card from his or her hand before the judge turns over the green apple card. After the red apple cards are played, the judge turns over a green apple card. As usual, the judge then selects the winning red apple card.

Apple Traders: To stir things up, on each turn, each player selects one red apple card from his or her hand to pass on to the player on his or her left. Players pass the cards after drawing their seventh card but before the judge selects a green apple card.

Apple Turnovers: The roles of red and green cards are reversed, with players using adjectives to describe the given noun. This can be stymied by the relatively low number of green cards in the box (a third as many as reds).

Apples Eye View: The Judge must pick a red apple card based upon the point of view of somebody, or something else (a house cat, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, a speck of dust, etc). The player to the left of the Judge determines which point of view the Judge must use for that round.

Baked Apples: After each player plays one card, the judge lays them face up and, instead of announcing the winner, identifies the non-winning cards first, each time explaining why it was not selected. The role of judge passes on to the winner of each round.

Big Apples: Two or more players boasting that the judge will pick their card can agree to each wager one of their green apple cards. If the judge selects one of their red apple cards, that player wins the green apple card and all of the wagered green apple cards. If the judge does not pick one of their red apple cards, the wagered cards are forfeited to the bottom of the card stack.

Crab Apples: The red apple cards are judged on how unlike they are to the green apple card. The card least like the green apple card wins.

2 for 1 Apples: The judge turns over two green apple cards to start the round. Each player selects the red apple card from his or her hand that is best described by both green apple cards. After the judge selects a red apple card, both of the green apple cards are awarded to the winner.

Well, isn’t Apples to Apples a fun as well as educational game to play??

It can be a good form of entertainment at your next party.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Catching your opponent red handed when he’s bluffing has got to be one of the most satisfying things in poker. A bluff is always a high risk move which carries good rewards for the bluffer who has the temerity to drive the move home. Whenever you lose money to a bluff you look a bit like a fool: outsmarted, outplayed and left in the dust. This is exactly why it’s so great to bust a bluff: it’s like catching a daring thief.

There are several ways to keep bluffers honest. One of the most satisfying is through another bluff. Called floating, this move allows the savvy player to defeat the bluffer with his own weapons. Floating is meant to defeat the c-bet which is getting more and more popular these days. Because online games are more and more competitive, preflop aggression is more and more prevalent too. Players who fire out a preflop bet or raise, will often fire a second bullet called a continuation bet (c-bet) on the flop to show strength and thus to make the others fold to their bluff. What’s happening here is either a semi-bluff or a full on pure bluff. This is where the floater comes into the picture. He calls the bluffer’s c-bet and tags along to see the turn. This move will often plant the seeds of doubt into the bluffer’s head, so chances are he’ll just check on the turn, thus giving away the fact that he doesn’t really have anything. This show of weakness is the floater’s clue to swing into action. He makes a pot a size bet thus letting the c-bettor know he means business. The floater’s goal is always to make his opponent fold.

Although floating is generally considered a pure bluff which means the floater is not supposed to have any sort of a hand, if you want to make the most of the move you’d better make sure you have some equity in the hand on which you’re floating. You need that equity to turn the move into something of a semi-bluff, which offers you two ways to take down the pot. Plan A is always to make your opponent fold, but if plan A fails, you have a plan B on which to fall back. You don’t need an excellent drawing hand. A weak one like as gutshot straight draw will do fine.

Another way to bust a bluff is through the bluff catcher. The bluff catcher is a hand, which is not particularly strong, and which is definitely not worthy of value-betting. The bluff catcher represents the lower end of your calling range – that’s the best way to define it I suppose. That means your hand doesn’t really have any other value besides being good at catching bluffs.

The toughest thing in deploying the bluff catcher is actually recognizing the hand. The reason why it’s tough to recognize is that there’s no way to see it before the river card lands.

Like everything in poker, successful bluff catching requires that you have a knowledge of your opponent’s playing patterns (like bluffing frequency) and that you can put him on a fairly accurate range.

If you get the range part of the equation right, you’ll be able to deduce the bluffing frequency fairly accurately.

As a general rule, whatever you do at the table, make sure you do it while signed up to a rakeback deal. A deal like the full tilt rakeback or the entraction rakeback will offer you a serious long-term edge regardless of whether you are a cash game or a tournament player.

Bingo – Play online bingo games and get $25 free bingo money.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Whether you’re playing a poker game at home or in a casino, there are some basic poker etiquettes that every player should know and must follow. These basic rules of good conduct makes sure that the game is fair and runs smoothly.

1. Wait….Don’t Play Out of Turn At time you may be super excited about how good your hand is and you can hardly wait to raise the pot, but you have to wait until it’s your turn. Same goes for folding hands when you can’t wait to get rid of them. If you are excited, then it sends out signals to all other players and they will be in a better position to decide their game.

2. Don’t Jabber about your cards while the hand is still going on Once you’ve folded, it’s fun to chat about what could have happened if you were still in, but those who are still in might make use of this information to plan their strategy. For example, if you had a 7-2 as your pocket cards
in Hold’em and the flop comes 7-7-2, if you blurt out that you would have had a full house, everyone will know that it’s unlikely that any player
still in the hand has the full house, making it hard to bluff and represent that hand.

3. Why show your cards? Don’t do it. When you fold, make sure you don’t flash or flip over your cards as you toss them. Again, if players know what you fold, it’ll give them indication that may change how the rest of the hand plays out. Unless you are all-in and heads up, there is no reason to show or expose your cards until the showdown.

4. Don’t Splash the Pot There are two bad betting habits that you see a lot in the movies which are a big no-no’s in real life. The first is when a player tosses his bet in a big mess in the center of the pot. That’s called Splashing the Pot, and it makes it hard to tell how much you’ve bet. A more polished way is just to stack your chips neatly in front of you to bet.

5. Don’t Make String Bets The second bad habit from movies is the string bet, which is when a player goes “I’ll call your 500…. and raise another 1000!” You have to declare whether you’re simply calling or raising right away — once you say “call,” that’s all you can do. If you’re going to raise, say raise and the amount right away. This is especially important in casinos.

6. Always be polite Even if it’s not your day and luck is not favoring you, it doesn’t give you any authority to curse other players or be rude to the dealer. It will win you neither pots nor friends.

7. If You Show One, Show All If you win a hand before the showdown and you want to show your cards anyway, you can’t just show them to the one player to your left or right,you have to turn them up for the whole table to see. After all, why should only the lucky players next to you get to know what you have been holding?

8. Do Pay Attention If you’re in a hand, don’t let others remind you that it’s your turn — be a part of the action so the game keeps moving. Using cellphone while playing is a real bad idea.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tetris has been modified many times throughout it releases since the 80s. There is no so called standard for the tetris game, as newer releases keep getting added either to make the game better or to keep tetris players interested. Newer Tetris games have become faster rather than maintaining its endurance.

Newer Tetris Versions
Latest versions of Tetris have different scoring formats which cannot be seen in traditional Tetris. Newer versions of Tetris use advanced graphics systems which makes it further more interactive for the players and keeps them glued to the screen. Multiplayer versions are favourites amongst younger players, while the matured players still prefer the older versions.

Tetris Game Facts

• Did you know that a Tetris type game is available on Topfield Digital Set-Top Boxes, coupled with a clone of Pac-Man and Brick.
• Did you know that Tetris is also available as a keychain game? So handy…!!!
• Did you know that pop singer Utada Hikaru is an avid tetris player. She participated in a Tetris DS tournament sponsored by Nintendo and beat 92% of her opponents. She has at times played Tetris at a stretch for half a day.

Learn more about Tetris Games at Wikipedia: Tetris

Popularity: 34% [?]

It was predicted that Mafia Wars would immediately gain popularity with the increasing number of players join the application. Facebook users have been introduced with many applications and MOB on Myspace has become the very famous tool attracting more and more users.

Facebook Mafia Wars is not only an interesting game, but is also addictive in nature. Facebook Mafia Wars, like MySpace MOB requests you to be ‘friends’ with your Mafia members. Whether or not they respond is a different matter altogether but so the best method is to invite your current friends to be on your Top Mafia team. The age group and reasons for networking on Facebook are somewhat unlike than MySpace. The key aim is to expand your Mafia team and keep taking the game ahead.

You might realize that some of your friends are not too eager to play an online game with you. There are other methods to increase your Top Mafia. By doing a research on Facebook for Mafia War you will land on a page devoted to the game. On that page you will find discussion boards with many posts where people are requesting to be on a Facebook Mafia Team.

Since the concept is to be friends with your Top Mafia Members, you will need to select and request to be friends with as many people as you want on your team (currently, Facebook Top Mafia teams can have up to 500 members). Many have experienced that this method has proved to be successful and they have recruits from around the world. One of the best advice is, while scrolling through the postings requesting friends, it is best to start at the last page as those are the newer postings and they are less likely to have already been in the friends list.

Once your Top Mafia team begins to develop, don’t forget to log in often to at least do a few steps and gain some points for level moving. You will be amazed as your money will grow with the addition of Mafia team members. If any of your members should be taken out in a ‘hit’, you can go back to the discussion boards and hunt for more friends.

Popularity: 22% [?]

INTRODUCTION –

Virtual world has blocked our mental images, restricting to explore our true selves by gluing onto an electronic device, through which a person feels he can fulfill his desires. It has indeed become a medium through which a person satiates his desires vicariously.

Using the fictitious tools, you have ambushed some terrorists with high-tech ammunitions, revved some engines to get a podium finish, and absconded from some cops for grand thefts. And now you have something really inseparable, something ancient but yet existent, for most part of the world a primary source of survival-farming.

Recently farming has become a preferred arena for gaming online, with the arrival of ‘Farmville’ game started by Zynga, especially on Facebook. Here is an opportunity for people who haven’t ploughed, sowed seeds, or harvested a crop ever in their existence on this earth to experience the real mechanism of farming.

RULES -
Farmville is a world which centers around the farmers ability to grow, nurture and harvest a crop. It does not require logical reasoning or strategizing, but if the farmer has to survive and prosper in the online farm world, he has to earn the maximum amount in a minimum span of time.

At the first stage of the game, the farmer is allotted a small plot of land, some money and an even smaller six square section that has been plowed and planted. The purpose is to expand his/her farm by growing crops and selling them to buy more crops. The faster the player can expand his farm, the more money he can earn and thus be able to afford a lot of other things. Now the money could be earned or the farm could be expanded in two ways – Farmville coins or Farmville cash. Coins are the most common form of money and they can be obtained by harvesting crops, whereas, green cash is quite seldom and is rewarded only over gradual accomplishments and after each level that is passed. The player should also have minimum number of neighbours to expand his farm.

The land that is purchased cannot be a direct purchase of what the farmer demands. Each incremental piece of land should be obtained, before the farmer shifts to buy the next size. For instance, a person ought to purchase a 14×14 space before moving onto 16×16 space.

STRATEGIES –TIPS -
There are some general tips or strategies that could be applied to be a wealthy farmer. The strategy is similar to any kind of business oriented organization. A profit-minded farmer will adopt one strategy i.e. grow, harvest and expand and grow, harvest and expand. Subsequently, this yields soaring profit and leads to higher levels quickly in the early stages of the game. One another simple way of advancing in the game is by adding more and more friends to the neighbourhood.

Every beginner might get carried away with purchasing objects for decorative purposes, but a savvy farmer will wait to buy these things until he/she has the capacity to plow and seed an entire field. Another strategy seems similar to that of investing in a share which has greater ROI (Return on Investment). The farmer should select the crop which results in considerable profits. One should consider the cost of the seeds versus the money he will earn from harvesting the crops.

Farmers should also check the growth time of the crop and it should be harvested soon before it is withered. This involves real time and not game time which means that if a crop is a two hour crop, it will take two hours to grow and will wither if not harvested by the farmer. So the farmer has to plant a crop keeping in mind his real-life schedule, which sounds quite fascinating.

The real life experience of farming has made the game so popular among the urbanites. People are transported into the zone of real farming by harvesting vegetables, milking cows and shearing sheep. It might also serve as a medium that deletes all misconceptions about our farmers or our ignorance, to their commitment of feeding the nation adequately. So this virtual experience of online farming has struck a chord with the masses, although the real one has declined.

Popularity: 26% [?]