Here is the most complete, most authoritative reference ebook on games available. Just about every game you can think of - in all, more than 1000 games and their variations - is described, together with the latest rules and easy-to-follow instructions. And to add to your enjoyment, here are hundreds of play-to-win tips from John Scarne, the famous authority on games and gambling.
In the more than 600 double-column, oversize pages you will find many old favorites as well as newly invented games including gambling games, variations of solitaire, social games, board games, and parlor games to delight children. In addition to all types of card games, poker, bridge, rummy, canasta, pinochle, hearts, cribbage, etc., this book covers title games, dice games, chess, checkers, lottery games, board games such as backgammon and Parcheesi, and even a few that require special equipment.
From his long experience in this field, John Scarne provides a wealth of professional tips and sound, game-winning strategy. Of special interest is a chapter on cheating and the many tricks used by card sharks and how to detect them. A complete index enables you to locate quickly anything you wish to know about any game and a glossary gives clear definitions of all playing terms used in the ebook.
Scarne's Encyclopedia of Games answers hundreds of questions on games and gambling and gives you detailed information on such points as:
- Why your odds are better when the bank pays 7 to 1 than when it pays 7 for 1.
- Various ways players can cheat at dice, including how it is possible to cheat with honest dice.
- Twenty fundamental rules for improving your poker-playing skill.
- Bridge conventions and playing devices such as Blackwood, Gerber, Rule of Eleven, Stayman, etc.
- What your chances are of being dealt a Royal Flush in the original five cards. Three of a kind, etc.
- Five rules to follow to gamble sensibly at Bank Craps.
- Rudiments of basic chess strategy plus some famous chess openings and responses.
- The many fascinating games played with dominoes throughout the world.
- Different types of dice specially made for cheating: flat passers, bevels, cut edges, loaded dice, etc.
Numerous tables throughout the book show you how to take advantage of percentages: for instance, the odds on various combinations in poker, the casion's percentage in Bank Craps, possible poker hands in a French 32-card pack, and combinations possible with 2, 3, 4, and 5 dice, etc. Illustrated with photographs and line drawings,
Scarne's Encyclopedia of Games will be the last word on games and gambling for many years to come.
1st edition 1973, 628 pages.
word count: 426666 which is equivalent to 1706 standard pages of text
