Poker dice

Poker dice are a type of dice which depict playing cards on each side. They’re used to play games, most of which involve forming poker hands from rolling the dice.

History

Poker dice from different manufacturers. The leftmost faces have a triangular design that originated from an eight-sided die pattern. The rightmost dice are Junior Royals.

The first poker dice were likely eight-sided and from the late 1800s, not too long after the invention of Poker itself, though not much information is known about the history of poker dice or its evolution into the modern six-sided variant that exists today.

In the 1950s, Yahtzee was derived from poker dice games like Yacht and Cheerio, without playing card faces on the dice.

Dice

The most common variety of poker dice have six sides: 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. Poker dice are usually sold in sets of five, the amount of cards held in a Poker game.

9	10	J	Q	K	A

The goal of most games is to form Poker hands. For six-sided poker dice, a flush is not possible, as the suits on poker dice are merely decorative.

Poker Hands
					Five of a Kind
					Four of a Kind
					High Straight
					Low Straight
					Full House
					Three of a Kind
					Two Pair
					One Pair

Details

Suits are only for decorative purposes on poker dice, and the depiction of suits varies. The Nine is usually represented with either Spades or Clubs. The Ten is likely Diamonds or Hearts. And the Ace is usually a Spade or Club, whichever is opposite of the Nine.

Court faces are not represented with suits, but are typically—though not always—colored differently: red for King, green for Queen, and blue for Jack.