GAMING TRIVIA


	Traditional Asian Games

	As interesting and diverse as their cultural backgrounds are traditional games of Asian heritage, played in Singapore at one time or another. Here is a list of different traditional games taken from Pools' 30th Anniversary Book, "Just A Little Flutter" by Ilsa Sharp, 1998.

	Belankas "King Crab"	A game from the Javanese island of Bawean. An ivory or horn four-sided top engraved with the images of a King Crab, Flower or Star, Fish and Prawn, is spun in a saucer and covered with a bowl while players stake on a board similarly marked.

	Chap Ji Kee "Twelve Numbers"	An ancient Chinese game offering winners 100 times their stake. Bets are placed on combinations of any two of the numbers assigned to 12 Chinese chess-men, carrying names such as "Field Marshal" or "Horse". Operators used to "fix" the game by declaring the least-backed numbers the winners.

	Character Lotteries "Tikam Ekor" which means "Staking on the Tail"	This refers to lotteries based on the final digits of Sweep ticket numbers in published legal lotteries, whether on the last two figures (TwoDigit, "100 character"), the last three (3D, "1,000-character") or the last four (4-D, "10,000 character").

	Chee Fah "Wah Way"	Another time-honoured Chinese game, based on 36 numbered personalities of Chinese history or legend. The winner gets 30 times his or her stake. Operators released cryptic rhymed-riddle clues to the winning number.

	Chee Tam related to "Chee Fah" and "Chap Ji Kee"	The winner gets 70 times his or her stake. Based on 80 Chinese characters drawn from a Liang Dynasty school text titled "The Book of One Thousand Characters", about 502 AD, this 1,000-character poem was written overnight without repeating any character. The effort turned the author's hair completely white.

	Cherki favourite of the Nonyas (Malayanised Chinese women)	This complex Mahjong-linked card-game uses one or more packs of 60 cards each, depending on the number of players. Usually 12 women play, each holding a fanned out hand of 14 cards. A winning hand holds 15 cards, five triplets, at which the winner can call out "Sampei!" ("Arrived!" or "Home!").

	Fan Tan "Thuahn"	A number of beads or buttons are placed on a table and some covered. Players bet on what will be the balance of these buttons left over once they have been counted out in fours.

	Mahjong	Probably the best known Chinese game worldwide and very much alive, Mahjong is usually played by four people. Players use 144 marked tiles depicting the North, South, East and West Winds, three Dragons, Flowers, Seasons and Number Characters etc. Mahjong is known for its noisy clattering and shuffling of tiles.

	Minta Daun "Request a Card"	This game uses Western cards. As in other Southeast Asian card games, there is a "Banker" ("Chong" for the Chinese) and the players are "Kaki" ("Legs", or "Keok" for the Chinese). If the banker deals to a player the card he or she has bet on, the player wins and drops out from the game.

	Pai Dow "Pan Tiong"	A Chinese game using 32 dominoes comprising "Military" and "Civilian" pieces. Dice are thrown to choose the banker, who then deals out four dominoes per player. The players bet that their domino value will top the banker's hand.

	Pek Bin "Eight Faces"	A buffalo-horn or ivory dice-top engraved with Chinese characters is spun in a saucer steadied and sound-proofed in rice, and then covered with a bowl until it stops rotating, revealing the winning face.

	Sek Poh "Dicing for Treasure"	This game combines dicing with staking on a board marked like 21 of the 32 dominoes used in Pal Kow. A winning Trio-combination bet can net 100 times the stake or more. But operators often cheated players with a false bottomed dice-box.

	Solhi "Sixteen"	A Punjabi game played by four persons throwing 16 cowrie shells. Bystanders may wager on the game. The four players are assigned number values. The shells that come to rest with their open mouths upwards are counted to yield the winning number = player. The winner becomes the banker who throws the shells for the next game.

	Soo Sik Pai "Four-Colour Cards", or "Si Sek"	One of the earliest Chinese games, a Teochew favourite using 112 cards, Yellow, Red, Green and White, sometimes with an additional five "Jokers' or "Kwee" (Devil) cards. It originated in ancient times when War Minister Han Sin, unable to pay his soldiers, tore up strips of coloured paper, wrote Chinese characters for horses, tortoises, firecrackers etc on them, gave his men a few pieces of gold each, and told them to amuse themselves gambling.

	Tai Sai "Big and Small"	This game involves throwing three dice. The operator wins if all three show the same face, or if they total more than 10.

	Yee Sap Yat "Twenty-One", or "Ban Luck"	A Chinese card game using Western cards also well known to the Malays and Javanese. Ten people plus bystanders can play. The banker deals two cards per person. With Kings etc weighted for 10 points, Aces 11 points, players first stake, then draw up to three more cards to make their hand-value 21 points or less when they stop drawing. Then the banker draws similarly. Losers have fewer points than the banker, or more than 21, including the banker himself.

	Vettutaalu "Up and Down"	A fast-moving South-Indian favourite using Western playing cards, in which players pit themselves against the banker. The banker cuts the cards and shows his card. The players stake and then take their cards. Those who draw a higher-ranking card than the banker's are winners, but those with lower-ranking cards lose their stake to the banker.

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