🐷 Pig
7 playsPig
Roll as often as you dare, bank before the one comes up, and race Rosie to 100.
About Pig
Pig is the simplest of the push-your-luck dice games and, on reflection, one of the most instructive. On your turn you roll as many times as you like, every roll adding to a running total for the turn, until you choose to bank it or a 1 turns up and takes the whole turn away. The first to bank 100 wins. A second version doubles the dice and the danger: a single 1 still costs the turn, double 1s wipe out your entire banked score, and any other doubles oblige you to roll again before you may bank. Rosie keeps you company at three levels — cautious at Easy, bolder at Normal, and at Hard following the strategy players call keep pace and end race.
How to Play
Roll as many times as you dare; each roll adds to your turn points. Roll a 1 and they are lost and the turn passes. Bank to add your turn points to your score. With two dice, a single 1 loses the turn, double 1s wipe your whole banked score, and any other doubles must be rolled again before you can bank. First to bank 100 points beats Rosie. Keys: R or Space to roll, B or Enter to bank.
💡 Tips & Strategy
In the one-die game, the number to remember is twenty. Each roll risks a one-in-six chance of losing the turn, and the average gain from a roll that survives is four, so once your turn total reaches about twenty, the points you stand to lose on the next roll outweigh the points you can expect to add. Holding at around twenty is the simple, sound rule that most good players start from, and it is the threshold Rosie uses at Normal; at Easy she banks at about twelve, which is why she can be overtaken by steady play.
Then bend the rule to the scoreboard. When you are well behind, a cautious twenty will not catch up in time, so press on for more; when you are ahead, bank a little earlier and make Rosie take the risks. The refinement known as keep pace and end race — the strategy Rosie plays at Hard — holds at about twenty-one adjusted by the gap between the scores, and once either player reaches 71, rolls on until the game is won. Near the finish, there is no prize for a safe bank that leaves your opponent one good turn from victory.
The two-dice game changes the arithmetic sharply. A single 1 now turns up on eleven rolls in every thirty-six, so turns are shorter and the comfortable holding total is lower than in the one-die game. Worse, double 1s wipe out your entire banked score, and that one-in-thirty-six risk grows more frightening the more you have banked: a player with a large lead should bank often and expose the total as rarely as possible, while a player near zero has little to lose and can roll freely.
Remember that in two-dice play any doubles other than snake eyes oblige you to roll again before you may bank. A pair of sixes is welcome, but it also means one more roll at risk, so a large turn total can be carried further than you intended. Bank when you can, and treat a long string of good rolls as a reason to stop rather than to continue.