How to Play the Twenty-One Aces Dice Game

We have an interesting and easy dice game for you today: Twenty-One Aces.

A while ago we told you how to play that Twenty-One dice game. Although they have similar names (in fact I found them with the same name) they are very different games that are both easy to learn and fun to play. Twenty-One Aces has a unique spin where players are adding to the total for everyone but are playing for themselves. Similar games are Snowball and Shark Bite.

In this post, we’ll cover the rules, how to play and how to win the Twenty-One Aces game. Let’s get to it.

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What You Need for Twenty-One Aces

You will need five dice and poker chips.  If you need some new dice (we love getting to pick the colour for the game) you can You can shop dice here. Canadians here..

Playing Twenty-One Aces

To start, everyone puts one chip in the middle. On your turn, you will roll all five dice. You will set aside any 1s (aces). You now get to re-roll any dice that was not an ace. Again, you will set aside any aces and reroll. You keep going until you have a roll with no aces. If you have rolled all five aces, then you will roll all the dice again. Once you have a roll with no aces, you will add up the amount of aces that you have. This number is the group tally and will be added to as other players roll.

When someone fails to roll an ace, everyone puts a chip in the middle.

It is now the player on the lefts turn. She will roll all five dice and set aside any aces. She will add her ace count to the first players. For example, if the first player had a score of 4 and she rolls an ace, then the score is now 5. As with the first player, she keeps rolling and setting aside aces until she rolls no more aces. Players will put a chip into the pot and the next player will roll.

The score keeps being past from player to player. For example, if the first player had 4 and the second player adds 3 for a total of 7 and the third player rolls 5 aces then the score is 12 and so on.

When a player reaches a total of 21, he must now roll all the remaining dice and hope not to get an ace. If he does not get an ace, then he wins the round and gets the chips from the middle. On the other hand, if he does roll one or more aces, he continues as before. Any aces that he rolls is added to the score and he keeps rolling until he has a roll with no aces. The score would now be at more than 21.

Now, the next player rolls as before except that any aces are subtracted from the score. For example, if the score is at 24 and she rolls two aces, then the score is now at 22.

Play continues like this with the score going up and down until one player rolls 21 and then a next roll that has no aces in it. That player wins the chips in the middle.

Winning The Twenty-One Aces Dice Game

The game continues with new rounds where players put a chip in at the beginning and the winner of the rounds wins the chips in the middle. You can play until one player wins all the chips or you can play a certain number of rounds and the player with the most chips is the winner.

All Bets are For Fun

The Twenty-One Aces game is fast and easy to learn. It’s prefect for a group game. You could also play with candy or you could make it more festive and play with seasonal candy for even more fun! Get the printable rules here.

Looking for a different Twenty-One dice game? Check out Twenty-One here. If you’re looking for more dice fun, check out the Grumpy Dice game–a strategy game that will make you really think, Countdown Dice–fast and easy, and Jackpot dice another great group game that uses poker chips!