Teen Patti, Toguz Korgol, and Irensei – Cultural Games around the World

The new graphic from Pokies.net.au explores cultural games from around the world both familiar and unknown, when they’re played, and which ones might involve aerial block-based warfare.

Can’t afford Monopoly? Feel like poker’s just not on the cards? Is Chutes & Ladders dragging you down?

Why not try a game from the other side of the world? In the new infographic from Pokies.net.au, you can find games from across the globe, like Toguz Korgol, the 2-player Central Asian game that uses careful strategy to turn a game-board of pits and beads into a challenge as complex as chess.

Or if you have a few more players, maybe you’d prefer to try Canadian Drapeau – a field sport similar to ‘capture the flag’, with defenders trying to prevent attackers from stealing the ‘drapeau’.

And maybe give Go a go – the ancient Chinese game still played today, and the inspiration for many other modern games around the world, from chess to the Japanese game Irensei.

Weird and Unusual

Some of the games might seem familiar – the Korean game Kongki Noli is similar to Jacks, and Parquéz comes from the same origin as Parcheesi – but there are some completely different games out there.

Have you ever played…

• …Kubb, the Viking wooden-block-throwing game still played in Sweden, where teams try to knock down each other’s ‘kubbs’ in order to defend their King?
• …Sedma, a card game from Romania that uses a 32-card deck, where players attempt to win tricks with the highest card?
• …Pilolo, from Ghana, in which one player hides rocks, sticks, or pennies, and the other players have to find one and take it across a finish line?

Some of the games are tied to specific events. In Greece, Blackjack (occasionally known as 21) is played on New Year’s Eve, while Diwali (or Deepavali) is celebrated in India with games of ‘Teen Patti’, a variant on poker that uses three cards.

And in Korea, the Korean New Year is ushered in with games of Yut Nori – a boardgame usually played with marked sticks in place of dice, and in which players try to be the first to move all their pieces around the board.

Other cultural games range in complexity from Semut, Orang, Gajah – which is essentially Rock, Paper, Scissors with ants, humans, and elephants – through to Morabaraba, where players try to arrange their pieces to form positions called “mills” that allow them to remove the other players’ pieces.

Whether you see yourself as Bond at the cards table or are more of a professional Tiddlywinks player, make sure to check out the rest of the games from around the world at Pokies.net.au.