I had posted about Hanafuda cards the other day, and though I’d post a couple of links to some online versions of Hanafuda cards today.

The first is Godori, over at Neopets.com.  You’ll need an account to play, but it’s well worth it just to give the game a few plays.

The next is Hanafuda Flash, where you can play Koi Koi in a very streamlined interface with no frills.

You can also download Koi Koi for OS X here, and Hanafuda and Gostop for Windows here.

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Fancy jewelry designers Boodles created a buzz a while ago with the news that they were planning the world’s most expensive chess set: the Jewel Royale. The JR had its own web site that has since disappeared, so I asked Boodles what’s up with the set.

Turns out that only one piece was actually made, as a proof of concept, while the others remained in the planning stage only. The piece is the king – pictured – which you can buy for £45,000 (and not “over £100,000″, as some sites originally reported).

The entire set is still available for commission. If it ever gets commissioned, it would take about 4 months to complete and cost £1,000,000, including tax (and not £5-10,000,000 as some sites originally reported).

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Chicago Tribune pimps card games, along with the release of the book Ultimate Book of Card Games by Scott McNeely. (source)

Wired has another board game pimping contributor, Lore Sjoberg. Lots of Wired folks are learning to love un-wired games. (source)

Lucy Mangan of the Guardian disses board games, in response to Hasbro’s Family Game Nights, on account of family fighting. (source)

The Sacramento Bee reviews Stone Age. (source)

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In July, KS shut down a card room for hosting Kandu, a Texas Holdem variant invented by the room’s owner. In Kandu, the deck is revealed before play, and each player then decides whether or not to play. This removes a lot of the luck, I think anyone could argue.

The owners argued against the closure, but a judge has just returned a verdict upholding the ban, finding that the game is, in fact, still a luck-based gambling game.

Considering that regular old Texas Holdem has already been found to be a skill game by several other states, this is a pretty surprising decision to come to. The inventor is appealing.

(source)

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Dundee student Kris Zutis has invented, with the help of his supervisor, a program that catches players who count cards at Blackjack tables. Essentially, the program does it’s own counting, and then checks if a player’s bets are in line with what a counter would do. Or something like that.

Mentally counting cards is not illegal, but casinos don’t like it because it doesn’t allow them to keep house advantage – which is really a stupid position to hold, when you think about it; simply don’t offer the  game if you don’t like people playing it.

(source)

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