How to Play Pokeno

Move over Bunco and bridge--a new home party game has taken center stage. A combination of cards and Bingo, Pokeno is perfect for young and old. Read on to learn how to play Pokeno.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A deck of cards
• One Pokeno board per player
• Bingo chips or Tiddlywinks
• Prizes for winners

1. Get a deck of cards, a handful of Bingo chips (or Tiddlywinks) and a Pokeno board for each player. Pokeno boards can be purchased at game stores or can be created, by taking a piece of cardboard or card stock and drawing (or pasting) 25 card faces, with no cards duplicated on a board, in rows of five.

2. Pass out one board and a handful of chips to each player. One player will be the dealer but can also play if he or she can keep up.

3. The game begins when the dealer shuffles a full deck of cards and starts turning over the cards, one at a time, face up on a table and calling out their denomination. If a player hears a card called that is on their game board, he or she will place a chip on that part of their board, similar to Bingo.

4. The dealer should continue to turn over cards and call them out--the faster the more exciting--until a player has five chips in a row on their board. The chips can fall vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

5. The first player (or players) to get five chips in a row should call out “Pokeno!”

Tips & Warnings

• As each winner calls out "Pokeno" consider giving them some sort of prize or gift. For more ideas, see "How to Throw a Pokeno Party."

Resources

• Resource for Pokeno cards

[judiiam39]

on 8/26/2009 I have played Pokeno since I was a child, and I absolutely love the game! I don't see in the instructions above, any mention of the 'pots' we've always played with. We would have four different 'pots' that are on the board throughout the game. they are: Pokeno, Center, Four of a kind, and Four corners. At the beginning of each round, each player puts money in each pot (they are labeled). We would usually play for a nickel or a dime. Whoever gets Pokeno, gets that pot to end the round. The other pots are a bit more difficult to win, so they tend to grow with each round, but if a player wins one of the other pots before Pokeno is called then lucky them! The way we would end the game is play until all pots were empty - even if Pokeno has already been called. Depending on how may people are playing, and how long it takes for someone to win, the pots can get really big, which ma...