What is PokerChess?

PokerChess Launch Trailer

PokerChess is a game a friend of mine invented. It's launching on Kickstarter soon.

If you can play Poker, or Chess, learning PokerChess is easy!

The game uses a deck of cards, where each card corresponds to a chess piece.

Non-face cards (2,3,4 etc) count as pawns.

The board takes place on a 5x4 grid. Here is a video explaining the rules:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYAlqMRS-Yc

And here is a video with a sample round:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx-VgSlNZrI

I think this game is absolutely fascinating, and I don't think you necessarily have to be good at chess to win at the game! The sample round linked above was interesting. You can see that black checkmated white, but actually lost the round because white had a stronger hand. (Checkmate ends the round and whoever has the highest poker hand, including cards on the board, wins).

How could black have played better, if he knew that white had such a strong hand?

Well, he could have tried to get the guaranteed victory by marching his king to the "crown" square, which guarantees victory. Of course, it takes a while to get your king there, and white could have been drawing cards, or placing pieces to prevent him from getting there. However, with such powerful cards on the board, like a queen, black could have tried to attack these pieces, or maybe even captured the pieces that composed white's full house if he placed them!

You can see that the strategical implications of this game are actually quite deep, and the combination of chess strategy, bluffing, and random chance all come into play. Because of the hidden information element, and the bluffing element, you can expect to win a certain percentage of the time even if you are not skilled, unlike chess, where if you are a grandmaster, you're pretty much always going to beat a beginner.

I am really excited about PokerChess, and can't wait to play with my chess (and poker) friends.

If you're interested in this game, please check out http://www.pokerchess.com

There's more info and videos, and you can sign up for an email list to be notified when the kickstarter goes live and get your own pokerchess set.