Chouette

Introduction to Chouette

For today's online gaming community, the need to find replacement games that are skill based and which rival the attraction of poker especially for the US patrons of the game is paramount.

Many gaming companies are turning to the accepted games of horse racing and bingo as their alternative offerings. Some are looking to backgammon to bridge the gap in their revenues, and whilst backgammon does indeed fulfill the criteria of an online skill game, it has one disadvantage, in that it can only be played initially by two people, which makes it slightly restricting.

But necessarily so, for backgammon's versatility is one of the game's great strengths. It is a game that by its very nature offers new ideas on how to play and from this many variations on a theme of the game have evolved. One of them is Chouette, which is a variation of backgammon that allows multiple players to take part in the game at the same time.

Set up Chouette

The set up of Chouette is a little more complicated than traditional backgammon, but it does allow three, and up to six players to participate. This multiplayer platform could be just the thing to replace the online poker rooms. With a series of backgammon Chouette rooms being created for on online gaming sites, in the same manner that online poker rooms proliferate the web.

In combination with Chouette multi player rooms, online tournaments can also be arranged to run alongside Chouette matches, so that the scope for a world-wide audience can also be addressed.

The basics of the game are that one player plays against the rest, he or she is called the "box" and it's their objective to beat the other players who are known as the "team"...

One person in the TEAM is the captain who is the leader of the team and it is they that make all checker moves for the team. Discussion of the checker moves is not allowed until at least one cube is turned.

However this rule is not always enforced and with online games the ability to communicate through the chat window makes this option even more a viable possibility.

Playing Chouette

At this point opening or Ante bets could be placed.

Each player on the team has a cube which they launch; they then make their own cube decisions supporting the captain in his battle against the BOX. The BOX therefore has up to 5 cubes in a six player game to compete against.

If the BOX wins against the captain either by winning more points than he or she lost with all the points on the cubes, then the BOX retains his position for the next game. And takes the pot. The captain then goes to the end of the team and the next player in line becomes the new captain.

This leads to a new round of betting again at this point, possibly. The captain could then pay a sum to the Box as well as the other players, a sort of pay the dealer scenario. This could also allow for side bets against the Box: Should the roles be reversed where as the captain beats the Box then their roles are replaced, if the captain had won against the Box, then the Box will go to the end of the team and the current captain becomes the Box for the next game.,

The next player in line on the team will be the new captain for the next game. It is really a process that on the one hand seems complicated but in fact it is just moving down the line in its most simplified form.

Had both the captain lost the game and the Box lost more points than they had won, then both of them will go to the back of the team and the next two players in line become Box and captain for the next game. They would then forfeit their bets to the Jackpot or the progressive element of the game this builds up as the matches are played. The Jackpot can be won only after six successive doubles are rolled.

One other rule to remember is that if every team member doubles the Box from the center, then the Box MUST accept not only the captain's cube but at least half of the total cubes. The captain's cube does count in this final total.

Should the Box double everyone from the center, then if everyone should drop except for one person, the game server will force drop his or her cube. This is necessary to ensure that someone isn't simply delaying the game needlessly. In a 3 player game, this rule has no effect.

There can be many variations that could be applied in the real money game for Chouette one of which is the Auto-Double; this means the Box is given the option of deciding whether matching rolls should result in an increase in the cubes' values.

The odds must be evaluated and a decision taken for all the cubes as one. If two matching rolls are rolled after each other then the Box can sometimes choose to carry one auto-double onto the next game they are still in the box at that time.

On the surface Chouette looks complicated, but it isn't and once players get used to the idea of a team based game of betting then it could be the way forward for multiplayer online gaming. It has al the elements that it needs to be successful; it just requires someone to make it happen.

CHOUETTE