How to play LCR (Left Center Right)

LCR is played with three ordinary dice and a pile of chips. Each player starts with three chips, and the middle of the table is kept clear for a pot. No chips at hand? Buttons, paper clips or dried beans work just as well.

The game suits three to eight players and involves no writing or scorekeeping. The youngest player can start, and turns pass clockwise.

On your turn you roll as many dice as you have chips, but never more than three. With two chips you roll two dice. With one, you roll one.

Each die tells you what happens to one of your chips:

• 4: give a chip to the player on your left
• 5: put a chip in the pot in the middle
• 6: give a chip to the player on your right
• 1, 2 and 3: nothing happens, the chips stay with you

Chips in the pot are out of the game and cannot be taken back. If you have no chips, you skip your roll, but you are still in the game. Receive a chip from a neighbour and you are back in play next time your turn comes around.

Play continues until only one player has chips left. That player wins the round and takes the pot as the prize. Since every five sends a chip out of the game, the round always heads towards an ending, usually within a quarter of an hour.

If you play several rounds, agree in advance that the first player to win three rounds wins the evening.

LCR is also sold as its own game under the name Left Center Right, with special dice showing L, C, R and dots. L means left, C means center and R means right, while the dots mean you keep the chip. Ordinary dice do exactly the same job: 4 is left, 5 is center and 6 is right.

For longer rounds, start each player with four or five chips instead of three. If you like simple games where chips wander around the table, also try Aces in the Pot or Help Your Neighbour.

Yes, LCR is one of the simplest dice games there is. There are no decisions to make and nothing to calculate, so children from around five can play on equal terms with the adults. The game is also a nice way to practise left and right.

At least three, since chips must be able to go left, right and to the middle. The game is best with four to eight players and handles big groups around a long table well. With only two players the chips would mostly shuttle between the same hands, so I would rather recommend another game, for example Pig.