Square Shooters Reviewed: A Deck of Cards on Dice

Elliott MillerSep 5, 2011

Game Name: Square Shooters

Publisher: Heartland Consumer Products LLC

Designer: Carmelyn Calvert

Year: 2010

Players: Two to six players

Ages: 8+

Playing Time: 30 Minutes

Genre: Dice game featuring playing card suits

Retail Price: $19.99 Deluxe Set, $4.99 Basic Set

Did you ever have one of those “Now why didn’t I think of that?” moments? That’s the feeling I go then I first laid my eyes on Square Shooters.

Late one night, it occurred to Carmelyn Calvert that 9 dice has the same amount of sides as a fifty-two card deck of playing cards, plus two jokers. The big question, was it possible to put the symbols on the dice in such a way as to attain all the hands needed to play poker?

Carmelyn got out of bed and used a complex logarithmic program she developed in order to figure out how to organize the faces of the dice. Nah, I’m just kidding. She used good old American know how, made 9 wooden dice, and experimented until dawn until she figured out how to arrange the dice to allow you to play the most popular card games.

The dice themselves are oversized and heavy with the card designations engraved and painted into each face. Pretty high quality but I do see some chipping from the enamel paint in some spots.

The dice cup is cool and has a cover. You can store the dice, the chips, and the target cards in the cup when not in use, and the cup makes a great mini-tom-tom drum.

If you want to play poker, simply roll the dice three times trying to get the best possible hand. It’s like poker and Yahtzee combined. There are rules for playing a version of Blackjack (21) as well.

You can play rummy using the included pad of score sheets, and versions of other games using a combination of the dice and a deck of cards, like Texas Hold ‘Em. This of course defeats the purpose of having the dice in the first place, but it does spice up the games.

The main game that comes with Square Shooters is called the Classic Game. Also included in the deluxe set are 34 smaller “Target Cards”, which show different poker hands and their point values. Using the smaller target cards, a player draws the top card and tries to roll the hand indicated by making three rolls of the dice, keeping the ones you want between rolls. If you roll the type of hand (straight, flush, full house, etc) you get half of the points. If you roll the hand exactly as shown you get the full point value shown on the card, and you take that number of chips. After eight rounds of each player taking a turn, the player with the most chips wins the game.

There are extra target cards to add a little variety. Showdown cards have you face off against another player. Double Down cards will allow you to earn double points on a roll. There are also Jokers and Quick draw cards which allow you to glom onto the chips another player earns.

On the Square Shooters website there are other versions of games that you can play if the six included aren’t enough for you.

The Square Shooters game is a good time, and the dice a novel way of getting your friends to play some alternatives to poker night. It won’t take the place of a real poker night though.