How to Play Left-Center-Right (LCR) at Your Next Game Night

• Play LCR with 3 or more players. Give each person 3 chips to start off.
• Roll the dice on your turn to determine if you keep your chips or pass them to other players.
• Pass a chip to the left for each “L,” to the right for each “R,” and to the center for every “C.” Keep a chip for every dot you rolled.
• ​​Win the game if you’re the last person with chips in front of them.

Setup

Sit in a circle with at least 3 players. You can play with as many people as you want as long as there are 3 players minimum. Sit at a table or on the floor so there’s someone to your right and your left. Make sure there’s open space in the middle of the players to place chips and build the center “pot.” LCR doesn’t have a lot of rules or strategy, so it’s the perfect game for all ages.

Give each player 3 chips. If you have a copy of LCR, it will come with a set of chips. Otherwise, you can play with poker chips, checkers, buttons, or any other small tokens you have at home. Keep any extra chips in the container since you won’t use them during your game.

Designate specific dice rolls as "L," "R," and "C" if you’re using dice. Retail copies of LCR already have the proper symbols printed on them, so you can skip this step. If you’re playing with standard 6-sided dice, assign what faces are “left,” “right,” “center,” and “dots.” If you want, try using these substitutions: 1, 2, & 3: dots 4: Left (“L”) 5: Center (“C”) 6: Right (“R”)

Take turns rolling the dice to decide who goes first. Have each player roll all 3 of the dice and count how many dots are showing. After everyone has a chance to roll the dice, whoever had the most dots gets to take the first turn. If there’s a tie for who rolls the most dots, either roll the dice again or just choose the youngest player to go first. If you’re playing with standard dice, remember that dots are any dice showing 1, 2, or 3. Don’t count the individual pips (the dots printed on the dice).

Gameplay

Roll all 3 dice on your first turn. Since each player starts with 3 chips, everyone rolls the same number of dice during the opening round. Take all 3 of the dice and roll them in the middle of the table so everyone can see them.

Check your dice to see which chips you have to pass or keep. Look at your dice roll to see which sides are face-up. For each “L” (4) you rolled, give a chip to the person on your left. If you rolled a “C” (5), move one of your chips to the pot in the middle of the table. For every “R” (6) showing, pass a chip to the player on your right. If you rolled a dot (1s, 2s, or 3s), keep a chip in front of you. There’s a chance you may pass all of your chips on your first roll, but you’re still in the game and can keep playing! You never know when another player is going to pass you one of their chips.

Continue the round with the player to your left. Once you finish your turn, pass the dice clockwise to the next player. Everyone takes a turn rolling all the dice and passing their chips. Once everyone takes 1 turn, then you’ve finished the first round. It’s possible to have more than 3 chips during the first round if you received them from other players. Still roll all 3 dice like normal. You’ll only move a maximum of 3 chips on your turn.

Roll up to 3 dice based on how many chips you have each turn. After your first turn, count how many chips you have in front of you. If you still have 3 or more, then roll all 3 of the dice. If you only have 2 chips, then just roll 2 dice instead. When you’re left with only 1 chip, then roll 1 die. If you don’t have any chips left, skip your turn and don’t roll the dice. If another player passes you a chip on their turn, then you get to roll the dice again when they’re passed to you.

Win the game (and the pot) if you’re the last person with chips. Continue taking turns, passing chips between the players, and adding to the pot. As soon as there’s only 1 person left who has chips, they win the game! As their prize, they get to take all of the chips from the pot for themselves.

Variations

Try LCR Wild for a more competitive game of taking chips. In LCR Wild, assign one of the faces with a dot as a wild (“W”) instead. Play the game as you normally would, but make these changes whenever you roll wilds: For 1 wild, take 1 chip from any player. If you rolled 2 wilds, take 2 chips from 1 player or 1 chip from 2 different players. If you roll 3 wilds, you win the game immediately.

Play Last Chip Wins to try getting rid of all your chips instead. Rather than trying to be the last person with chips, race to be the first person to put your final chip in the pot. If you only have 1 chip left and you roll a “C,” then you win! This variation may make the game go on longer since any player has a chance of winning as long as there’s still 1 chip in the game.

Make the last player with chips roll all dots to make winning more difficult. Play the game as you normally would until only 1 person has chips left in front of them. Have the player roll the dice one final time. If they roll all dots, then they have won the game. If they still roll any other faces, pass the chips as you normally would and continue playing until someone wins. If you have 3 or more chips in front of you, then you have to roll dots on all 3 dice. If you only have 1 or 2 chips, then you only have to roll 1 or 2 dice instead.

Try playing with money instead of chips for a light gambling game. Replace the chips with pennies, quarters, or even dollars to make your own stakes for the game. Choose the value of each chip and play the game as normal. Whoever wins the game gets all of the money in the pot as their winnings.