Bauernroulette is a
game
A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
that was apparently invented in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, where several companies sell it. The name Bauernroulette indicates it is a "poor man's roulette", since Bauer is German for 'peasant', 'farmer' or 'one of a chiefly European class of agricultural laborers'. In Bauernroulette, a
spinning top
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect.
Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few se ...
is spun in the middle of a
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
en circular playing surface that contains six wooden balls. The balls bounce off the top in random directions and sometimes land within one of several hollow indentations within the surface, or pass through a small hole into chambers that are located outside the spinning surface area. Typically, the most points are scored by landing balls within these outer chambers. Skilled players are often able to spin the top such that it remains in motion for more than thirty seconds.
Rules
# Place the 6 balls (4 white, 1 red, and 1 green) in the center of the playing field.
# Set the whipping top near them and spin it.
# The balls will be shot into the small hollows or bowls.
# Each hollow or bowl in which the balls come to rest have a point value associated with them. Add up the points of each of the hollows in which a ball has come to rest.
# If the red ball is in a hollow, double the number of points for that ball.
# If the green ball is in a hollow, the points are subtracted from the sum obtained by the other 5 balls.
# Sometimes balls will fly out of the playing surface. These balls are out for that round and can not be replaced while the top is still spinning.
# A player scoring with all 6 balls gets to spin the top again.
# The winner is the player who first reaches a point total that is agreed upon before the game. Normally this total is 1000 points.
Alternative rule
The players can also stipulate that the score reached by the green and white balls is valid only if the red one also scores.
Interroulette.co.uk - Bauernroulette
. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
See also
* Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...
References
{{Reflist
Roulette and wheel games
Tops
Wooden toys