Inn and Inn

Number of players: 2 or 3
Type of game: Dice
Period: 17th Century

Inn and Inn (also written In and In) is a quick English gambling game played with four dice. Players throw in turn and everything depends on pairs: throw a pair and you are in, throw two pairs and you are in and in and sweep the pot, but throw no pairs at all and you are out, and lose.

History of Inn and Inn

• Origins: Inn and Inn is described by Charles Cotton in The Compleat Gamester (1674), who says it was “very much used in an Ordinary”, the eating houses and taverns where gamblers met.

• Name: The name comes from the calls of the game, “in” for a pair and “in and in” for two pairs. It also carried a rude double meaning, which Cotton himself made use of in a later parody.

• Decline: By the 18th century it had fallen out of fashion, and Oliver Goldsmith wrote of it as an old game that had “employed our sharping ancestors”.

• Odds: The game is quicker than it looks. With four dice, a throw has almost a three in four chance of making at least one pair, but only about a one in fourteen chance of making two pairs.

Traditional Rules of Inn and Inn

Setup

• Dice: Four six-sided dice, and a dice box (cup) for each player.

• Stakes: Coins or tokens. Cotton’s players staked sixpences, shillings or guineas.

• The Pot: Each player puts an agreed stake into the middle to start.

Objective

• Throw two pairs (in and in) to sweep the pot before you throw no pairs (out).

Gameplay

1. Players take turns to throw all four dice.

2. The throw is read as follows:

   • Out: No pairs at all.

   • Inn: At least one pair, such as two aces or two sixes.

   • Inn and Inn: Two pairs, or four of a kind, such as two aces and two deuces, or four cinques.

3. A player who throws Inn drops another stake into the pot and play continues.

4. A player who throws Inn and Inn sweeps the whole pot.

5. A player who throws Out loses the round.

Victory Conditions

• Two players: If you throw Out, your opponent wins the whole pot.

• Three players: If you throw Out, the pot goes to the other two players, who may either split it or throw again between themselves for it.

• Inn and Inn: The player who throws two pairs takes the whole pot.

Optional and House Rules

1. The Battail

• Before play, agree a set sum (the battail) that each player pays in equal shares, and take all later stakes from it. Play ends when the battail is used up.

2. Fixed Stakes

• Agree a single fixed stake for each Inn, so a long run of pairs does not grow the pot too quickly.

3. Three of a Kind

• Count three of a kind as an Inn, as it holds a pair, or agree that it is a special throw that lets the player throw again without staking.

Summary Table

• Game
• Period

• Dice