How poker and other exhilarating games can keep you entertained at home

Updated on March 19, 2021

Playing different types of games can be a great way to relax at home. Games offer the chance to socialize with friends and family, while focusing the concentration to realize a variety of benefits. 

Here are 5 popular games to try out at home to stay focused, have fun, and relax.

5) Chess – Timeless game of skill

Person Playing Chess Game on Table

The ancient game of chess is a brilliant way to get the brain working. With its roots going back to at least the 6th century, chess has certainly proved itself to be popular down the ages. 

Chess is a game for two players, with each controlling either the black pieces or the white pieces. Through carefully considered movements, players place their pieces in the squares around the board hoping to capture their opponents’. 

The primary aim of the game is to make it so that your opponent’s king cannot avoid capture. This is called a ‘checkmate’ and brings the game to a close. 

Chess is a hugely beneficial game to play. For one, it builds a player’s mental responsiveness.  A player must try to anticipate their opponent’s next move and plan for how to react to this. 

Another health benefit of playing the game is improved memory. Memorizing complex possible moves and their outcomes draws out a thorough work-out for the memory banks. 

Expert studies have shown that the best chess players are those with strong memory and recall ability. The opportunity to test out tactics and exercise the brain is fundamental to why chess is such a fun game to play. 

4) Poker – A game of skill and chance

Playing Cards Deck

Card games offer an entertaining way to stay alert and engaged in a social setting. Poker is one of the most popular types of card games for friends and family.

A poker party is a great way of socializing and enjoying the fun of a poker game. Having people around to play poker in a relaxed setting is ideal to enjoy the fun of the cards.

Poker is an intense combination of the luck of the draw and the skill and tactics to know what to do with them. There are many variations of poker, and sometimes part of the challenge of the game can be deciding which style of game to play.

All kinds of poker are based on the essentials of dealing out 5 cards to each player. The players then have to assess their hand and decide whether to bet. 

To make the most of promising poker hands it is sometimes necessary to bluff. This is at the heart of what makes poker such an entertaining game. 

Only the most skilled players can manage to get away with bluffing on regular occasions, especially when the stakes are high! 

3) Scrabble – The lexicon of fun

Scrabble Board Game on Shallow Focus Lens

A game of Scrabble is a perfect way to put your mind to the test. Ideal for challenging a player’s ability with words and language, Scrabble is a classic board game that is always fun. 

Based on the idea of forming words from randomly distributed letters, a big part of the fun of the game is when an obscure word is presented to fellow players. Some lively discussions can take place when it is claimed that the word offered is not genuine. 

When the authenticity of a word is questioned, it will be time to reach for the dictionary. It is moments like these that showcase the game’s balance of social activity, quick thinking, and vocabulary skill. 

Ideal for anyone fond of reading and writing, scrabble fires up both the memory and the concentration. Most importantly though, it is unpredictable and a good deal of fun.

2) Cluedo – Investigate the possibilities

The famous board game Cluedo lets players sharpen their sleuthing and deducing instincts to piece together the clues in a murder.

In the game, players take on the roles of various characters and wander around a stately home looking to solve the crime. 

Players need to have their concentration tuned up to reason three possibilities; the murderer, the weapon, and the room it happened in. So, was it Professor Plum in the Kitchen with the Candlestick? Or Miss Scarlet in the Library with the Rope? 

The three randomly drawn cards detailing the truth of these questions are sealed in an envelope at the start of the game. The rest of the cards are then dealt out.

Players go around the board and interrogate their opponents to try and put together what actually happened. The best players of the game are those that can remember everything asked and how it was answered.

As with all the best games, Cluedo puts memory skills together with random chance in an exciting, healthy, and fun way

1) Trivial Pursuit – Test your knowledge

A quiz game is always good fun to play in a group. The famous game Trivial Pursuit also offers a great way to focus the mind and recall data and information.

The classic set-up takes in a huge assortment of questions taking in various categories like science and nature, geography, sports, history, and pop culture. 

If players want to get more specialized at a quiz event, there are expert editions concentrating on just one subject. But for an entertaining experience, the classic cards of diverse questions landed on randomly is hard to beat.

Ideal for exercising the mental muscles after exercising the physical ones, Trivial Pursuit appeals as a fun and social quiz. It provides an enjoyable way to revisit and reconnect with the memory banks in a fun and challenging way. 

Enjoying games at home can be a key part of appreciating a healthy and relaxed lifestyle. These and a whole host of others are sure to provide hours of fun and entertainment.

Why not enjoy a few games in the comfort of the home and reap the benefits? 

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