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Skill Games Casino Games

Most people, especially those who don’t gamble, look at casinos as places where luck reigns supreme. In fact, many even think the very word gambling implies a contest that is determined mostly or entirely by luck. It’s a belief that is quite clearly incorrect: people certainly have bet money on games like chess, which have very little luck involved in them at all, and many popular casino classics like blackjack, sports betting and poker require plenty of strategy to go along with their elements of chance.

The internet has allowed skill game gambling to go to a whole new level. Players can now find opponents from across the world to compete against in a variety of games where it is the ability of the players rather than the roll of the dice that determines who comes out on top. In many cases, these games offer players the opportunity to compete against each other at any stakes they like, with the site owners taking just a small cut for hosting the contests.

Free to Play Skill Games

Darts 180

Snakes & Ladders

Skill Games Reviews (No Free Games)

Pick Your Specialty

One of the top developers for online real money skill games is Spigo, a company that has developed a wide variety of titles for their platform. Available in many jurisdictions for gambling (and many more for free play), these Spigo games are fun, fast, exciting, and can be played entirely from your web browser, with no special downloads required.

The games included in this package span a range of the most popular card and dice games in the world, all of which require a great deal of skill to play well – but which anyone can learn the rules for in just a few minutes. Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular games you’ll find through Spigo:

7 Solitaire: The classic solitaire game, formally known as Klondike. Players attempt to clear out a complete deck by making four foundation piles, one in each suit. Many who play think the game comes down entirely to luck, but skillful players can win far more often than those who are merely average.
Backgammon: Perhaps the ultimate mix of skill and luck, the fact that this is essentially a “roll and move” game can make novices believe that this is a pastime that’s all about getting lucky at the right times. But they couldn’t be more mistaken: this is, in fact, one of the world’s great games of strategy and tactics, with top players spending years honing their ability to make optimal use of every die roll.
Diamonds: Spigo’s take on the popular “match three” genre of casual games, Diamond will set you with a variety of levels that require you to complete different tasks. Several difficultly levels offer different payouts, allowing you to set the challenge level that’s right for you.
Freecell: The scourge of Windows owners for two decades, Freecell is another solitaire game that requires players to move all of their cards to four suited piles. However, compared to Klondike, players have much more flexibility in how they arrange their cards – a truth that offers better chances to win, but which also increases the level of skill needed to navigate each board.
Hearts: This classic trick-taking card games pits four players against each other with the goal of scoring as few points as possible. Despite the name of the game, players don’t want to end up with hearts at the end of each round, nor the dreaded queen of spades – though collecting all of these point cards will allow one to “shoot the moon” and gain a massive advantage over their foes.
Ludo: You may not be familiar with Ludo by name, but you may know other games from the same family: Parcheesi, Sorry, or the original version of Pachisi that has been played in India for centuries. Players must race around the board, hoping to be the first to get their tokens around from their home squares to the finishing square.
Spider: Spider Solitaire is another game that will be well familiar to those who spent plenty of time in the games folder of their Windows operating systems. This time, players must work their way through two decks, stacking cards only of the same suit. The difficulty of the game can be adjusted based on the number of suits that are used: playing through just one suit is generally trivial, while solving a puzzle that uses all four can be a devilish challenge.
Yatzy: You almost certainly know this game by its more conventional, commercial spelling of Yahtzee, but this online implementation is just about the same. There are actualy two versions available through Spigo: a five-die option that is very similar to the game you know and love, and a six-die variant that adds in a series of additional targets that make the game more challenging than ever.

As you can see, some of these games are solitaire in nature, while others require opponents to compete against. The solitaire games typically include targets or goals that the player must meet in order to win their bet, while the games that are played against opponents see all of the winnings go to the person who comes out on top – minus a small percentage of the pot that goes to the operator.

Why – Or Why Not – Play Skill Games?

Let’s be honest: the types of games we are talking about here aren’t necessarily for everyone, and that’s okay. Many players enjoy gambling in ways where luck is the dominant factor, and there are good reasons for this: these games can be less stressful, easier to play, and harder to “mess up” by making mistakes that will cost you money in the long run.

But if you enjoy games of strategy, than skill games can be a very entertaining and potentially lucrative way to gamble. If you’re better than your opponents, you can expect to win money from them over the long run; if your advantage is large enough, then you might even find that you can beat them by enough to overcome the rake (what the casino takes out of each pot) as well, making the game profitable for you. That’s the formula that has made professional poker players successful, and there are plenty of other games at which similar advantages can be found. Similarly, if you can win often enough at the solitaire games, you might be able to turn a profit on some of those games, too.

The flip side of this is that these same games can offer rather horrifically bad odds if you are playing against opponents who are far better than you, or put yourself in situations where you don’t win nearly often enough to make your money back. One of the keys to this style of gaming is to know your spots: play only games you are comfortable with, rather than bouncing around to whatever you feel like playing each day. Of course, Spigo offers free play versions of each of their games, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to find a favorite and practice before you start playing for real money.

A Battle of Wits

Ultimately, skill games like those offered by Spigo find a wonderful balance of luck and skill. The results of any one play may be a bit unpredictable, but in the long run, your ability to find the correct strategies and employ the right tactics in real time will determine how well you do. This can be an incredibly rewarding experience: there’s nothing quite like seeing your abilities improve over time and seeing a change in your account balance that proves it.

If you’re ready for the challenge and excitement of skill gaming, than any of the titles we described can be a great place to start. While knowing that your decisions have a real impact on your results can be a scary proposition, it is also one that makes each round more engaging and action-packed. When every decision you make could be the difference between victory and defeat, it adds a whole new level of tension to your betting, taking the typical casino experience to a whole new level.