Nothing, not even a busted shoulder, would stop Martha Brewer from competing in the first Prilosec OTC Bunco World Championship in Las Vegas this weekend.

"I would roll with my feet, use whatever it takes," said the 47-year-old bunco enthusiast, laughing about her enthusiasm for bunco, despite surgery on her left shoulder. "I've still got one good arm and two good feet. I'd spit those dice out if I have to!"

Brewer is heading to Vegas with five of her bunco-playing pals, all officers' wives at Hickam Air Force Base. They play the dice game consistently once a month, and call themselves the the Bunco Babes.

These six women — who will don aloha shirts, lei and dice earrings — will compete with 1,000 other bunco players from around the country for the $50,000 grand prize.

"There's no way we can lose," said Brewer, who has never been to Vegas. "I'm looking at this as strictly a way to have fun and go shopping. I've got my list."

Brewer picked up the game 16 years ago while living in Nebraska. Her husband had been deployed to the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, leaving Brewer home alone in a new city. And as happens on military bases everywhere, Brewer was invited to play the game by another military wife, whom she met in an aerobics class.

"I had no clue what it was about at first," said Brewer, who, in addition to playing with the officers' wives, meets with another bunco group in her neighborhood at Hickam. "She just told me if I could throw the dice and count I could play. And she was absolutely right."

Bunco is a progressive dice game of pure chance. You win "bunco" when a player rolls three of a kind for the number needed in the current round and earns 21 points. The first pair of players to get 21 points wins.

"It's easy, and it's all luck," said Jennifer Johnson, a 34-year-old mother of two and Bunco Babe who likes to roll her dice fast. "I mean, you can't control the dice. I hate to say this, but it's sort of mindless fun."

An estimated 10 million people play bunco in the United States, in neighborhood circles or with military wives' clubs.

The game is typically played by a group of 12 players, each of whom contributes to a pot that is awarded to the game winners.

With the Bunco Babes, each person pays in $5, which is then used to buy gift certificates from the Boutiki at Pearl Harbor, where they play every month. The winners receive the gift certificates as their prizes.

They start around 6:30 p.m. and roll the dice for a couple of hours. The designated hostess that month provides drinks; everyone else pitches in with pupu or desserts.

First they eat. Then they play. And at some point, they do both — and talk — at the same time.

"We eat bad food, enjoy some girl time, throw some dice, and shop (with the gift certificates)," said Yvonne Theodor, a 41-year-old mother of two teenagers. "What more would a woman want?"

To these women — and most bunco players — the primary focus of the game isn't winning. This is the one night each month they leave their responsibilities at home or the office, and just have fun. No kids, no husbands, no laundry.

"To me, this is a stress reliever," said Theodor, who learned how to play bunco 10 years ago while stationed with her husband on Okinawa. "I don't have to worry about anything; everything is taken care of. I can just hang out, enjoy the company of my friends, find out what's going on in their lives, meet new people. It's just a great time."

They say women need this time away from their stressful lives.

"It's absolutely necessary," said Brewer, whose husband knows he can't come home late from work on her bunco nights. "If we don't take time for ourselves, we get cranky. I think with the time away, it helps us re-focus on our families and our lives. Let's face it, military life is stressful. It's good to just release that stress. And what's great about this group: We are loud, we hoot and holler, we really have a ball."

Bunco surfaced in the United States in the mid-19th century, in San Francisco during the gold rush, according to the World Bunco Association. The name "bunco" morphed from a Spanish card game, banca. In its earliest days, the game was associated with gambling, with bunco parlors sometimes set up to scam money from players. Hence, the word "bunco" came to mean "a swindling game or scheme."

Today bunco is more of a social game, played everywhere from churches to suburban kitchens. While many have never heard of the game, its growing popularity is apparent. There are bunco books, DVD games and apparel. You can take bunco cruises to Mexico. There's even a fundraising drive called Bunco for Breast Cancer, which raised $125,000 last year for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

But it's been the networking aspect that has made bunco wildly popular among military wives, who feel a need to connect with other women in their situations. It's a way for them to make new friends in a new city or find a support system to handle the stressful lives they often lead.

"It's really a way to get connected," said Sarah Mendoza, a 35-year-old mother of two. "It's a great way to meet and talk to different people."

They use these scheduled monthly games to network with other women. They swap recipes or share favorite restaurants. They recommend dentists and schools. They dish about their kids, their husbands and military life.

In all, whether it's bunco or a book club, these regular social meetings can provide people with some much-needed — and much-anticipated — social interaction.

"It's a fun night away from your family when you can cut up, have fun and let your hair down with your friends," said Joann Dorschel, a 38-year-old mother of four who's been playing bunco for eight years. "It seems like once you start playing, everyone starts having fun immediately."

As for the tournament, none of the six women from Hawai'i is counting on winning the $50,000 grand prize.

The prize, really, is the weekend getaway itself. And the fact that it's in Vegas — with outlet malls, casinos and, of course, Target — is gravy.

What were they thinking when they all signed up for the tournament online?

"Road trip," Johnson said, laughing, "of course."

BUNCO LINGO

Bunco: Rolling three of a kind for the number needed in the current round. (For example, rolling three 4s in round 4.) Worth 21 points for the team. Remember: only the player who rolls the bunco gets the actual bunco point at the bottom of her score sheet. If at any time a player at the head table rolls a bunco, she immediately rings the bell to signal the end of that particular round.

Round: A full turn of players rolling. There are six rounds in a set, and the round ends when the head table gets 21 points.

Set: The game is divided into four sets. One set equals six rounds.

Partner: At every table, the two people sitting across from one another are partners. After a certain number of rounds, the players with the highest number of points in the last round move on to the next table. When moving, players switch partners.

Scorecard: Keeps track of each player's points.

Die: Singular for dice. When a player rolls a bunco, she keeps the fuzzy dice until the next bunco is rolled.

Head table: The head table controls the pace of the game.

Ghost: If there are not enough players, a ghost player can be substituted. The ghost moves from chair to chair like any player would. If the ghost rolls a bunco, her team gets the 21 points and her teammate gets the bunco point.

Roll-off: If the score is tied at the end of a round there is a roll-off — one complete turn around the table of everyone rolling the current number. The team with the most points after the roll-off is the winner and moves to the next table.

Source: World Bunco Association

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.