Yahtzee Rules
The goal of YAHTZEE is to get as many points as possible by rolling five dice and getting certain dice combinations.
How to play Game
On each turn, a player can roll the dice up to three times. A player does not have to roll all five dice on the second and third roll of a round; he can set aside as many dice as he wants and only roll those that do not have the numbers he is trying to get.
For example, a player rolls and gets 1,3,3,4,6. He decides that he wants to try the big fastball, 1,2,3,4,5. So, he puts aside 1,3,4, and just rolls 3 and 6 again, hoping to get 2 and 5.
In this game, you click on the dice you want to keep. They will move down and will not be rolled the next time you press the "Roll the Dice" button.
If after the second roll of a turn, you decide that you don't want to keep the same dice before the third roll, you can click on them again and they will return to the table and be rolled on the third roll.
Top Section Combinations
Ones: get as many as possible.
Twos: Get as many twos as possible.
Three: Get as many threes as possible.
Fours: Get as many fours as possible.
Fives: Get as many fives as possible.
Sixes: Get as many sixes as possible.
For the six combinations above, the score for each of them is the sum of dice of the correct type. E.g. If you get 1,3,3,3,5 and choose Three you will get 3*3 = 9 points.
The sum of all the previous combinations is calculated and if it is 63 or more, the player will get a bonus of 35 points.
On average, a player needs three of each to reach 63, but it is not necessary to get three of each exactly, it is perfectly fine to have five sixes and zero ones, for example, as long as the sum is 63 or more, the bonus will be awarded .
Bottom Section Combinations
Trio: Get three dice with the same number. Points are the sum of all the dice (not just three of a kind).
Poker: Get four dice with the same number. The points are the sum of all the dice (not just the four equal ones).
Full house: Get a threesome and a couple, e.g. 1,1,3,3,3 or 3,3,3,6,6. You get 25 points.
Small Straight: Get four sequential dice, 1,2,3,4 or 2,3,4,5 or 3,4,5,6. You get 30 points.
Big Straight: Get five sequential dice, 1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6. You get 40 points.
Chance: You can put anything in random, it's basically like a trash can when you don't have anything else to use the dice for. The score is simply the sum of the dice.
YAHTZEE: Five alike. You get 50 points. You can optionally obtain multiple Yahtzees; See details below.
Multiple yahtzees
The rules for various Yahtzees are a bit complex. There are a couple of different cases:
You already have a Yahtzee: you get 100 bonus points in the Yahtzee space, but you also have a wild card, which means you can choose another move for the Yahtzee you just got.
If the number you got the yahtzees with has not been filled in in the top section, then you should choose that one. E.g.
If you get an extra Yahtzee with 2 and you haven't completed the 2 in the top section, then you must choose it and get 10 points for it.
If the box in the upper section is already filled, you can choose any of the boxes in the lower region and they will be graded as normal.
Yahtzee is a superset of 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, full house, and chance, but you can also choose small or big straight and you'll get the normal 30 and 40 points for those.
You have already put 0 in the Yahtzee box: in this case, you do not get a 100-point bonus, but you do get a wild card and you can choose your move following the rules described above for wild cards.
Multiplayer
After years of playing solely against the computer, you can now start playing against other people from all over the world.
Click the "Multiplayer" button next to your avatar and choose the name of a player to connect to.
Once connected, you can challenge or be challenged by other players.
Note: To keep things simple and as consistent as possible, all multiplayer games allow multiple Yahtzees.
Strategy Tips
Try to get the bonus. Focus on making good shots with fives and sixes, then it won't matter if you put 0 on the ones or the twos.
You can always put 0 for a combination if you don't have it, even if you have some other combination. E.g.
If you had 2,3,4,5,6 and all you had left were ones and sixes, then it would be better to put 0 in ones than to put only 6 in sixes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the game.
Back to the game
About Yahtzee
This online version of YAHTZEE was created by me. My name is Einar Egilsson and there on the left is my current Facebook profile picture!
Over the past few years, I've created several simple online card games, including Hearts and Spades.
After doing seven card games and three solitaire games I thought it was time to try something else, so I decided to do YAHTZEE (or YATZY as it is known here in Denmark, where the rules and scoring are also slightly different).
It's been a fun game and I'm looking forward to seeing how well Bill will play against human opponents :)
The game is built with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with jQuery and a couple of jQuery plugins used for animations. Since I don't have any artistic talent, I used graphics I found on OpenClipArt, a great site with free graphics.
Do you need to contact us?
Please send any comments, complaints, bug reports, questions, or anything else to support@cardgames.io.
We can't answer every one, but we try to answer as many people as possible. If you just have a quick question, make sure it's not covered in our FAQ.
You can also often get help from other users in our Facebook community group, where many of our users congregate. Come in and say hello!
