How to play Yatzy

1 player vs computer, or 2 online

Fill all fifteen rows of your scorecard for the highest total: each row scores a different dice combination, and sixty-three points or more across the upper six rows earns a fifty-point bonus.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   Your turn starts with all five dice rolled. Tap the dice you want to keep and roll the rest — up to twice more, three rolls in all.

2. 2

   After your last roll, choose one open row and score the dice against it. Every turn fills exactly one row, so the game is thirty turns for two players.

3. 3

   The upper section — ones through sixes — scores the sum of the matching dice. Three fives in the fives row is fifteen.

4. 4

   The lower section scores shapes: one pair, two pairs, three and four of a kind, a full house worth the sum of all five dice, and chance, which is simply the total showing.

5. 5

   The straights are exact: one-to-five is the small straight and scores fifteen, two-to-six is the large and scores twenty. Five of a kind is yatzy — fifty points.

6. 6

   If the dice fit nothing you want to keep open, you must still write a row: put a zero somewhere it hurts least. When every row on both cards is filled, the higher total wins.

Three tips that change how you play

• Play for the bonus first. Sixty-three upper points is an average of three dice per row — three fours in the fours row keeps you on pace — and the fifty it earns is worth more than any single lower row.
• Keep pairs before hopes. Two fives after the first roll is the start of a full house, three of a kind and the fives row all at once; four scattered dice chasing a straight is one specific die away from nothing.
• Save chance for a rescue. It will happily bank a failed four-of-a-kind attempt at twenty-plus; spending it early on an ordinary roll leaves your worst late turn with nowhere soft to land.

One turn, three decisions

First roll: five, five, three, two, six. The pair of fives is the obvious keep — it feeds the fives row, the pair rows and a possible full house all at once — so hold both fives and roll three dice. Second roll: five, one, four. Now you hold three fives, worth fifteen in the fives row, and the bonus pace likes it. Third roll with two dice chasing the fourth five or a pair for the full house: they come up three and three. Look at what the final dice actually offer — five, five, five, three, three is a full house, worth the sum of all five: twenty-one. Writing the fives row scores fifteen and keeps the full house open for later; writing the full house banks twenty-one now but spends a rare shape on modest dice. With the bonus already on pace, take the twenty-one; if your upper section is limping, the fifteen in fives is the better ten seconds of arithmetic. The dice were the same either way — the score came from the choice.

Three mistakes that cost beginners the game

Zeroing the yatzy row the first time a turn goes badly.

Fifty points deserves better than being the first sacrifice. Zero the ones or twos instead — the most they can ever cost is a handful of points and the bonus arithmetic survives it, while a scratched yatzy row is the biggest number on the card gone for the rest of the game.

Rerolling everything after a mixed first roll.

Almost every roll holds the start of something — the highest pair, three to a straight, a fistful of one face. Shaking all five dice throws away the information you just paid a roll for; keep the best fragment and improve it.

Filling the easy rows first and leaving the hard ones for last.

The endgame is where the dice stop cooperating, and arriving there with only the large straight and four of a kind open means writing zeros in your most valuable rows. Take the hard shapes the moment the dice offer them, and keep a cheap row open as the place a bad final turn can die quietly.

Common questions about Yatzy