Yahtzee Rules

Five dice, a sheet of paper, thirteen rounds. Yahtzee fits in your pocket and works just as well with two players as with six. The real challenge isn't understanding the combinations—it's knowing which box to fill in for a bad roll without sabotaging your scorecard.

Equipment and Basic Idea

You need five standard six-sided dice, a scorecard, and something to write with. A game consists of thirteen rounds: each round, you fill in exactly one box on your scorecard—and only one. Once all thirteen boxes are filled, the game ends and you add up your score.

Yahtzee is the name Hasbro trademarked for its commercial version of this classic dice game. Scorecards can vary slightly from set to set, with a few differences noted below.

How a Turn Works

On your turn, you get up to three rolls:

1. You roll all five dice.
2. You set aside the ones you want to keep and reroll the rest.
3. You do it one more time, keeping or rerolling whatever you want.

You're not required to use all three rolls—if you like your first roll, you can stop there. You're also not required to keep the same dice from one roll to the next—you can put a die you'd set aside back into play.

At the end of your turn, you must record a result in an open box. This is the heart of the game: if nothing you rolled fits any remaining box, you're forced to sacrifice one by scoring it as zero. Choosing which box to sacrifice is what separates good players from great ones.

The Upper Section: The First Six Boxes

There's one box per die value. You record the sum of the dice showing that value, ignoring all the others.

Box	Calculation	Example
Ones	Sum of dice showing 1	1-1-4-5-6 → 2 points
Twos	Sum of dice showing 2	2-2-2-3-6 → 6 points
Threes	Sum of dice showing 3	3-3-3-3-1 → 12 points
Fours	Sum of dice showing 4	4-4-4-2-5 → 12 points
Fives	Sum of dice showing 5	5-5-5-5-2 → 20 points
Sixes	Sum of dice showing 6	6-6-6-1-3 → 18 points

The 35-Point Bonus, and Why the Threshold Is 63

If your upper-section total reaches 63 points or more, you pocket a 35-point bonus. Below that, you get nothing.

The number looks arbitrary; it isn't. Sixty-three is exactly what you'd get from three dice of each value: three 1s (3 points), three 2s (6), three 3s (9), three 4s (12), three 5s (15), three 6s (18). Total: 63.

In other words, the bonus rewards a player who rolls three matching dice in every upper-section box. Every time you only get two, you fall behind; every time you get four, you pull ahead. It's the only real compass for the upper section—and 35 points, in a game that often totals under 250, carries real weight.

The Lower Section: The Seven Combinations

Combination	Condition	Points
Three of a Kind	At least three matching dice	The sum of all five dice
Four of a Kind	At least four matching dice	The sum of all five dice
Full House	A three-of-a-kind plus a pair	25 points, always
Small Straight	Four dice in sequence	30 points, always
Large Straight	Five dice in sequence	40 points, always
Yahtzee	All five dice matching	50 points
Chance	Anything	The sum of all five dice

Here's the surprise: Three of a Kind and Four of a Kind count the sum of all five dice, not just the matching ones. A three-of-a-kind of 5-5-5-2-1 is therefore worth 5+5+5+2+1 = 18 points, not 15. A four-of-a-kind of 6-6-6-6-3 is worth 27 points, not 24.

Full House, the straights, and Yahtzee itself all have fixed values: a full house of 1s and 2s scores exactly as much as one of 6s and 5s.

For the straights, there are only three possible Small Straights (1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, 3-4-5-6) and two possible Large Straights (1-2-3-4-5 and 2-3-4-5-6). The fifth die in a Small Straight doesn't matter.

The Chance box is your safety net: it accepts any roll. Save it for a bad turn with high dice—but not too long, since it's often the last box left open.

Scoring

Your final total adds up:

• the upper-section total;
• the 35-point bonus, if you earned it;
• the lower-section total.

The player with the highest total wins.

Variants You'll Actually Encounter

Yahtzee has no central governing body, and several scorecards circulate. None of them is illegitimate—you just need to agree on the rules before the first roll.

Rule	Common Variant
Number of boxes	Some scorecards drop the Chance box and use only twelve
Three of a Kind and Four of a Kind	Some house rules count only the matching dice (a three-of-a-kind of 5s would then be worth 15, not 18)
A second Yahtzee	The official rules award a 100-point bonus for each additional Yahtzee; many house scorecards skip it
The sacrificed box	Some only allow a zero score in the upper section

Three moves that change a game

The bonus is won or lost in the first round. Skipping the 6s box early on means giving up the 35-point bonus almost for certain. If you have to zero out a box early, put it in the 1s — that's the box that costs you the least.

Don't save Chance for last. It's worth the sum of all five dice — used on a roll of 25 or 28, it pays out more than most of the upper-section boxes. Used in the final round on a bad roll, it's only worth 12.

A small straight in hand beats a big straight you're hoping for. Thirty guaranteed points versus forty points that hinge on one die — on a final roll, that ten-point gap rarely justifies the risk of losing it all.