How to play Yacht: rules and scoring

Rules in short: on your turn, roll five dice up to three times, holding any dice you like between rolls. Then write a score in one empty box on your scorecard: the sum of one number, three or four of a kind, a full house, a straight, five of a kind or chance. Every box is used exactly once, even if it scores 0. After 13 turns the highest total wins.

A turn The boxes Upper bonus Extra Yachts Example Yatzy rules Odds Strategy The name FAQ

A turn

Roll all five dice. Set aside (hold) any dice you want to keep and roll the rest. You may roll a second and a third time, holding different dice each time, or stop early. After your last roll you must write a score in one empty box. You can't skip a turn, and once a box is filled it can't be changed.

The scoring boxes (American rules)

If your dice don't fit the box you choose, it scores 0. A large straight also counts as a small straight.

The upper bonus

Add up Ones through Sixes. If the total is 63 or more, add a 35-point bonus. 63 is exactly three of each number (3 + 6 + 9 + 12 + 15 + 18), so four 5s or four 6s give you room to come up short elsewhere.

Extra Yachts and the joker rule

If you roll five of a kind after you have already scored 50 in the Yacht box, you get a 100-point bonus for each extra one. You still have to score the roll in another box: the matching upper box if it is open (five 4s go in Fours); otherwise any open lower box at full value (a full house scores 25, a straight 30 or 40); and if those are all filled, a 0 in an open upper box. If you scored 0 in the Yacht box earlier, there is no bonus, but the same box rules apply.

An example turn

Yatzy: the Scandinavian rules

Yatzy, popular in Scandinavia and much of Europe, has 15 boxes and different values:

There is no extra five-of-a-kind bonus in Yatzy. On Snug Table you can play either set of rules, and the score sheet has both.

The odds

• Five of a kind on a single roll: 6 in 7,776, or about 0.08%. Going for it over three rolls, keeping the most common number: about 4.6%.
• A large straight on the first roll: 240 in 7,776, about 3.1%.
• Holding four of a kind, the chance of completing five of a kind in two more rolls is 11 in 36, about 31%.
• Holding an open-ended four-in-a-row like 2-3-4-5, the chance of a large straight in two more rolls is 5 in 9, about 56%.

We also measured whole games. Playing 1,000 games of American Yacht each, our computer averaged 242 points on Hard, 226 on Medium and 191 on Easy, which simply keeps the most common number. Mathematically perfect solo play averages about 254.6, a figure worked out by computer analysis of every possible game.

Yacht strategy

• Chase the upper bonus. Aim for three or more of each number in the upper boxes, especially 4s, 5s and 6s, which give you room to spare.
• Keep Chance for emergencies. It rescues a bad last roll; using it early on a mediocre roll wastes it.
• Pairs and triples beat straights early. Holding a pair keeps the upper boxes, three and four of a kind, full house and Yacht in play.
• Know where to dump a zero. Late in the game, Ones or the Yacht box are often the cheapest places for a 0.
• Take the full house when you have it. 25 points with no risk is usually worth more than gambling on a Yacht.

On Snug Table the coach works out every possible hold over all the rolls still to come and tells you, after each choice, whether another one scores more on average.

Why "Yacht"?

The game was played under names like Yacht and Yatzy long before the boxed version that most Americans know. That boxed game is a trademark of its publisher; Yacht is the traditional public-domain name for the same family of five-dice rules, and Yatzy is the Scandinavian variant.