Yahtzee

Overview

Five dice clatter across the felt, and a turn begins with the question every player faces: keep this roll, or gamble on two more? Yahtzee gives you up to three rolls per turn and a shelf of thirteen scoring boxes to fill over the course of the game, each one a different way of reading the dice. The upper section pays the sum of a chosen face — ones, twos, all the way up through sixes — with a bonus if the combined total there passes a threshold. The lower section is where the real scoring lives: three of a kind, four of a kind, full house, the four straight runs, chance as a catch-all, and the five-of-a-kind Yahtzee itself, which carries a large bonus and, once scored, opens the door to further Yahtzee bonuses on later turns. Every box can be filled only once, so a weak roll still has to go somewhere. The strategy is in matching rolls to categories efficiently, deciding when to settle and when to push for a combination that may not come.

How to Play

Click the roll button to throw all five dice. After the roll, click any die to hold it as a keeper for the next throw; unheld dice are rolled again. You may roll up to three times per turn before you must score. On touch devices, tap to roll, tap dice to toggle the hold, then tap a scoring box to lock in the result. Once a category is filled it cannot be reused, so choose the box that best fits the final dice.

Tips & Strategy

Protect the upper section. The bonus for reaching the threshold there is large and reliable, so chasing sixes, fives, and fours early keeps that bonus within reach. Aim for the Yahtzee whenever your first roll shows a pair or better — the expected value of pushing for five of a kind usually beats settling early, and a scored Yahtzee unlocks further bonus rolls later. Fill chance last among the lower categories, since it accepts any roll and is your best safety net for a turn that went nowhere. Watch the straights carefully: a small straight needs four consecutive values and is easy to miss if you reroll the wrong die. When a category is already weak, do not be afraid to write a zero into a box you were unlikely to fill, rather than wasting a strong roll on a low-scoring slot. Treat threes and twos as flex categories — they fill whatever the dice give you.