Yahtzee Dice Game

Yahtzee is a branded game with its own proprietary pieces and scorecards, but all you really need to play Yahtzee is five dice, sheets of paper and pens, and a knowledge of the rules of game play.

For each turn, a player can roll the dice up to three times. The player has the option of selecting and retaining dice that are needed in order to achieve a certain combination. In other words, you can be selective about how many dice you roll on the second or third round.

After the third and final roll, the player must decide where to put the score. The score is zero if the player failed to obtain a dice combination that can obtain a score. The total score for every player is calculated by adding up the 13 score boxes on the card.

The game takes its name, Yahtzee, from the case in which all five dice have the same value during a player's turn. It is the most improbable combination and is therefore worth the highest score, 50 points.

If a player is lucky enough to score more than one Yahtzee during a given game, that player is awarded bonus points - bonus Yahtzees are worth a 100 points each.

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The game of Yahtzee uses a scorecard that consists of two sections: the Upper Section and the Lower Section. Combinations of five dice are scored by ticking one of the 13 boxes. The same box cannot be scored again during a game once it has been scored, so players must be strategic in their choice.

Upper Section Scoring: if the player scores in the upper section of the table, the score is simply the sum total of the die faces. Hence if the player rolls 3-2-1-2-5 and scores in the "2" category, the score is 4. If the category is "3", the player scores a 3 in this particular roll. If the category is "6" the score in this particular roll is zero. If the total of the other scores totals 63 or more, a bonus of 35 is added.

Lower Section scoring: the lower scores are all-or-nothing: the player either scores a set amount or nothing at all if he or she does not satisfy the category requirements.

Three and four of a kind: these scores require three or four of the die faces to be the same, respectively.

Small and large straight: a small straight consists of four consecutive die faces; a large straight consists of five consecutive die faces. They score 30 and 40 points respectively.

For example, 3-5-6-4-1 would score as a small straight, worth 30 points. This is because this particular roll can be arranged as 1-3-4-5-6.

Full house: full houses are scored if the player has three of a kind and two of another kind. Full houses are worth 25 points in the game of Yahtzee.

For example, 4-1-1-4-4-4 would be a full house.

First Yahtzee: as mentioned above, a Yahtzee is obtained when the player rolls five of a kind. The score to this roll is 50 points. Importantly, the player may choose not to score it as a Yahtzee, taking it as a top-row score in order to safeguard the bonus.

Additional Yahtzees: if a player rolls a second Yahtzee during a game, and decided to score the first Yahtzee in the Yahtzee box, the player scores a further bonus of 100 points in the Yahtzee box. Additionally, the player must also place this roll in an Upper row category, depending on the face values of the dice in the roll. For example, is the player rolls 6-6-6-6-6, the score must also be put in to the "sixes" category, if that category has not been filled so far. If the corresponding Upper Section category is already filled, the player may in this case place the score, which is zero, anywhere in the Upper Section.

Chance: a player can roll anything and have the option of putting it in the "chance" category, in which case the score is simply the sum total of the five die faces.

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The Yahtzee dice game derives from several traditional dice games. These traditional dice games include Generala and the English games of Poker Dice and Cheerio. The modern commercial Yahtzee dice game began officially when "Yahtzee" was filed as a trademark in the US Patents Office by Edwin S. Lowe on April 19, 1956. The game is currently owned by toymaker Hasbro, which claims that the game was invented in 1954 by an unnamed Canadian couple.

Yahtzee did not initially do well, because it was difficult to sell its concept and rules in a 30-second commercial. Lowe had the idea of launching the game more effectively by organising Yahtzee parties in which people could play the game and spread the word.

The idea worked very well; Yahtzee soon garnered its own following and became very popular. The game remains very popular and the current owner, Hasbro, says that over 50 million Yahtzee games are sold each year.

Photo used under Creative Commons from bunnyhero