Yacht and Yatzy dice: rules, score sheet and strategy

01One game, many names

Roll five dice, keep the ones you want, roll the rest, and fill in a score sheet: this simple loop has been played for about a century in dozens of countries. In English-speaking countries it is usually called Yacht. In Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland it is called Yatzy, and the Scandinavian version has its own score sheet with 15 boxes. In Argentina and Uruguay the cousin is called Generala. The rules differ in details, but the structure is always the same: three rolls, one box per turn, highest total wins.

On PlayNest you can play the dice game online with either ruleset. This article covers both, because once you understand one it takes ten minutes to learn the other.

02How a turn works

At the start of your turn you roll all five dice. Look at the result and decide which dice to keep. Roll the others again. You may now keep a different set, and roll once more. That is at most three rolls. You can stop early if you like what you have. After your last roll you must write a score in one box of your sheet that has not been used. You cannot skip, so when the dice do not fit anything good you have to put a 0 in a box and give it up.

The game ends when every box is full. Yacht has 13 boxes, so a game is 13 turns. Yatzy has 15 boxes, so a game is 15 turns. Add your boxes and the bonus, and the highest total wins. With more than one player, everyone plays the same number of turns.

• Roll all five dice.
• Choose dice to hold. Roll the rest (second roll).
• Choose dice to hold again. Roll the rest (third roll).
• Write the result in an open box. If nothing fits, score 0 in the cheapest box.

03The upper section and the bonus

Both games start with six boxes, Ones to Sixes. In each of them you score the sum of the dice that show that number. If you roll 4-4-4-2-1 and write it in Fours, you score 12. In Ones, a good turn is 3 points. In Sixes, a good turn is 18.

When the upper section adds up to 63 or more you earn a bonus: 35 points in Yacht and 50 points in Yatzy. 63 is exactly three of each number (3 + 6 + 9 + 12 + 15 + 18). You do not have to roll three of every number. Four sixes will make up for only two ones. Because the bonus is worth about as much as a full house and a straight put together, it is the biggest strategic decision of the game.

04Yacht: the lower section

Yacht has seven lower boxes. Three of a kind and Four of a kind score the total of all five dice if at least three or four of them match. Full house is three of one number and two of another, and scores 25. Small straight is four dice in a row (such as 2-3-4-5) and scores 30. Large straight is five in a row (1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6) and scores 40. Chance scores the total of all five dice whatever they show. Yacht is all five dice the same and scores 50.

Fixed scores for the full house and the straights make them very attractive targets. They are worth far more than their average dice total. A turn that ends in a straight is almost always worth taking.

05Yatzy: the Scandinavian score sheet

Yatzy has nine lower boxes. One pair scores the sum of the two highest matching dice. Two pairs scores the sum of two different pairs. Three of a kind and Four of a kind score only the matching dice, so 5-5-5-5-2 in Four of a kind scores 20, not 22. Small straight is exactly 1-2-3-4-5 and scores 15. Large straight is exactly 2-3-4-5-6 and scores 20. Full house is three and two, and scores the total of all five dice. Chance is the total of all five dice. Yatzy is five of a kind and scores 50.

A game of Yatzy lasts two turns longer, and has more boxes that reward high dice. A typical good score is 230 and above. Some house rules, called Maxi Yatzy, use six dice and 20 boxes; PlayNest uses the standard five-dice game.

• Pairs and three of a kind favour holding sixes and fives.
• The straights are narrow: only one hand each.
• Because full house scores the dice total, it can be a high-scoring box.

06Which dice to keep: rules of thumb

Keep any three or more of a kind. Keep a pair if you have nothing better, unless it is low and you are chasing a straight. With two pairs, keep both and try for a full house. Keep four dice to a straight when you can: any one of two or three numbers completes it. Do not keep a lone high die on the first roll unless your sheet needs it.

In the first turns, prefer holds that suit many boxes. A pair of fives can become Fives, Three of a kind, a full house or Yacht. A loose 1-2-3 might become a straight but only suits one or two boxes. Later in the game, as boxes fill, your choice narrows and you should hold exactly what the remaining boxes need.

07Which box to fill: sacrificing wisely

Every turn gives up a box. A new player puts the highest score they can into any box. A good player thinks about the value of the box they close. The Ones box is the cheapest sacrifice, because even a 0 there costs only about 2 points against its average. Yacht (or Yatzy) is also a cheap sacrifice early, because it only pays 50 about once in 25 games. Chance should stay open as long as possible: it can absorb any bad turn and cost little.

A Large straight is a valuable box. If you roll a straight early, take it. Do not waste a good Full house roll on Chance. Do not take a Small straight in Yacht when you already hold five in a row, because the Large straight is worth 40.

• First sacrifice: Ones or Yacht.
• Last resort: Chance.
• Do not take a low number in Sixes unless you are giving up the bonus.
• Take a straight or full house when you roll one.

08Optimal play and the 246-point average

Dice games like this are solved by computers. A position is defined by the boxes already filled, the score so far in the upper section, the dice you hold and how many rolls are left. For each such position the best decision, and the expected total from there, can be calculated working backwards from the end of the game. With the standard Yacht scoring on PlayNest, an optimal solo player averages about 246 points per game, and in Yatzy about 248. That is the target the Hard computer plays to.

Most good humans average 210 to 230. Beginners are around 120 to 160. The gap between 160 and 245 comes from three habits: holding the right dice on rolls one and two, sacrificing boxes in the right order, and protecting the 63-point bonus. The Hint button on PlayNest asks the solver for its choice, so you can compare it to your own.

09Probability facts worth knowing

The chance of a Yacht (five of a kind) in a single turn with optimal play is about 4.6 percent. At least one pair shows up in about 91 percent of first rolls, and the exact five dice 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6 appear on the first roll only about 3 percent of the time. These numbers are why a single Yacht or Large straight in a game is a good result, and why you should not sacrifice good positions to chase one.

Knowing probabilities also helps you decide when to stop. If you have Four of a kind after the second roll, it is rarely worth rolling the last die just for the chance of a Yacht, unless you have already used the box where four of a kind would score well.

10Playing with friends, daily and solo

The daily challenge gives everyone the same stream of dice, so comparing scores with friends shows pure decision quality: same luck, different choices. For a casual game, choose Same screen and pass the device, or open an online room and send the link: the host rolls for everyone so nobody can cheat, and computers fill empty seats. If you like logic puzzles, the habit of calculating odds before you move is the same one that makes Mastermind and Connect Four satisfying.