Yatzy rules: scoring, bonus and Maxi Yatzy

What you need

• Five dice for Yatzy, or six for Maxi Yatzy
• A scorecard with one column per player, and a pen
• One or more players. Yatzy works well alone: you try to beat your own best score

The goal

Fill in every row on the scorecard and finish with the highest total. Each turn you fill in exactly one row, so the game has as many rounds as the card has rows: 15 in Yatzy and 20 in Maxi Yatzy.

How a turn works

1. 1.Roll all the dice.
2. 2.Keep the dice you want and roll the others again. You can keep any number, and a die you kept may go back in on the next roll.
3. 3.Roll up to three times in all. You can stop after the first or the second roll.
4. 4.Write the result in one open row of your choice. The rows can be filled in any order.
5. 5.If the dice fit no open row, or you would rather save a row for later, you write 0 in a row. This is called scratching the row, and it stays closed for the rest of the game.

In most rows only the dice that make the combination count, and the other dice are ignored. If the dice can be read in more than one way, you take the highest score.

Scoring in Yatzy with five dice

Upper section

The six upper rows each count one number.

The bonus: if the six upper rows add up to 63 or more, you get 50 extra points. 63 is exactly three of each number (3 + 6 + 9 + 12 + 15 + 18). Four of a number in its row puts you ahead of that pace, and two puts you behind.

Lower section

Five alike also count as one pair, three of a kind or four of a kind. They do not count as two pairs or a full house, because those need two different numbers. The highest possible total is 374.

Maxi Yatzy with six dice

Maxi Yatzy is the Scandinavian version for six dice. A turn works the same way, still with three rolls, but the scorecard has 20 rows and the numbers are bigger.

• The upper section has the same six rows. The bonus is 100 points for an upper sum of 84 or more, which is four of each number.
• The Yatzy row becomes Maxi Yatzy: six alike, worth 100 points.
• Five rows are added: Three pairs, Five of a kind, Villa, Tower and Full straight.
• A row that uses fewer than six dice ignores the spare ones. A full house is still three alike and a pair, so it uses five of the six dice.

With these values the highest possible total is 649.

Maxi Yatzy rules differ more between editions than ordinary Yatzy does. Some editions give a bonus of 50 at 75 instead of 100 at 84, and some score the full straight as 25 or 30. Many players also use saved rolls: a roll you do not use in one turn is kept, and you can spend it in a later turn to get a fourth or fifth roll. Agree on these rules before you start.

Ending the game

When every player has filled every row, add up the upper section, the bonus if you reached it, and the lower section. The highest total wins. Equal totals are a draw.

Common variants

• Forced Yatzy: the rows must be filled from the top down, one per turn, in the printed order. Luck matters more and choices matter less.
• Saved rolls in Maxi Yatzy, as described above.
• A bonus for an extra Yatzy: Scandinavian rules have none. A second Yatzy is written in another open row, such as Chance or Four of a kind. Some families add a bonus anyway.
• Yahtzee is a commercial version of the same idea with different scoring: it has no pair rows, and the full house and the straights score fixed points.

Tips

• Watch the bonus pace. For each upper row, count how far you are above or below three of that number (four in Maxi Yatzy). Three 6s in Sixes are exactly on pace; four 6s give you 6 points to spare in another upper row.
• Keep Chance for a bad turn. It takes anything, so it is the natural place for a roll that fits nowhere else.
• Chase the open straight. In five-dice Yatzy, if you hold 2-3-4-5 with two rolls left, both a 1 and a 6 complete a straight: a 56% chance. If you hold 1-2-3-4, only a 5 helps: 31%.
• Know how rare a Yatzy is. If you go for five alike with all three rolls, you get it in about 4.6% of turns, roughly 1 in 22. Six alike in Maxi Yatzy come in about 2.0% of turns, roughly 1 in 49. Late in the game, the Yatzy row is often the right one to scratch.
• Scratch cheaply. If you must write 0 early, Ones costs the fewest points, but it makes the bonus harder to reach.

Playing in Yatzy Challenge

Yatzy Challenge has both rule sets, and you choose one in Settings: Maxi Yatzy with six dice and twenty rows, or Classic Yatzy with five dice and fifteen rows. A change takes effect from the next new game, never in the middle of one.

• The scoring is exactly the tables on this page: a bonus of 100 at 84 and Maxi Yatzy for 100 in Maxi Yatzy, a bonus of 50 at 63 and Yatzy for 50 in Classic Yatzy. The full straight is worth 21.
• Every turn has three rolls. There are no saved rolls and no bonus for a second Yatzy.
• You fill the rows in any order, and you can scratch a row. Equal totals are a draw.
• In COMPUTER you play against Easy, Medium or Hard. The computer plays the same throws as you, in the same order, after you.
• DAILY YATZY is one set of dice a day, the same for everyone, and it is always played as Maxi Yatzy. Your first completed round is the day's score.
• In FRIEND YATZY you pass your round on as a link or a short code, and your friend plays the same dice, either blind or with your score to beat.
• In SOLO you can ask for the best move whenever you like. The rules page in the app shows every row with an example for the rule set you play.