Yahtzee

Gameplay

Yahtzee is a dice game that incorporates some poker-style combinations. To win, players must score the most points by rolling five dice and creating specific combinations, including Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Full House, Small Straight, Large Straight, and Yahtzee.

Players get up to three rolls per turn. To begin, roll all five dice. Then, decide which dice you want to keep (if any!) and which you want to re-roll. Roll the remaining dice and again, decide which dice you want to keep and which you want to re-roll. You can do this a third time if you choose, but after your third roll, you must choose a category and record your score.

The scoring is as follows:

• Aces: count and add only Aces
• Twos: count and add only Twos
• Threes: count and add only Threes
• Fours: count and add only Fours
• Fives: count and add only Fives
• Sixes: count and add only Sixes
• 3 of a Kind: add all five dice
• 4 of a Kind: add all five dice
• Full House (three of one number and two of another): 25 points
• Small Straight (four numbers in a sequence): 30 points
• Large Straight (five numbers in a sequence): 40 points
• Yahtzee (five of the same number): 50 points
• Chance: add all five dice

You can complete any category, but you must complete one at the end of every turn. You may only complete each category once. However, if you roll an additional Yahtzee after already completing the Yahtzee category, you can earn a 100-point bonus and score the roll in another category.

After 13 rounds, the player with the highest grand total wins!

History

While the origins of Yahtzee and its inspirations date back to at least 1938 with the dice game Yacht, the present-day and commercial version of Yahtzee was patented by Edwin Lowe in 1956.

According to Hasbro, the game was first invented by an anonymous Canadian couple, who called it The Yacht Game because they played it on their yacht with their friends. They got in touch with Lowe and asked him to manufacture a few sets to give to their friends as gifts and acquired the rights to the game in exchange for 1,000 sets.

In 1973, Milton Bradley purchased the E.S. Lowe Company, the company Edwin was using to produce and sell Yahtzee. In 1984, Hasbro acquired Milton Bradley, and to this day, Hasbro is the sole publisher of the game.

Reception & Awards

Since its debut in 1956, Yahtzee has become one of the world's most recognizable dice games, with more than 40 million copies sold during its first 17 years alone. In 2020, Yahtzee was one of the finalists for the National Toy Hall of Fame.