PLAY YAHTZEE ONLINE: RULES AND GUIDE Objective. Yahtzee can be played in a group or solitary. The main objective of Yahtzee is to have as many points as possible by getting certain combinations of dice and rolling five dice. A player targets the highest score after 13 rounds.
Mar 01, 2018 If you ever play the game online, it'll likely give you different scoring rules to that of the physical game. The game I have has Bonus boxes for extra Yahtzee's, but online games tend to let you place an extra 100 points in any box, which I personally dislike. Online Games for Boys at BGames. At BGames, we offer an amazing collection of free online games geared specifically toward boys. Check out amazing new content every day and play awesome MMO Fantasy and War games, car and monster truck races, and first-person shooter adventures.
The traditional spotted dice cube is considered to be on of the oldest form of gambling by Historians. Several variations of dice games have been invented since its origin. Yahtzee is one such game. It is a game of great chance, luck and also of smart thinking and strategy.
Like any other dice game, it involves rolling dice (five), matching them and pairing them for points.
The object of the game is to make the maximum number of points. The player with the greatest grand total wins the game and therefore earns the difference between his score and that of his opponents. It can be played by any number of people - in a large group or even by a single player (Solitaire).
So where did it all start? The exact origin of Yahtzee is not very clear. It is said to have been made by Milton Bradley in the 1950s. But according to Hasbro, the current owners of the rights of the game, it was invented in 1954 by a Canadian couple who often played it with friends on their yacht.
And in 1956, the couple is said to have visited a toy-maker called Edwin. S. Lowe and asked him to make a few samples of their infamous 'Yacht game', to distribute as gifts. Lowe liked the game so much, that he offered to buy the rights for the game in exchange for the first thousand games produced. Lowe then changed the name of the game to 'Yahtzee'.
Initially the game did not sell too well, so Lowe started throwing Yahtzee parties, believing in the power of word of mouth. The game had to be played to be appreciated. After this over 40 million games were sold in America and around the globe. But eventually, the Milton Bradley Company bought over the Edwin Lowe Company, along with the Yahtzee rights in the 1970s. It was after this milestone that the game earned millions of fans. Currently, at least 50 million games are sold each year.
But the roots of the game go way back in game history. It is said to have been derived from a number of traditional dice games such as Puerto Rican game Genarala, and English games Cheerio and Poker Dice.
It's a simple game that is largely dependent on the players' luck. The Yahtzee player chooses a certain combination first and then rolls the dice to try and get that combination. There are 13 categories such as 'three of a kind', 'four of a kind', 'straight', very similar to the 'hands' in Poker, with a few extra ones thrown in. Each player rolls his dice up to three times per turn, in hopes of getting one of the 13 categories.
If a player rolls the dice all three times, the score of the last roll is taken into consideration. It is not always possible for every player to get a score for each of the thirteen categories, so when every player has a score or a zero entered under all 13 categories (13 rounds), the game ends and all the players' scores are totaled up.
Getting a straight five gives a player the highest score possible, which is 50 points. Also known as 'Yahtzee' or 'Five of a kind', if a player rolls such a combination more than once in the game he will be entitled to 100 bonus points for every time he rolls it, after the first 50 points have been earned.
Although the traditional form of the game was highly popular, many variations of the game were invented in order to maintain interest. Some of these variations are the triple, pyramid, painted, and battle Yahtzee games.
Triple is like playing three games at once. That is, three scoring columns are used simultaneously for one game. Pyramid makes use of triangular dice, while in the Battle variation you are allowed to knock other player's dice. Painted includes colors, so you need to note down the scores of the players, based on the number and color combinations they get by rolling the dice.
Whatever the variation you play, the game involves a lot of planning and strategy. It is very important to think ahead and make wise decisions about which pot (the 13 categories) to choose every time you roll. You can score big points for some of the harder pots to achieve, like a 'Five of a kind'. This way, it is advantageous to leave things like your one column until the very end when it is worthless.
Yahtzee Rules
The objective of YAHTZEE is to get as many points as possible by rolling five dice and getting certain combinations of dice.
Gameplay
In each turn a player may throw the dice up to three times. A player doesn't have to roll all five dice on the second and third throw of a round, he may put as many dice as he wants to the side and only throw the ones that don't have the numbers he's trying to get. For example, a player throws and gets 1,3,3,4,6. He decides he want to try for the large straight, 1,2,3,4,5. So, he puts 1,3,4 to the side and only throws 3 and 6 again, hoping to get 2 and 5.
In this game you click on the dice you want to keep. They will be moved down and will not be thrown the next time you press the 'Roll Dice' button. If you decide after the second throw in a turn that you don't want to keep the same dice before the third throw then you can click them again and they will move back to the table and be thrown in the third throw.
Upper section combinations
- Ones: Get as many ones as possible.
- Twos: Get as many twos as possible.
- Threes: Get as many threes as possible.
- Fours: Get as many fours as possible.
- Fives: Get as many fives as possible.
- Sixes: Get as many sixes as possible.
For the six combinations above the score for each of them is the sum of dice of the right kind. E.g. if you get 1,3,3,3,5 and you choose Threes you will get 3*3 = 9 points. The sum of all the above combinations is calculated and if it is 63 or more, the player will get a bonus of 35 points. On average a player needs three of each to reach 63, but it is not required to get three of each exactly, it is perfectly OK to have five sixes, and zero ones for example, as long as the sum is 63 or more the bonus will be awarded.
Lower section combinations
- Three of a kind: Get three dice with the same number. Points are the sum all dice (not just the three of a kind).
- Four of a kind: Get four dice with the same number. Points are the sum all dice (not just the four of a kind).
- Full house: Get three of a kind and a pair, e.g. 1,1,3,3,3 or 3,3,3,6,6. Scores 25 points.
- Small straight: Get four sequential dice, 1,2,3,4 or 2,3,4,5 or 3,4,5,6. Scores 30 points.
- Large straight: Get five sequential dice, 1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6. Scores 40 points.
- Chance: You can put anything into chance, it's basically like a garbage can when you don't have anything else you can use the dice for. The score is simply the sum of the dice.
- YAHTZEE: Five of a kind. Scores 50 points. You can optionally get multiple Yahtzees, see below for details.
Multiple Yahtzees
The rules around multiple Yahtzees are a bit complex. There are a couple of different cases:
- You already have a Yahtzee: You get a 100 bonus points in the Yahtzee box, but you also have a joker, which means that you can choose another move for the Yahtzee you just got. If the number you got yahtzees with has not been filled out in the upper section, then you must choose that. E.g. if you get an additional Yahtzee with 2's, and you haven't filled out the 2's in the upper section then you must choose that, and get 10 points for it. If the upper section box is already filled then you can choose any of the lower region boxes, and they will be scored as normal. Yahtzee is a superset of 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, full house and chance, but you can also choose small or large straight and will get the normal 30 and 40 points for those.
- You've already put 0 in the Yahtzee box: In this case you get no 100 point bonus, but you do get a joker, and can choose your move following the rules described above for jokers.
Multiplayer
Play Free Yahtzee Games Online
After years of only playing against the computer, you can now start playing against other people from all over the world. Click the 'Multiplayer' button next to your avatar and choose a player name to connect. Once connected, you can challenge or be challenged by other players.
Note: To keep things simple and even as possible, all multiplayer games allow multiple Yahtzees.
Strategy tips
Yahtzee Free Online Play Fun Games
Try to get the bonus. Focus on getting good throws with fives and sixes, then it won't matter if you put 0 in the ones or twos. You can always put in 0 for a combination if you don't have it, even if you have some other combination. E.g. if you had 2,3,4,5,6 and the only things you had left were Ones and Sixes, then it would be better to put 0 in Ones than to put only 6 in Sixes.
Yahtzee Game online, free Play
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the game. If you have any questions or comments, send them to admin@cardgames.io.