Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a dice game made by Milton Bradley (a company that has since been acquired and assimilated by Hasbro). It was first marketed under the name of Yahtzee by game entrepreneur Edwin S. Lowe in 1956. The game is a development of earlier dice games such as Poker Dice, Yacht and Generala. It is also similar to Yatzy, which is popular in Scandinavia.

The objective of the game is to score points by rolling five dice to make certain combinations. The dice can be rolled up to three times in a turn to try to make various scoring combinations and dice must remain in the box. A game consists of thirteen rounds. After each round, the player chooses which scoring category is to be used for that round. Once a category has been used in the game, it cannot be used again. The scoring categories have varying point values, some of which are fixed values and others for which the score depends on the value of the dice. A Yahtzee is five-of-a-kind and scores 50 points, the highest of any category. The winner is the player who scores the most points.

Yahtzee was marketed by the E.S. Lowe Company from 1956 until 1973. In 1973, the Milton Bradley Company purchased the E.S. Lowe Company and assumed the rights to produce and sell Yahtzee. During Lowe's ownership, over 40 million Yahtzee games were sold worldwide. According to the current owner, Hasbro, as of 2007, 50 million Yahtzee games are sold each year.^[1] A classic edition is currently being marketed by Winning Moves Games USA.

What may be the World’s largest Yahtzee tournament occurs each January in Eureka, California. Hosted by the Rotary Club of Old Town Eureka and the Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka, this annual tournament features over 200 players at 30 tables as a fundraiser for local non-profits.

The overall concept of Yahtzee traces its roots to a number of traditional dice games. Among these are the game Generala and the English games of Poker Dice and Cheerio.

The most important predecessor of Yahtzee is the dice game Yacht, which is an English cousin of Generala and dates back to at least 1938.^[2] Wood^[2] classifies Yacht, and a similar three-dice game called Crag, as sequence dice games. Yahtzee is similar to Yacht in both name and content. Although Yahtzee is clearly derived from Yacht, it differed from it in a number of significant ways:

• It introduced the upper section bonus.
• It included the Three of a Kind category.
• In Yacht both straights are a sequence of five (Big Straight is two-three-four-five-six, and Little Straight is one-two-three-four-five). Yahtzee introduced the sequence of four straight (the Small Straight).
• It introduced Yahtzee bonuses and the Joker rule.
• There were also a number of scoring differences.

The present-day commercial Yahtzee began when toy and game entrepreneur Edwin S. Lowe filed Yahtzee as a trademark with the U.S. Patent Office on April 19, 1956. The first commercial usage of the name Yahtzee was a few weeks earlier on April 3. Lowe classified his product as a Poker Dice Game. Lowe is also responsible for introducing Bingo to the U.S. market.^[3]

According to Hasbro, the game was invented by an anonymous Canadian couple, who called it The Yacht Game because they played it on their yacht with their friends.^[1] Later they asked Lowe if he would make up some sets to be given as gifts to their friends who enjoyed the game. Lowe perceived the possibility of marketing the game, and acquired the rights to the game from the couple in exchange for 1,000 gift sets. This story is expanded by Lowe in the 1973 book A Toy is Born by Marvin Kaye. According to Lowe, the game did not initially do well commercially, since the rules and appeal were not easily conveyed in an advertisement. Eventually, he had the idea of organizing Yahtzee parties at which people could play the game and thereby gain a first-hand appreciation of it. The idea was successful, and enthusiasts quickly popularized the game through word of mouth.

The E.S. Lowe Company sold Yahtzee from 1956 to 1973. During Lowe's ownership, a number of changes were made to the game's packaging, contents, and appearance. Between 1956 and 1961, the game's advertising slogan was changed from "The Game That Makes You Think While Having Fun" to "The Fun Game That Makes Thinking Fun!"

The game and its contents were copyrighted by Lowe in 1956, 1961, 1967, and 1972. In 1973, Milton Bradley purchased the E.S. Lowe Company and assumed the rights to produce and sell Yahtzee. During Lowe's ownership over 40 million Yahtzee games were sold in America and around the globe. The game has maintained its popularity. According to current owner Hasbro, as of 2007, 50 million Yahtzee games are sold each year.^[1]

Over time, the Yahtzee logo has taken several forms. The original version of the logo was used throughout the entire period that the game was produced solely by the Lowe company. After 1973, the logo changed various times. This logo is found on the scorecards and the game box(es).

The game consists of 13 rounds. In each round, a player gets three rolls of the dice, although they can choose to end their turn after one or two rolls. After the first roll the player can save any dice they want and re-roll the other dice. This procedure is repeated after the second roll. The player has complete choice as to which dice to roll. It is possible to re-roll any dice that were or were not rolled before.^[4]

The Yahtzee scorecard contains 13 different category boxes. After completing each round, a player must enter a score in one of these category boxes. The score entered in the box depends on how well the five dice match the scoring rule for the category. Once a score has been entered for a category, that category may not be used again by that player in that game. The game is completed after 13 rounds by each player, with each of the 13 boxes filled. The total score is calculated by summing all thirteen boxes, together with any bonuses.^[4]

Details of the scoring rules for each category are given below. As an example, one of the categories is called Three of a Kind. The scoring rule for this category means that a player only scores if at least three of the five dice are the same value. If a player chooses to score a roll in this category even though they do not have at least three dice of the same value, their score will be 0.

The Yahtzee scorecard contains 13 scoring boxes divided into upper and lower sections.^[4]

Yahtzee bonuses and Joker rules

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Although Yahtzee is a commercial game with its own components, the game can also be played with just five dice and a pencil and paper.

A Yahtzee occurs when all five dice are the same. If the player throws a Yahtzee and has already filled the Yahtzee box with a score of 50, they score a Yahtzee bonus and get an extra 100 points. However, if they throw a Yahtzee and have filled the Yahtzee category with a score of 0, they do not get a Yahtzee bonus.^[4]

In either case they then select a category, as usual. Scoring is the same as normal except that, if the Upper Section box corresponding to the Yahtzee has been used, the Full House, Small Straight and Large Straight categories can be used to score 25, 30 or 40 (respectively) even though the dice do not meet the normal requirement for those categories. In this case, the Yahtzee is said to act as a "Joker".^[4]

There are two alternative versions of the Joker rule used.^[4]

Forced Joker rule

In the official rules the player must act in the following way:

• If the corresponding Upper Section box is unused then that category must be used.
• If the corresponding Upper Section box has been used already, a Lower Section box must be used. The Yahtzee acts as a Joker so that the Full House, Small Straight and Large Straight categories can be used to score 25, 30 or 40 (respectively).
• If the corresponding Upper Section box and all Lower Section boxes have been used, an unused Upper Section box must be used, scoring 0.

Free choice Joker rule

In the simpler, alternative version of the Joker rule, the player retains the free choice as to which category to use, but the Yahtzee can only be used as a Joker if the corresponding Upper Section box has been used.^[5][6] If the corresponding Upper Section box is unused the Yahtzee would score 0 if the Full House, Small Straight or Large Straight categories were chosen.^[4]

Original Joker rule

The original game rules released in 1956 contain a difference from the above rules. The booklet stated that additional Yahtzees must be used as Jokers in the Lower Section and did not allow for their use in the Upper Section. This rule was changed when the game was re-copyrighted in 1961.^[4]

The winner is the player with the highest total. The rules do not specify what happens in the event of a tie.^[4]

La puntuación más alta posible es 1575 y consiste en lanzar 13 Yahtzee, obtener 12 bonificaciones de Yahtzee de 100 puntos cada una, así como 375 en las demás categorías. ^{[ 7 ]} Los 375 se consiguen obteniendo cinco unos (5), cinco doses (10), cinco treses (15), cinco cuatros (20), cinco cincos (25), cinco seises (30), la bonificación de la Sección Superior (35), cinco seises obtenidos como Trío (30), cinco seises obtenidos como Póker (30), Full House (25), Escalera Pequeña (30), Escalera Grande (40), Yahtzee (50) y cinco seises obtenidos como Suerte (30). La puntuación de 1575 requiere el uso de las reglas del "Comodín" para las categorías Full House , Escalera Pequeña y Escalera Grande . La puntuación máxima posible sin usar las reglas del "Comodín" para las categorías Full House , Small Straight y Large Straight es de 1480. La puntuación máxima posible obteniendo todas las combinaciones apropiadas de forma natural es de 1275 e implica lanzar 10 Yahtzee, un Full House , una Small Straight y una Large Straight , obteniendo 9 bonificaciones de Yahtzee de 100 puntos cada una.

La puntuación máxima posible sin bonificación de Yahtzee es 351, que se consigue obteniendo cinco cartas iguales como Yahtzee (50), 84 en la Sección Superior (cuatro cartas iguales en cada categoría) y 29 en cada una de las categorías Tres de una Clase , Cuatro de una Clase y Suerte . La puntuación máxima posible sin obtener cinco cartas iguales es 301.

La puntuación mínima posible es 5, que se consigue obteniendo cinco unos (5) en la casilla de Suerte y 0 puntos en todas las demás categorías. La puntuación mínima posible sin obtener cinco iguales es 6.

La puntuación más baja posible sin obtener un 0 en ninguna categoría es 184, que se logra obteniendo el Full House (25), la Small Straight (30), la Large Straight (40), el Yahtzee (50), 21 en la Upper Section (uno de cada en cada categoría) y 6 en cada uno de los Three of a Kind , Four of a Kind y Chance .

There are a large number of versions of Yahtzee which can be played online or are available to download.

• "Open Yahtzee" is a cross-platform open-source (free) version of Yahtzee for one player.^[14]
• "YachtC" is a commercially available free app on the Google Play Store. It has three variations: The traditional version, a "7-sided" dice version called "Lucky7", and a "TriColor" version similar to Kismet.^[15]
• "Gidd.io" is a free multiplayer platform where Yahtzee can be played online with up to 20 players.^[16]
• Yahtzee is one of the games playable on Board Game Arena.^[17]

There are a large number of related games. Yatzy is one of the most popular. Yatzy rules and scoring categories are somewhat different from Yahtzee:^[18]

• The bonus for reaching 63 or more points in the Upper Section is normally 50 points.
• Hay dos casillas adicionales para las categorías "Un par" y "Dos pares" . Estas suman la puntuación total de los pares involucrados. Por ejemplo, cinco-cinco-cuatro-cuatro-uno obtendrá 10 puntos en la casilla "Un par" y 18 en la casilla "Dos pares" . En la categoría "Dos pares" , los pares deben ser diferentes.
• Las categorías de Trío y Póker se puntúan utilizando la suma de los dados de la misma cara necesarios. Por ejemplo, cinco-cinco-cinco-cinco-seis dará 20 puntos en Póker y 15 puntos en Trío . Esta regla de puntuación es la misma que la de Póker utilizada en Yacht .
• Full House suma la puntuación total de todos los dados, como en Yacht.
• Las reglas de "Escalera Pequeña" y "Escalera Grande" tienen las mismas definiciones que en Yacht. Una " Escalera Pequeña" es uno-dos-tres-cuatro-cinco y otorga 15 puntos (la suma de las caras de los dados); una " Escalera Grande" es dos-tres-cuatro-cinco-seis y otorga 20 puntos (nuevamente, el valor combinado de los dados).
• No hay bonificaciones de Yahtzee ni regla del comodín. Los Yahtzee se pueden puntuar en otras categorías según las reglas de puntuación normales. Por ejemplo, un Yahtzee de seises puntúa 12 en la casilla de Pareja , 18 en Trío , 24 en Póker , 30 en Seis o Suerte y 0 en las casillas de Pareja , Full House , Escalera Pequeña y Escalera Grande .

Otros juegos relacionados incluyen:

• Balut es el nombre de un juego de dados danés que juegan los expatriados en muchos países del mundo. El nombre del juego proviene de los huevos balut .
• Kismet tiene dados con puntos de varios colores. Tanto los números como los colores se tienen en cuenta al puntuar.
• Yamb tiene varias (normalmente cuatro) columnas llenas de restricciones especiales y categorías MINIMAX, donde la puntuación es mayor cuanto mayor sea la diferencia entre el mínimo y el máximo.

Las matemáticas que sustentan el juego Yahtzee (y sus variantes) han sido estudiadas exhaustivamente. Es una fuente popular de ejercicios para estudiantes de matemáticas e informática. ^{[ 19 ] [ 20 ]} La estrategia para maximizar la puntuación se ha resuelto computacionalmente mediante la evaluación exhaustiva de todas las decisiones posibles. El juego óptimo da una puntuación esperada de 255. ^{[ 21 ]}

• The Yahtzee! Page (fansite)
• P-Yahtzee - Solution, variants, statistics, tactics
• "Yahtzee Game Rules / Instructions". yahtzee-rules.com. Archived from the original on March 15, 2026.