Yacht Dice

How to play Yacht Dice

Yacht Dice is a game of five dice and a scorecard with 13 boxes. Each turn you roll up to three times, then score the dice in one empty box. After 13 turns every box is filled, and the highest total wins. It plays by the same American scorecard rules as Yahtzee (a Hasbro trademark; Poozee isn't affiliated with Hasbro).

• Rolling: roll all five dice. Then hold any dice you want to keep and roll the rest, up to two more times. You can stop and score after any roll.
• Scoring: after your last roll, you must fill exactly one empty box. If the dice don't fit any box you still need, you score a zero somewhere.

The upper section

63 is exactly three of each number, so the bonus means scoring "three of a kind" in every upper box on average.

The lower section

Extra five of a kinds and the joker rule

If you roll five of a kind after your Yacht box is already filled:

• Bonus: if the Yacht box holds 50, you get a 100-point bonus for every extra five of a kind. If it holds 0, there's no bonus.
• Joker: the roll must go in the matching upper box (five 3s in Threes) if that box is empty. If it's filled, put the roll in any empty lower box, where full house, small straight and large straight score their full 25, 30 or 40. Only if all of those are filled too do you score a zero in an empty upper box.

Playing on Poozee

• Solo or against the computer. Solo is for chasing a high score. Against the computer, you take turns and the higher total wins.
• Three computer levels. Easy plays each turn for the most points it can get right away. Medium also plays for the upper bonus. Hard plays the optimal strategy, the one that averages the most points possible.
• Every open box shows what you'd score with the dice on the table, so you can compare before you pick.
• Hint shows the best dice to hold, or the best box to score, according to the optimal strategy.
• Keyboard: 1 to 5 hold dice, Space or R rolls, H asks for a hint.
• Your game is saved in your browser, so you can close the tab and finish later. Your best solo score and your record against each computer level are kept too.

Yacht Dice strategy basics

1. Go for the upper bonus. It's worth 35 points, and perfect play earns it in about two games out of three. Aim for three or more of each number in the upper boxes.
2. After your first roll, don't jump at every straight draw. With 3‑4‑5‑6‑6 on the first roll of a game, holding the two 6s is worth more than holding 3‑4‑5‑6, which only a 2 turns into a large straight. A draw open at both ends, like 2‑3‑4‑5, is worth holding.
3. With one roll left, the straight comes back. Roll 3‑4‑5‑6‑6 on your second roll and the best hold is 3‑4‑5‑6: a small straight in hand is 30 points, while a pair has just one roll to grow.
4. Put bad rolls in a low upper box, not Chance. A 1 in Ones costs you little, while Chance is your safety net for a bad turn later.

Our Yahtzee strategy guide measures each of these with an exact solver, and lists the odds of every scorecard pattern.

Pro tip: Watch the Upper total row. 63 is three of each number, so after Sixes, Fives and Fours with three each (45 points), you need only 18 more from Ones, Twos and Threes.

About Yacht Dice

Yacht is an old public-domain dice game with a similar five-dice scorecard. Yahtzee is the best-known version in the United States, and Poozee's Yacht Dice follows its familiar American scorecard rules, down to the joker rule.