Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a dice game introduced by the E. S. Lowe Company in 1956. Its commercial history is commonly traced to a Canadian couple who played a similar game on their yacht and approached Edwin S. Lowe about publishing it. Lowe named the product Yahtzee. Milton Bradley later acquired the E. S. Lowe Company, and Yahtzee became a Hasbro game after Hasbro acquired Milton Bradley in 1984. Despite its frequent classification as a board game, standard Yahtzee needs no board. Players use five dice and a score sheet to record the results of thirteen turns.

On each turn, a player may roll the dice up to three times. After the first and second rolls, the player can set aside any dice and reroll the others. The player then enters a score in one unused category, even if that entry scores zero. Each of the thirteen categories can be used only once. This structure makes the decision to keep or reroll dice inseparable from the decision about where to record the final result.

The score sheet has an upper and a lower section. The upper section contains Aces, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, and Sixes; each scores the sum of dice showing that number. An upper-section subtotal of at least 63 earns a 35-point bonus. Sixty-three is the score obtained by recording three of each number, from one through six. The lower section includes Three of a Kind and Four of a Kind, which score the sum of all five dice when their requirements are met. Chance also scores the sum of all five dice, without requiring a particular combination.

Other lower-section categories have fixed values. A Full House, consisting of three dice of one number and two of another, scores 25 points. A Small Straight, a sequence of at least four numbers, scores 30; a Large Straight, a sequence of five, scores 40. Yahtzee, five dice showing the same number, scores 50 points. A player who has already scored 50 in the Yahtzee category can receive a 100-point bonus for another Yahtzee, subject to the score sheet's rules for placing that turn's score.

A game ends when every player has filled all thirteen categories. Totals combine the upper-section scores and any 35-point bonus with the lower-section scores and any additional Yahtzee bonuses. The highest total wins. The dice create the combinations, but the one-use categories determine their consequences: a player can pursue a straight, protect an upper-section bonus, or accept a zero when no useful category remains.