Farkle

Overview

Roll six dice, set aside scoring combinations, and choose whether to bank your points or roll again for more. Roll no scoring dice and you lose everything accumulated that turn — that is a farkle.

A traditional dice game, sold under many names.

No governing body publishes rules for this game. This page describes the most common form. House rules vary, so agree them before you start.

1. Scoring

Combination	Points
Single 1	100
Single 5	50
Three 1s	1,000
Three 2s	200
Three 3s	300
Three 4s	400
Three 5s	500
Three 6s	600
Four of a kind	1,000
Five of a kind	2,000
Six of a kind	3,000
Straight 1–6	1,500
Three pairs	1,500
Two triplets	2,500

Only 1s and 5s score individually. A lone 3 is worth nothing.

2. A turn

1. Roll all six dice.
2. Set aside at least one scoring die. You may set aside more.
3. Either bank your accumulated points and end your turn, or roll the remaining dice for more.
4. Repeat.

If a roll produces no scoring dice at all, you have farkled: you lose every point accumulated that turn and play passes on.

3. Hot dice

If all six dice end up scoring, you have hot dice. You may roll all six again, keeping your accumulated total and continuing the turn.

A skilled run of hot dice can produce several thousand points in one turn.

4. Getting on the board

Most rules require a minimum — commonly 500 or 1,000 points in a single turn — before you may bank anything at all.

5. Winning

First to 10,000 points triggers the final round: every other player gets one last turn to beat the total.

6. Strategy

The whole game is knowing when to stop. These are the chances of scoring nothing on a roll, which we calculated by checking every possible roll against the scoring table above:

Dice remaining	Chance of farkling
6	2.3%
5	8%
4	15.7%
3	28%
2	44%
1	67%

With one die left, only a 1 or a 5 scores.

Commonly argued

• You must set aside at least one scoring die each roll.
• A farkle loses everything from that turn, not the whole game.
• Only 1s and 5s score individually.
• Hot dice let you reroll all six without banking.
• Scoring tables vary wildly between households. Agree the table first.