Yacht Dice

A turn is up to three rolls of five dice. After the first roll you keep any dice you want and reroll the rest; after the second you do it again. You can stop early at any point.

Then the hand goes on the card, in one category, and that category is used up for the rest of the game. Every open category will take the hand for whatever it is worth — including nothing. Taking a deliberate zero somewhere cheap, to keep a category you can still fill well, is ordinary play rather than a mistake.

After twelve turns the card is full and the total is your score. The ceiling on this card is 297, which no single game can reach — each category’s best is counted on its own, and one hand cannot be five sixes and a straight at the same time.

This is Yacht, the traditional dice game, and if you grew up with a similar one you will notice a few differences. There are twelve categories rather than thirteen, there is no bonus for the numbers section, Full House pays all five dice rather than a flat 25, Four of a Kind pays the four matching dice rather than all five, and both straights are exact runs worth 30 each. A Yacht is five alike for a flat 50, with no bonus for a second one.

• Ones — Every 1, added up
• Twos — Every 2, added up
• Threes — Every 3, added up
• Fours — Every 4, added up
• Fives — Every 5, added up
• Sixes — Every 6, added up
• Full House — Three alike and two alike — all five dice, added up
• Four of a Kind — Four alike — those four dice, added up
• Little Straight — Exactly 1-2-3-4-5 — 30
• Big Straight — Exactly 2-3-4-5-6 — 30
• Choice — Anything at all — all five dice, added up
• Yacht — All five alike — 50

Solo is one card and your own best to beat. Two players, one device deals two cards side by side and takes turns; both are visible throughout, because there is nothing hidden in Yacht.

Daily gives everybody the same fixed list of dice, seeded from the UTC date. The luck is identical and the decisions are not: hold three and you draw two dice where somebody who held one draws four, so the hands diverge from the second roll on. That is what makes comparing two scores mean anything. It changes at midnight UTC rather than at your local midnight.

Strategy coach shows the numbers behind every decision: what each way of holding is worth, and what each category usually gives against what it would give now. Those figures are exact rather than estimated — five dice have only 252 distinct hands, so a whole turn is worked out rather than simulated. What the coach does NOT do is look ahead to the categories you will want later, so it will happily spend a good one cheaply. Coached games are counted but never set a best, because the answers were on screen.

Ask what a category is usually worth, not just what it is worth now. A turn spent chasing Sixes is worth about nineteen points on average; twelve in Sixes is therefore a poor use of the category, even though twelve points sounds fine. The coach shows both numbers side by side for exactly this reason.

Choice is the most valuable thing on the card and the easiest to waste. It takes any hand at its face value, so it is worth around twenty-three points to a turn that goes after it — spending it on a hand worth eight because nothing else fitted is one of the most expensive habits in the game.

Two pairs are worth more than they look. A full house pays the whole hand here, so three sixes and two fives is 28 — better than most of the numbers section and better than four twos.

The whole game runs in your browser. Ordinary rolls come from your browser’s cryptographic random generator; the Daily comes from a list seeded by the date, so everybody gets the same dice. Nothing about your game is uploaded, and no account is needed.

Your bests, your saved game, your Daily history and your sound, motion and coach settings are stored in this browser only. Nothing here asks for a name or an email, and the button on this page removes all of it — and only this game’s share of it.

Is it really free, and do I need an account?

Yes, and no. There is no sign-up, no trial and nothing to buy. The game runs in your browser and never sends your rolls anywhere.

Is this the game I think it is?

It is Yacht, the traditional dice game the route is named after, and it is not quite the one most people grew up with. Twelve categories rather than thirteen; no bonus for the numbers; Full House pays all five dice rather than a flat 25; Four of a Kind pays the four matching dice rather than all five; and both straights are exact runs worth 30. Everything else — five dice, three rolls, hold what you like — is what you would expect.

Can I score zero on purpose?

Yes, and sometimes you should. Every open category will take these dice for whatever they are worth, including nothing. Taking a zero somewhere cheap to protect a category you can still fill well is ordinary play, not a mistake, so the card offers it rather than greying it out.

How good is the coach?

Its numbers are exact rather than estimated — five dice have only 252 distinct hands, so a whole turn can be worked out rather than simulated. What it does not do is look ahead to which categories you will want later, so it will happily spend a good one cheaply. Treat it as an excellent read of this turn and your own judgement for the rest.

What is the Daily?

One fixed list of dice for everybody, seeded from the UTC date. The luck is identical and the decisions are not — hold three and you draw two dice where somebody who held one draws four — which is what makes comparing two scores mean anything. It changes at midnight UTC, not at your local midnight.

Where is my progress kept?

In this browser, and nowhere else. Each mode keeps its own best, and coached games are counted but never set one, because the numbers were on screen. Clearing your browser data, or using the button on this page, removes all of it permanently.

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