Simply addictive! (Yahtzee)

Member Name: Daisy

Product:	Yahtzee
Date:	02/09/01 (362 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, easy to play

Disadvantages: none

You really couldn’t get a more straightforward dice game than Yahtzee. However it is highly addictive, and once you start playing it’s hard to stop. To play you need 5 dice, pencil and scorecard, and that’s it you’re ready to go.

So what is Yahtzee?

Basically it is a game of chance with a small element of luck thrown in. The object of the game (not surprisingly!) is to get the highest possible score. Yahtzee can be played with any number of people, limited only by the number of pencils/scorepads you have! Each player takes it in turn to throw the dice a maximum of three times and you then tot up your score. There are two different categories in which you can score, and I shall attempt to explain these before going any further:

Singles (i.e. 1, 2,3,4,5, 6) – this is basically just a case of adding up all the numbers that you have chosen, e.g. if you are going for 4’s and roll three 4’s and any other two numbers your total score for 4’s is 12. If for this total category your score is 63 or more you are awarded a bonus of 35

Other scoring:
There are a total of 7 sections here, which consist of:
Three of a kind – you are required to get 3 of the same kind but the score is the total of all dice (i.e. if three 5’s are thrown plus a 2 and a 3 total score will be 20)

Four of a kind – as above but of course you have to get 4 the same and score is the total of all five dice.

Full House – Score 25 if you can get 3 of one kind and 2 of another (i.e. two 6’s and 3 2’s)

Low straight – Any four numbers in a row scores 30

High straight – Five numbers in a row scores 40

Yahtzee – Get 5 all the same and you’ve got yahtzee! If you get one during a game 50 is scored and any further yahtzees scored during a game get a bonus of 100.

Chance – Total score of all dice.

OK
so that’s the scoring, it may sound complicated but believe me it’s really straightforward. Each person has his or her own ‘game play’. After throwing the dice the first time you have to decide what you are going to ‘go for’, for example, if on a first throw two 6’s, two 3’s and a 1 are thrown do you decide to put aside the two 6’s and 3’s and go for full house and 25 points, or, put the 6’s aside, throw the rest and hope for at least three of a kind? These are only two of your options. If for any reason you can’t score (particularly near the end when most of the categories are filled) you then have to choose a category to sacrifice.

This continues until every player has had 13 turns (and thus the opportunity to fill each option on the scorecard) and of course the player with the highest score wins, simple really.

This really is a very addictive game. My seven year old daughter recently started playing it and she’s addicted too (I’ve convinced myself that the counting skills part are educational!). We recently got electronic Yahtzee so if you’re feeling really sad you can play it alone. There are numerous other versions of the game around but for me you can’t beat the original.
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