What is Yatzy?
Yatzy is the five-dice game as it is played in the Nordic countries, listed as Scandinavian in the table setup. You roll five dice up to three times a turn, as in the standard game, but you score on a different sheet of 15 boxes: Ones to Sixes, then One Pair, Two Pairs, Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Small Straight, Large Straight, Full House, Chance and Yatzy (five of a kind). The game lasts 15 rounds, one for each box.
Most lower boxes count only the dice that make the combination. A pair of sixes in One Pair is worth 12, three fours in Three of a Kind are worth 12 whatever the other two dice show, and the straights are fixed: 1-2-3-4-5 for the small one and 2-3-4-5-6 for the large one. Reaching 63 in the upper section, three of each number, pays a 50-point bonus instead of 35, so the upper section matters even more than in the standard game.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Five Dice | Yatzy |
|---|---|---|
| Score sheet | Standard Five Dice13 boxes, so 13 rounds: Ones to Sixes, Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Full House, Small Straight, Large Straight, five of a kind and Chance. | Yatzy15 boxes, so 15 rounds: Ones to Sixes, One Pair, Two Pairs, Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Small Straight, Large Straight, Full House, Chance and Yatzy (five of a kind). |
| Pairs | Standard Five DiceThere are no pair boxes. | YatzyOne Pair scores the two matching dice. Two Pairs scores two pairs of different numbers, so four of a kind does not count as two pairs. |
| Three and Four of a Kind | Standard Five DiceScore the total of all five dice. | YatzyScore only the three or four matching dice. |
| Full House | Standard Five DiceThree of one number and two of another: 25 points. | YatzyThree of one number and two of another: the total of the five dice. |
| Straights | Standard Five DiceSmall Straight is any four numbers in a row, 30 points. Large Straight is any five in a row, 40 points. | YatzySmall Straight is exactly 1-2-3-4-5, 15 points. Large Straight is exactly 2-3-4-5-6, 20 points. |
| Five of a kind | Standard Five Dice50 points, and each extra five of a kind earns a 100-point bonus while the five-of-a-kind box holds 50. | Yatzy50 points, with no bonus for a second one. |
| Upper bonus | Standard Five Dice35 points for 63 or more in Ones to Sixes. | Yatzy50 points for 63 or more in Ones to Sixes. |
History
Yatzy is the form of the game that is most popular in the Nordic countries. It belongs to a family of dice games scored on poker-like combinations, together with the English game of poker dice, the Latin American game Generala and the older game Yacht, which dates back to at least 1938.
Compared with the American sheet, Yatzy adds One Pair and Two Pairs, counts only the matching dice in its sets, scores its straights at 15 and 20, pays 50 for the upper bonus and has no bonus for a second five of a kind. Two variants of Yatzy are widely known, and both can be played here as well: forced Yatzy, where the boxes are filled in order, and a six-dice game with 20 boxes.