A complete guide to poker dice: the goal, a player's turn, five dice and up to three rolls, holding, 15 categories, combinations and the upper-section bonus, controls on muta.pro and tips for beginners. Read it and start rolling right away.
Dice (poker dice) is a game of luck and calculation with five dice. Your job is to score more points than your opponent over 15 rounds. Each turn you roll the dice, build combinations and record the result on your scorecard of 15 categories. It all comes down to balance: gamble for a costly five of a kind or straight, or safely close the upper section for the bonus. Once both scorecards are filled, the player with the higher final total wins.
🎲 All combinations and points (three of a kind, full house, straights, Yahtzee) — in the blog table: Dice poker (Yahtzee): all combinations and how many points — table.
Players take turns one at a time. On your turn you roll five dice and may make up to three rolls. After the first and second rolls you may hold any lucky dice and re-roll the rest — that is how you build the set you need step by step. After the third roll (or earlier, if you are happy with the result) you record the outcome in one of the free categories on your scorecard. Each category can be filled only once per game, so over 15 rounds every row gets filled.
The upper section is six categories: ones, twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes. Each one records the sum of only those dice showing the matching face: for example, three fives in the "Fives" row score 15 points. If the upper section totals 63 points or more, you get a +35 point bonus. That is exactly why experienced players try to close the upper rows with at least three matching dice — it's a reliable path to the bonus.
A pair is the sum of two matching dice, two pairs is the sum of both pairs. Handy categories to keep from "burning" on an unlucky turn.
Three of a kind (three matching) and four of a kind (four matching) score the sum of all five dice on the table, not just the matching ones.
A full house (3+2) is a fixed 25 points, a small straight (1-2-3-4-5) is 30, a large straight (2-3-4-5-6) is 40, and five of a kind is 50 points.
"Chance" is simply the sum of all five dice, no conditions. A good row for recording at least something when no combination came together.
Five dice after a roll. The gold dice are the ones you have held (you keep them and re-roll the rest). Below each set are the points it scores.
Sometimes after three rolls the set you need just won't come together. In that case the result still has to be recorded somewhere — and it makes sense to "dump" a zero in the least valuable row, for example in "Ones" or in that same five of a kind, if there is no longer any chance for it.
The whole point of the game is in these decisions. Record a costly combination early and you gain a big lead, but you risk being left later with no turn to fill it. Hold a category for five of a kind and you might land 50 points — or be forced to zero it out at the end of the game. Every round is a little puzzle of luck and calculation.
Try to close the upper section with three matching dice each: 63 points and the +35 bonus often decide the whole game.
Holding a row for five of a kind until the end is risky. If it isn't coming together after two rolls, it's wiser to record a costly four of a kind or full house.
Keep the dice that lead to several combinations at once — for example, 3-4-5 works both for a straight and for the upper section.
When a turn goes badly, zero out the least valuable row — usually "Ones" or an already hopeless five of a kind, not "Chance".
Dice is a game of luck, but that luck can be counted. Understanding the probabilities turns the intuitive "let me keep these dice" into a deliberate decision. Below are the reference numbers worth keeping in your head at the table.
We hold three fives (gold) and re-roll two: the chance of rounding out at least one more five over two rolls is about 70%.
The chance of rolling a specific face on one die is 1/6 (≈17%). Over two re-rolls of the same die, the chance of hitting at least once rises to about 30%.
If you hold three matching dice and re-roll two, the chance of getting at least a fourth copy over two rolls is about 70%. That is why three of a kind so often grows into four of a kind.
Collecting five matching dice over three rolls from a clean table works out in about 4.6% of cases. Don't count on five of a kind as plan A — it's a bonus, not a strategy.
An open straight (missing an end, e.g. 3-4-5-6 waiting on a 2 or a 7 — and there's no seven, so it's the 2) fills more easily than an inside gap 2-3-_-5-6, which needs exactly a four.
The key decision of a turn is not where to record, but what to hold. The right set of held dice determines which combinations are even reachable over the remaining rolls. The general principle: keep the dice that lead to several goals at once.
3-4-5 is a golden base: it works for the small straight, for the large one, and partly for the upper section.
A run of three or four in a row is worth more than a pair of the same face: it opens up both the small (30) and the large (40) straight at once.
Never keep a single die "just because". A lone six is useful only if you are aiming for the upper section with sixes specifically.
Closer to the end of the game, hold for the categories that are still empty. A pretty full house is useless if the row for it is already taken.
In a 15-round game, what matters is not a single lucky roll but the sum of your decisions. Variance is the spread between "could have been" and "turned out". A skilled player manages it deliberately: takes risks when behind, and plays safe when ahead.
If your opponent is ahead, a safe 20–25 points won't save you. Keep the rows for five of a kind and the large straight open until the end: only a big score brings you back into the game.
With a lead, close the guaranteed categories (chance, two pairs, three of a kind) on any decent set. You don't need risk — you need consistency.
Plus 35 points for 63 in the upper section is almost a whole large straight for free. It makes sense to spend the early rounds building the upper rows with a cushion.
Three fours in the "Fours" row score 12 — 4 above the norm (8), a direct contribution to the 63 threshold and the bonus.
There is a lot of "folk wisdom" around dice that actually costs points. Let's break down what most often trips up beginners — no magic, no "lucky" dice.
If a five hasn't come up for five rolls in a row, its chance on the sixth is still 1/6. Dice don't remember the past — don't chase a "debt".
"Chance" is a guaranteed sum of all the dice, often 20+ points. Zero it out last — better to zero the ones or a hopeless five of a kind.
Recording a good set in "Three of a kind" costs you the four-of-a-kind row. If four matching came up, almost always write them into four of a kind — the same points, but a more valuable row.