Yatzy Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Yatzy is the Nordic sibling of Yahtzee and is played across Scandinavia with a longer sheet and meaner arithmetic. Fifteen boxes instead of thirteen, and crucially the combination boxes pay only for the dice in the combination, so four twos is worth eight rather than the whole handful. Scores are therefore far smaller than Yahtzee scores and are not comparable between the two games.
Overview
Yatzy is the Nordic sibling of Yahtzee and is played across Scandinavia with a longer sheet and meaner arithmetic. Fifteen boxes instead of thirteen, and crucially the combination boxes pay only for the dice in the combination, so four twos is worth eight rather than the whole handful. Scores are therefore far smaller than Yahtzee scores and are not comparable between the two games.
Setup
Give every player a column of fifteen boxes. Five dice and a cup go round the table clockwise. A full game is one pass down each column.
How to play
Roll all five dice, then take up to two further rolls, keeping and releasing whichever dice you like between rolls. After the third roll at the latest, write the result into one empty box. If nothing fits, choose a box and score it 0. When every box is filled the game ends.
Scoring
Upper section. Ones through Sixes score the total of the dice showing that face only. Reach 63 across the six boxes and a 50 point bonus is added. That threshold is exactly three of each number, so a fourth six upstairs is worth banking.
Lower section.
| Box | Requirement | Score |
|---|---|---|
| One pair | Two matching dice | Those two dice added, maximum 12 |
| Two pairs | Two different pairs | Those four dice added, maximum 22 |
| Three of a kind | Three matching | Those three dice added, maximum 18 |
| Four of a kind | Four matching | Those four dice added, maximum 24 |
| Small straight | 1-2-3-4-5 exactly | 15 flat |
| Large straight | 2-3-4-5-6 exactly | 20 flat |
| Full house | Three of one, two of another | All five dice added, maximum 28 |
| Chance | Any five dice | All five dice added, maximum 30 |
| Yatzy | Five matching | 50 flat |
Two pairs needs two genuinely different numbers; four of a kind does not satisfy it. Five of a kind does not count as a full house on a standard sheet.
Maximum score. With default settings the perfect sheet is 374: 105 upstairs plus the 50 bonus, and 219 across the lower boxes.
Ending the game
Highest grand total after fifteen boxes wins. Because the combination boxes are small, the upper bonus swings the result more than anything else on the sheet, and a good player will sacrifice a pair box to protect it.
Common variations
Maxi Yatzy adds a sixth die and five more boxes. Forced Yatzy removes all choice and drops the bonus target to 42. Printed cards vary regionally in whether the pair boxes exist and in the size of the bonus, which is why both are settings rather than assumptions.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | Highest score |
|---|---|
| Rounds | 15 fixed |
| Score sheet | Fixed categories, each filled once, with bonuses |
| Typical round score | 0 – 50 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | The combination boxes score only the dice in the combination, which is the single biggest difference from American Yahtzee. Small and large straight are flat values. |
Yatzy — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: upperBonusThreshold: 63, upperBonusValue: 50, yatzyScoring: flat50,
fullHouseScoring: sumOfDice, includePairs: true, columns: 1.
Players: Anna, Ben. Both sheets are complete.
| Category | Section | Anna | Ben |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ones | upper | 3 | 2 |
| Twos | upper | 8 | 6 |
| Threes | upper | 9 | 9 |
| Fours | upper | 12 | 12 |
| Fives | upper | 20 | 15 |
| Sixes | upper | 18 | 18 |
| Upper sum | derived | 70 | 62 |
| Upper bonus | derived | 50 | 0 |
| Upper total | derived | 120 | 62 |
| One pair | lower | 12 | 10 |
| Two pairs | lower | 22 | 18 |
| Three of a kind | lower | 15 | 12 |
| Four of a kind | lower | 16 | 0 |
| Small straight | lower | 15 | 15 |
| Large straight | lower | 20 | 0 |
| Full house | lower | 27 | 21 |
| Chance | lower | 24 | 22 |
| Yatzy | lower | 50 | 0 |
| Lower total | derived | 201 | 98 |
| Grand total | derived | 321 | 160 |
Expected standings: Anna 321, rank 1 — winner; Ben 160, rank 2. finished: true,
because all 15 categories are filled for both players.
This example is built to catch the two mistakes implementations actually make:
The bonus boundary. Ben's upper sum is 62 — one short of 63 — so he scores no
bonus. Anna's is 70 and she scores 50. A single point in the upper section is worth
51 here. An off-by-one in the threshold comparison (> instead of >=, or checking
against 62) changes Ben's total by 50 and is otherwise invisible.
Yatzy is not Yahtzee. Every combination box scores only the dice in the combination, never all five. Anna's three of a kind is 15 (three fives), not the sum of her whole roll. Her full house is 27 — three fives plus two sixes — not 25 and not a flat value. Small and large straight are flat 15 and 20, not the sum of the dice. An implementation ported from American Yahtzee will get all of these wrong while still producing plausible-looking numbers.
Zeros are scored, not empty. Ben's four of a kind, large straight and Yatzy are scratched — deliberately taken as 0. They are filled cells with the value 0, which is different from an unfilled cell, and the sheet is only complete because they exist.
Tools for Yatzy
Set up the way this game wants them.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Yatzy a little differently. These are the 9 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Upper bonus needs: what is the default in Yatzy?
The upper section subtotal that earns the bonus. 63 is three of each number. Finnish and Icelandic sheets sometimes use a different figure, so it is adjustable.
Default: 63. Adjustable from 0 to 105 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Upper bonus needs”.
Upper bonus worth: what is the default in Yatzy?
Points added when the upper subtotal reaches the threshold. Note this is 50 in Yatzy where American Yahtzee pays only 35.
Default: 50. Adjustable from 0 to 100 in steps of 5.
In the app: “Upper bonus worth”.
Yatzy is worth: what are the options in Yatzy?
Five of a kind normally scores exactly 50 whatever the number. Some sheets add the dice on top, making five sixes worth 80.
Default: A flat 50. Two options:
In the app: “Yatzy is worth”.
Full house is worth: what are the options in Yatzy?
In Yatzy a full house scores the actual dice, so a big one beats a small one. The flat 25 option matches the American sheet.
Default: The five dice added up. Two options:
In the app: “Full house is worth”.
Include the pair boxes: on or off in Yatzy?
One Pair and Two Pairs are part of the standard Nordic sheet but absent from some printed cards. Turning them off leaves thirteen boxes.
Default: on.
In the app: “Include the pair boxes”.
Forced Yatzy: on or off in Yatzy?
Boxes must be filled strictly from the top down with no choosing. Because that is so much harder, the upper bonus threshold usually drops as well.
Default: off.
In the app: “Forced Yatzy”.
Forced Yatzy bonus needs: what is the default in Yatzy?
The easier upper bonus target used only when Forced Yatzy is switched on.
Default: 42. Adjustable from 0 to 105 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Forced Yatzy bonus needs”.
Games on one sheet: what is the default in Yatzy?
How many complete scorecards each player fills in this session.
Default: 1. Adjustable from 1 to 6 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Games on one sheet”.
Add columns together: on or off in Yatzy?
With more than one game on the sheet, decide whether the winner is the best single column or the best combined total.
Default: on.
In the app: “Add columns together”.
Variants of Yatzy
Maxi Yatzy
Six dice and twenty boxes. The upper bonus moves to 84 and is worth 100, and extra boxes appear for three pairs, five of a kind, castle and tower.
Forced Yatzy
Fill the sheet strictly top to bottom. No tactics, much lower scores, and a reduced bonus target to compensate.
Yatzy with a house sheet
Regional printed cards differ in bonus size and in whether the pair boxes appear at all. Set the thresholds to match whatever card is on the table.
Yatzy is also known as
Scandinavian Yatzy, Yatzee, Yahtzee (Nordic), Jatsi, Yatzý. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.