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Yacht Strategy and Tips

Here is how to think about winning at Yacht, split into short lessons. Each one reads on its own, and each one comes with a real position: press Try it on the board and you play the move yourself.

Aiming for the upper bonus

Lesson 1

The upper bonus adds 35 once your Ones-through-Sixes subtotal reaches 63. That number is three times 21 (1+2+3+4+5+6), so the rough target is an average of three of each face. Falling short on Ones is fine if Fours makes up for it with four dice — you don't need exactly three of every single face.

In practice, the face you want doesn't always show up, so it pays to give up on the bonus early once the upper section looks tight. Noticing in the middle of the game that 63 is out of reach, and shifting effort to the lower section instead, keeps your average total higher than discovering it too late with only a couple of rows left.

Here the upper section already reads 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 for Ones through Fives — a subtotal of 45 — and only Sixes is open. The roll shows three 6s among 6, 6, 6, 4 and 1, so writing Sixes adds 18, and 45 plus 18 locks in the bonus at exactly 63.

Chase the Yacht, or settle

Lesson 2

Four matching dice make everyone think about the 50-point Yacht. With one reroll left, the odds that the last die lands on that face are 1 in 6, about 17%. With two rerolls, the chance of hitting it at least once rises to 1 minus (5/6) squared, or 11/36 — about 31%.

The catch is what happens on a miss. Chase the Yacht and fail, and you're left leaning on Four of a Kind or an upper row. If the upper bonus is already locked in, or Four of a Kind alone already scores well, writing it in right away keeps your average total steadier. Chasing pays off late in the game when a miss costs little, or when nothing else worthwhile is open.

Here the roll is 5, 5, 5, 5 and 2, with two rerolls left. Keep the four 5s and reroll the 2: about 31% of the time it becomes a Yacht for 50, and even on a miss, Four of a Kind still sums the whole roll. Take the gamble here, and write Four of a Kind if it misses.

Keep the middle for a straight

Lesson 3

In the Standard scoresheet, Small Straight is four in a row for 15, and Large Straight is five in a row for 30. When you're building a run with five dice, keeping the middle values pays off more than keeping the edge values. A middle run like 2-3-4-5 completes a Large Straight whether the next die lands on 1 or on 6 — two ways to succeed instead of one.

Keep 1-2-3-4 instead, and only a 5 can complete it — a single way to succeed. The same four consecutive dice, kept toward the middle, roughly double your chance on the reroll. Look at which end your run leans toward and favor keeping the middle values.

Here the roll is 2, 3, 4, 5 and 5, already a Small Straight from 2-3-4-5. Keep that middle run and reroll the extra 5: either a 1 or a 6 completes a Large Straight for 30. This time a 6 came up, filling out 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Where to sacrifice zero late

Lesson 4

Late in the game, a roll sometimes matches nothing at all. When that happens, write the zero into whichever open row costs you the least. Small upper faces like Ones or Twos rarely add more than a few points on average, so leaving one at zero is a small loss.

Lower rows like Large Straight or Full House are worth much more — 20 to 30 points — and you still have turns left to complete them. Given a choice of where to place a zero, sacrificing the smaller row keeps your expected total higher across the rest of the game. If the upper bonus is already out of reach, giving up a bigger upper face such as Sixes instead is also reasonable.

Here only Ones and Large Straight remain open, and the roll of 6, 6, 3, 4 and 2 scores zero in both. Large Straight can still come together on a later turn, so keep it open and write the zero into Ones instead to move the game along.

Try it on the board

Pick a lesson and the board starts from that position. Start over as often as you like.

Now put it to work

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Last updated 2026-09-23 · Run by Qdan, Inc.