What Is Farkle?
Farkle is a push-your-luck dice game for two or more players, using six dice and a target of 10,000 points. You roll, set aside the dice that score, and decide each time whether to bank your points or risk them on another roll. Push too far and you Farkle, losing the whole turn. A game runs about twenty minutes.
The same game is played the world over under other names: 10,000, Ten Thousand, Zilch, Zonk, Greed, Hot Dice, and the French Dix Mille. The rules below match the game you play here, with the common rule variations noted separately.
How to Play Farkle
The goal is the highest total when the game ends. Once a player banks 10,000, everyone else gets one more turn and the game is over. On your turn you roll all six dice and build a score by keeping scoring dice, choosing each roll whether to bank or press on.
- Roll all six dice. Roll all six dice. Look for scoring dice: any 1 or 5, three or more of a kind, a run of 1 through 6, or three pairs.
- Set aside a scoring die. Keep at least one scoring die from the roll; it locks in its points for the turn. A roll that shows no scoring dice at all is a Farkle, which ends your turn and wipes every point you built up that turn.
- Bank or push your luck. After setting dice aside, choose: bank the running total to your score, or re-roll the dice you did not keep to add more. Every re-roll risks a Farkle.
- Roll again on hot dice. Score all six dice in a single turn and you get hot dice: pick all six back up and keep rolling, adding to the same turn total.
- Get on the board with 500. Your first bank must come from a single turn worth at least 500 points. Until then the game won't let you bank a smaller turn: you keep rolling until the turn reaches 500 or you Farkle. Once you are on the board, you can bank any amount.
- Race to 10,000. The first player to reach 10,000 points triggers the final round. Everyone else gets one last turn to overtake them, and then the highest score wins.
Farkle Scoring
Only certain dice score. Single 1s and 5s are worth points on their own; everything else scores only as part of a set. Combinations must form on a single roll, so dice you have already set aside cannot be combined with a later throw. This is the scoring used in the game above.
| Combination | Points |
|---|---|
| Single 1 | 100 |
| Single 5 | 50 |
| Three 1s | 1,000 |
| Three 2s / 3s / 4s / 5s / 6s | 200 / 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 |
| Four of a kind | Double the three of a kind (four 1s = 2,000) |
| Five of a kind | Four times (five 1s = 4,000) |
| Six of a kind | Eight times (six 1s = 8,000) |
| Straight (1-2-3-4-5-6) | 1,500 |
| Three pairs | 1,500 |
Two separate triplets in one roll simply add together, so three 2s and three 3s score 500. To start scoring at all you must bank 500 in a single turn, the opening threshold known as getting on the board.
To play at a table with real dice, keep the totals on our Farkle score sheet: on a phone, or printed blank for up to six players with this chart underneath.
The Odds of Farkling
The fewer dice you roll, the more likely you are to Farkle. With all six dice a bust is rare; with one die it is the most likely result. Knowing these numbers is the heart of good Farkle play.
| Dice left to roll | Chance of a Farkle |
|---|---|
| 6 dice | 2.3% |
| 5 dice | 7.7% |
| 4 dice | 15.7% |
| 3 dice | 27.8% |
| 2 dice | 44.4% |
| 1 die | 66.7% |
Farkle Strategy
Farkle is a game of knowing when to stop. The odds above tell you when a re-roll is a good bet and when it is a gamble against yourself.
Keep rolling while you hold four or more dice. With four, five, or six dice live, a Farkle is unlikely (under one roll in six), so the reward almost always beats the risk. Banking early here leaves points on the table.
Bank once you are down to one or two dice. With two dice the Farkle chance jumps to about 44 percent, and with one it passes 66 percent. A rough guide is to bank once the turn is worth roughly 250 to 350 points and only a die or two remain.
Always take hot dice. Scoring all six dice lets you roll all six again at just a 2.3 percent bust risk, so a fresh set of six is nearly free points. Keep pushing while the full six are in your hand.
Play the score, not just the odds. Before you are on the board there is no bank to weigh: you roll until the turn reaches 500 or you Farkle. When you build a lead, bank sooner to protect it. In the final round, if you are behind, chase hard: banking a safe but short total guarantees a loss.
Scoring Variations
Farkle has no single official rulebook, so scoring shifts from table to table. The game here uses the values in the table above. The most common differences you will meet elsewhere:
- Four, five, and six of a kind. Many rule sets use flat values of 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 instead of the doubling used here.
- Three 1s. Worth 1,000 in the standard game, but only 300 in the commercial Pocket Farkel set.
- Straight and three pairs. A 1-to-6 straight ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 across rule sets, and three pairs from 750 to 2,000.
- The opening threshold. The 500 needed to get on the board is sometimes set anywhere from 350 to 1,000.
- Penalties. Some house rules dock 1,000 points for three Farkles in a row, or award a bonus for two triplets in one roll.
Farkle vs Yahtzee
Both are dice games, but they reward opposite instincts. Farkle is push-your-luck: six dice, re-roll to build a turn, and lose it all if you bust, racing to 10,000. Yahtzee is a planning game: five dice, up to three rolls a turn, and thirteen fixed categories to fill on a scorecard, with no way to go bust. Farkle is about nerve and when to stop; Yahtzee is about filling the card well.
A Short History of Farkle
No one invented Farkle. It is a folk dice game handed down by word of mouth for generations, which is why it travels under so many names: Ten Thousand, Dix Mille, Zilch, Zonk, Greed, and Hot Dice. The most-cited account has it reaching North America on French sailing ships in the 1600s, and dice with matching rules were dug up at Fort de Chartres in Illinois, dated to the 1700s. Older origin tales, a Sir Albert Farkle of Iceland and a Texas farkleberry bush, are folklore with no evidence behind them.
The name itself was trademarked only recently. Legendary Games sold Pocket Farkel in 1996, and Patch Products released the mass-market Farkle in 2007, now published by PlayMonster. Cosmic Wimpout, a related commercial dice game from 1976, credited the French Dix Mille as its ancestor.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Farkle?
Roll six dice, set aside any that score (1s, 5s, three of a kind, a straight, or three pairs), then bank those points or re-roll the rest for more. A roll with no scoring dice is a Farkle and wipes the turn. The first player to reach 10,000 starts the final round: everyone else gets one more turn, and the highest total wins.
How many dice do you need for Farkle?
Six. You roll all six on your first throw of a turn, set aside the ones that score, and re-roll only what is left. When all six score, you pick them all back up and roll again, which is called hot dice.
How do you get on the board in Farkle?
Your first bank must be a single turn worth at least 500 points. Until you've done that, you can't bank a smaller turn, so you keep rolling until the turn reaches 500 or you Farkle. Once you are on the board, you can bank any amount on later turns.
How do you win Farkle?
The first player to reach 10,000 points triggers the final round. Everyone else takes one more turn to try to pass that score, and then the highest total wins. Reaching 10,000 does not end the game on its own; it starts the last lap.
What is a Farkle?
A Farkle is a roll that produces no scoring dice at all. When it happens your turn ends at once and you lose every point you built up that turn but had not yet banked. Banking before a Farkle strikes is the whole tension of the game.
What does the word Farkle mean?
Farkle names both the game and a scoreless roll. It is a folk term with no documented origin, probably slang for fumbling or messing up. The same game is played around the world as 10,000, Ten Thousand, Zilch, Zonk, Greed, and Dix Mille.
How is Farkle scored?
Single 1s score 100 and single 5s score 50. Three of a kind is the face times 100, except three 1s, which are worth 1,000. A 1-to-6 straight or three pairs each score 1,500. The full breakdown, including four, five, and six of a kind, is in the scoring table above.
Is Farkle the same as 10,000?
Yes. 10,000, or Ten Thousand, is the same game under a different name, taken from the 10,000-point target. It also goes by Zilch, Zonk, Greed, Hot Dice, and Dix Mille. The rules and scoring are the same folk game; only the name changes by region and rulebook.
How is Farkle different from Yahtzee?
Farkle is a push-your-luck game: you keep re-rolling to build points and can lose them all on a Farkle, racing to 10,000. Yahtzee is a fixed-scorecard game with five dice, three rolls a turn, and thirteen categories to fill, and it has no bust. Farkle rewards nerve; Yahtzee rewards planning.
What are the odds of farkling?
The more dice you roll, the safer you are. With all six dice you Farkle only about 2.3 percent of the time, but the risk climbs fast: roughly 16 percent with four dice, 44 percent with two, and 67 percent with a single die. That rising risk is what makes banking a hard call.
Play Farkle Online
Play Farkle free against the computer, no download and no signup. Roll, set aside your scoring dice, and decide when to bank or push for hot dice, all the way to 10,000. The game tracks the opening threshold and the final round for you.
Read the full rules or explore more dice games.