Farkle: rules, scoring & strategy

Farkle (also spelled Farkel) is a game of nerve as much as luck. You roll six dice, set aside the ones that score, and decide each time whether to bank what you have or risk it all on another throw. Roll a batch with nothing scoring and you “farkle” — every point you built up that turn vanishes. That single rule is what makes the game.

The dice and how you roll

You need six ordinary six-sided dice and something to write scores on. Play passes clockwise. On your turn:

• Roll all six dice.
• Set aside at least one scoring die (or combination). You must keep something every roll — you can’t bank a die that doesn’t score.
• You may then stop and bank the points accumulated this turn, or re-roll the remaining dice to add more.
• If a roll produces no scoring dice at all, that’s a farkle — you lose everything gained this turn and pass the dice on.

If all six dice end up scoring, you have “hot dice”: pick all six back up and keep rolling, carrying your running total forward.

Scoring

Only 1s and 5s score on their own; everything else needs a combination. The widely used values are:

A three-of-a-kind must come from a single roll, not built up across throws. Most groups play to a 10,000-point target, and often require a minimum first bank (commonly 500 or 1,000) before you can “get on the board”. Once someone reaches the target, everyone else usually gets one last turn to overtake them.

A caveat worth stating plainly: Farkle has no single official rulebook, so the scores for four/five/six of a kind, three pairs, two triplets and the winning total vary between houses. Agree the table’s rules before the first roll.

Winning strategy & the odds

The whole game lives in one question: do I bank, or roll again? The answer depends on how many dice you have left, because your chance of farkling climbs sharply as dice come off the table:

• 6 dice — farkle roughly 2% of the time (almost always safe).
• 5 dice — around 8%.
• 4 dice — around 16%.
• 3 dice — around 28%.
• 2 dice — around 44%.
• 1 die — about 67% (two chances in three you get nothing).

A useful rule of thumb: with three or more dice remaining and a modest score banked so far, re-rolling is usually positive — the likely gain outweighs the risk of losing it. With one or two dice left and a decent pile at stake, bank it. A common heuristic is to stop once you have around 300–500 points and only two or three dice in hand. Chasing hot dice from six down to one, holding 1,000+ points, is how good turns become farkles.

Context matters too. If you’re far behind and it’s late in the game, push harder than the odds suggest — you need variance. If you’re ahead, bank early and let opponents take the risks.

Common mistakes

• Greeding one die. Rolling a lone die for a 1 or 5 fails two-thirds of the time and wipes the turn. Almost never worth it unless you’re desperate.
• Forgetting to set a die aside. You must keep at least one scoring die each roll — you can’t re-roll the whole six after a scoring throw.
• Not taking all the points from a roll. You choose which scoring dice to keep, but weigh it — keeping a single 5 to re-roll five dice can beat banking a small combo.
• Missing hot dice. When all six score, you may roll all six again fresh — players often overlook this and stop short.
• Playing loose when ahead. The leader should tighten up; only the trailing players need to gamble.

Want to feel the tumble? You can throw a handful of physics dice in your browser to practise reading Farkle rolls at a glance.

Keep reading: try the bluffing classic Liar’s Dice.