Farkle

Since there has been a question about Farkle (the game I mentioned in my last post), I decided to do a post to explain the rules. Farkle is a 5 dice game of chance. You roll all five dice but you need a 3 of a kind or a one or two ones or a five to keep on rolling. You put the dice you want to keep to the side; pick up remaining dice and roll again. Just like the 1st time, you must get a one, a 5 or 3 of a kind to keep going; otherwise you have 'farkled'. (a farkle is a dice roll without a one, a five or three of a kind.) You may keep rolling as long as you get at least one dice to put aside to score each time. If you've used all 5 dice, you can pick up all 5 dice and start rolling again. If you throw a straight all at the same time (a 1,2,3,4,5) and get 1500 points, you can pick up all dice and continue to roll if you want. When you farkle, no points are added to your score and the person next to you takes control of the dice. You may opt to stop rolling at any time in your turn and have your points added rather than risk a 'farkle'.

To begin a player must get 500 points in one turn to get on the board. If a player farkles before getting 500 points or more, his/her turn is over until the dice go around the circle. After getting on the board, a player can stop at any time and add points to his/her score and pass the dice to the next player to avoid a farkle.

The first person to 10,000 points is usually the winner. However when a person gets to 10,000 points, the dice rotate through all the players one last time to see if they can' run the board' and overtake 10,000 points.

Scoring- Ones = 100 points; Fives = 50 points; three of a kind thrown at the same time = # times 100 (i.e. 3 sixes = 600 points); a 5 dice straight thrown at the same time = 1500 points; three-ones are a special case and they get you 1000 points if rolled at the same time. We usually play to 10,000 points.

Here are a few examples. Let's say this is your first roll:

You're lucky. You got 1000 points for the 3 ones and 50 points for each 5 so you now have 1100 points. You need 500 points so you are on the board and your points count, so you pick up all five dice and roll again:

You get 50 points for each 5 so now you have a total of 1200 points. However you have a decision to make. Are you going to pick up the 3 remaining dice and roll one more time to add to your score but risk a 'farkle' or are you going to take your points and pass the dice. I know that I would stop and take my points because I am a cautious person! I take the 1200 points and pass the dice. Let's say that when the dice come back on your next turn you roll this:

On this roll you have 200 points (one hundred for the 1 and 50 each for the 5's) You put those aside and roll the two sixes.

You're lucky again! You rolled another 5 so you now have 250 points. Again you have to make a decision, are you going to roll the remaining six or are you going to take your 250 points? This time you're feeling lucky and roll the last 6!

Lucky again, you get another 5 so you now have 300 points to add to your total. Decision time again, are you going to take the 300 points and stop or pick up all 5 dice and roll them again?Since you're feeling lucky you roll again!

Oops, the good luck ended and you farkled....you get ZERO/Nada/nothing for this turn. There are no 5's or 1's or three of a kinds. The player next to you gets the dice.

Now the best way to learn would be to invite us over for a private lesson but if that is impossible and my explanations have totally confused you check out this website:

http://www.smartboxdesign.com/farklerules.html