Play Dice Poker Online

What Is Dice Poker?

Dice Poker, also called poker dice, is a game in which five dice stand in for a hand of cards. Each player rolls the dice up to three times, keeping any dice they like between rolls, and tries to finish with the strongest poker-style combination: pairs, three of a kind, a full house, a straight, four of a kind or the rare five of a kind. The best hand wins the round. There is no betting, bluffing or folding in the basic game, which makes it the purest test of the hold-and-re-roll decision that also drives Yahtzee.

Traditional poker dice have card faces (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9) instead of pips, but the game plays identically with ordinary numbered dice, which is what you use here: 6 is the Ace and 1 is the Nine. Because there are only six faces and no suits, the hand rankings are simpler than card poker and the probabilities are very different: a pair is the most common outcome, not a bust.

If you enjoy head-to-head dice, Liar’s Dice adds hidden dice and bluffing to a similar hand vocabulary, and Ship Captain Crew is a fixed-order race with the same three rolls. For combinations scored on a card rather than compared, see Yahtzee and Farkle.

A Short History of Dice Poker

Card poker grew up in New Orleans and along the Mississippi in the early nineteenth century, and it did not take long for someone to move the hand rankings onto dice. Poker dice originated in the United States, and the first patent for dice bearing playing-card faces was issued in 1881, according to the ETH Zurich library’s history of the game. An eight-sided version was patented in 1888. The six-sided set with Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten and Nine became the standard, because those six ranks are enough to build every hand except the flush.

Poker dice found its home in bars and hotel lounges rather than casinos: a leather cup and five dice were an easy way to decide who bought the next round, and sets from the 1930s and 1940s are collected today for their craftsmanship and rarity. Because the dice are cheap and the rules are short, dozens of local variations sprang up, including limits on the second player’s rolls, aces wild and side pots. The same dice later gave rise to Liar Dice, in which players bid on hidden poker hands, and to the twelve-sided novelty sets of the 1970s and 2000s that added suits and flushes.

Sources disagree on details of the early years, and no single inventor is named in any record we could verify, so this guide sticks to what is documented: an American origin, an 1881 patent, and a century of bar-room play.

Dice Poker Rules

Equipment

• Five six-sided dice. Poker dice sets show A, K, Q, J, 10, 9; plain dice work exactly the same with 6 as the highest face and 1 as the lowest.
• A dice cup (optional), and something to keep score with.

Object of the Game

Make a better five-dice poker hand than your opponent. In our version a match is a race: the first player to win five rounds wins. Drawn rounds are replayed and count for nobody.

How a Turn Works

1. First roll. Roll all five dice.
2. Hold. Set aside any dice you want to keep. Everything else will be re-rolled.
3. Second roll. Roll the dice you did not hold. You may now change your holds, including releasing dice you kept earlier.
4. Third roll. Roll any dice not held. This is the last roll of the turn.
5. Compare. Once both players have finished, the higher-ranking hand wins the round.

You may stand after the first or second roll if you are happy with the hand; you do not have to use all three rolls. In our game you play first, then the computer takes its three rolls in full view.

Hand Rankings

Breaking Ties

When both hands are the same type, compare the dice that form the combination first, then the leftover dice (the kickers), highest first:

• Four 5s with a 2 beats four 4s with a 6, because the fours are compared before the kicker.
• Full house 3-3-3-6-6 loses to 4-4-4-1-1: the three of a kind decides, then the pair.
• Straight 2-6 beats straight 1-5.
• Two pair 5-5-1-1-6 beats 4-4-3-3-6 (higher top pair) and loses to 5-5-2-2-1 (same top pair, higher second pair).
• One pair 6-6 with 5-3-1 beats 6-6 with 4-3-2.

If every die matches, the round is a draw. Some rules give the draw to the player who needed fewer rolls; ours simply awards no point.

Worked Examples

• First roll 3-3-5-6-1. Hold the pair of 3s and roll three dice. You now have two rolls to improve. Following the numbers below, you will finish with at least three of a kind about three times in four.
• First roll 2-3-4-5-5. You have an open-ended four-straight (2-3-4-5) plus a pair. Keeping the straight draw and rolling one die gives a 55.6 percent chance of a straight over two rolls (a 1 or a 6 completes it). Keeping the pair of 5s instead gives roughly the same chance of three of a kind or better, but a straight beats any three of a kind, and a Straight is the hand the computer stands on. Go for the straight.
• First roll 6-6-2-2-4. Two pair. Hold both pairs and roll the last die: 2 of 6 faces make a full house each time, so about 55.6 percent over two rolls. Holding only the 6s is worse: you give up a made two pair for a small extra chance at four of a kind.
• First roll 4-4-4-1-1 against an opponent who stood on Three of a Kind. You already win. Stand; do not risk a full house for four of a kind.
• Second roll 5-5-5-5-2 with one roll left. Roll the 2. You cannot lose the four of a kind, and one time in six you make Five of a Kind. The only cost is a possibly lower kicker, which matters only against another four 5s.
• Third roll ends 1-3-4-5-6. A bust with a 6 high. It beats another bust with a lower top die and loses to any pair. This happens to about 1.5 percent of hands played well.

Probabilities

Five dice produce 6⁵ = 7,776 equally likely results on a single roll. The table above already lists the ways for each hand; here they are as percentages, alongside how often a player following the computer’s simple hold policy (keep the largest group, keep both pairs, keep four-straights, stand on Full House or better) actually finishes with each hand after three rolls.

The second column comes from simulating four hundred thousand hands with the exact policy the computer opponent uses. A Full House is the most common finishing hand: roughly three hands in ten. That is why “I have three of a kind” is nowhere near a winning position in this game, and why standing on a first-roll Two Pair is usually wrong.

Other numbers worth knowing:

• Holding a pair and rolling three dice twice (keeping whatever improves), you finish with three of a kind or better about 76 percent of the time, a Full House about 37 percent, four of a kind about 19 percent and Five of a Kind almost 6 percent.
• Holding three of a kind and rolling two dice twice: the chance of at least a Full House or Four of a Kind is 1 − (20/36)² ≈ 69 percent.
• An open-ended four-straight (2-3-4-5 or 3-4-5-6 missing a 2, or 2-3-4-5 missing a 1 or 6) has two outs of six per roll: 55.6 percent over two rolls. A four-straight with one out (1-2-3-4 needs the 5; 3-4-5-6 needs the 2) is 30.6 percent.
• Five of a Kind within three rolls from scratch, always keeping the largest group, is about 4.6 percent, the same as a Yahtzee.

Dice Poker Strategy

1. Keep the largest group, almost always

With five dice and three rolls, matched dice snowball. A pair improves to three of a kind or better about three times in four; a single high die is worth nothing. The exceptions are a four-straight draw and a made hand you should stand on.

2. Keep both pairs

Two pair is a weak finished hand but a strong draw: every re-roll of the fifth die has a one-in-three chance of making a Full House, the most common winning hand. Breaking up two pair to chase four of a kind throws away a 55.6 percent shot at a much better hand.

3. Rank the straight draw against what it beats

A completed Straight beats every Three of a Kind, Two Pair and Pair, and loses only to Full House or better, which the opponent makes about a third of the time. An open-ended draw (two outs) is worth taking on the first roll. A one-out draw usually is not: 30.6 percent is less than the chance of improving a pair.

4. Roll the kicker on four of a kind

You cannot make your hand worse in rank, and one roll in six becomes Five of a Kind. Only stop if you are already sure of the round, for instance if the opponent has stood on a lower hand.

5. Stand on a Full House or a Straight

Once you hold a Full House you have the third-best hand type and the opponent needs Four of a Kind or better (about 16 percent of hands) to beat it. Re-rolling the pair for a Four of a Kind is a bad trade: you break a made hand for a one-in-six shot. The computer follows this rule.

6. Use the second-player advantage

When you go second in a live game you know exactly what you must beat. If the first player stood on Two Pair, you can stop as soon as you hold three of a kind. In our game you roll first, so the computer holds this edge; make up for it by not stopping early with marginal hands.

7. Play the match, not the hand

The match is first to five. When you lead 4–2 you can afford to stand on medium hands and let the computer take the risks; when you trail 2–4 you need the higher-variance play: go for straights and four of a kind rather than settling for two pair.

8. Do not fear the bust

A high-card hand loses to almost everything, so there is never a reason to hold a single die “for the kicker.” Re-roll all five if your first roll has no pair and no four-straight; a fresh roll of five dice makes a pair or better 94 percent of the time.

Common Mistakes

• Standing on Three of a Kind after the first roll. Two more rolls of two dice make a Full House or better 69 percent of the time.
• Holding a lone 6. Kickers matter only in exact ties. Roll it.
• Breaking two pair. The Full House draw is the best draw in the game.
• Chasing an inside straight. One out in six per roll is a poor use of two rolls unless you have nothing else.
• Forgetting the order of ties. Four 2s beat four 1s regardless of kickers; kickers only decide when the combination dice match.
• Confusing the ranking of Straight and Full House. Ours puts Full House above Straight; check before playing elsewhere.

Variants and House Rules

• Straight above Full House. Because a straight has 240 ways against a full house’s 300, some rulebooks rank it higher. Both orders are common; agree before playing.
• Aces wild. The Ace (6) counts as any value. Five of a Kind becomes routine and the game turns into a race for it.
• Second player limited to the first player’s roll count. The classic bar rule: if the first player stands after one roll, the second player gets only one roll. It removes the second-player advantage.
• Only 1-2-3-4-5 and 2-3-4-5-6 count as straights, which is the rule here. Some versions also allow “wraparound” or four-dice straights; most do not.
• Bust rules. A few rulebooks say a hand with no pair is worth nothing at all and cannot win even against another bust; ours compares high cards.
• Multiplayer and pots. With three or more players, each rolls in turn and the best hand takes the pot or decides who buys the round.
• Liar Dice / Dudo. Dice with poker faces used for bidding on hidden hands; see Liar’s Dice.
• Suited poker dice. Eight- and twelve-sided sets add suits, and with them flushes and straight flushes.
• Yacht and Yahtzee. The scorecard games grew directly out of poker dice; Yahtzee keeps the three-roll turn and adds thirteen categories. Qwixx and King of Tokyo are modern designs built on the same hold-and-re-roll rhythm.

Glossary

• Hold / Keep: Setting a die aside so it is not re-rolled.
• Stand: Ending your turn before using all three rolls.
• Kicker: A die that is not part of the scoring combination, used to break ties.
• Open-ended straight draw: Four dice in sequence with a completing value at either end (2-3-4-5).
• Inside / one-out draw: Four dice where only one value completes the straight (1-2-3-4 or 3-4-5-6).
• Bust: A hand with no pair and no straight; also called High Card or Runt.
• Made hand: A hand strong enough to stand on.
• Poker dice: Dice printed with A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9 instead of pips.

Play Dice Poker Online on Dice.now

The game at the top of this page is a head-to-head match against the computer, first to five round wins. You roll first: tap dice to hold them, re-roll up to two more times, or press Stand to lock in your hand early. The hand name under your dice updates after every roll. Then the computer plays its three rolls in full view, and the log records what it rolled and why it held what it held (it keeps its largest group, keeps both pairs, chases open four-straights, rolls the kicker on four of a kind and stands on a Full House, Straight or Five of a Kind). Hands rank Five of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Full House, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card, with ties broken by the combination dice and then the kickers; identical hands are a draw and the round is replayed. The status bar tracks the round and both players’ wins, and your matches won are saved only on your device. Ready to deal? Roll the dice.