Yahtzee vs Yatzy: Every Rule Difference Explained

Yahtzee and Yatzy look like the same game with a spelling mistake. Both use five dice, three rolls a turn and a scorecard with Ones through Sixes at the top, and both end with a 50-point five-of-a-kind. But the scorecards differ in 15 places, the bonuses differ, and the strategy that wins one game will lose the other. This guide lays every difference side by side, using the Hasbro rules that our Yahtzee game plays and the standard Scandinavian Yatzy sheet.

Two Games, One Ancestor

Both games descend from Yacht, a public-domain dice game that appears in print by 1938 in The Complete Book of Games by Clement Wood and Gloria Goddard. Yacht had 12 categories: Ones through Sixes, Full House (sum of the dice), Four of a Kind (sum of the four), Little Straight 1-2-3-4-5 (30), Big Straight 2-3-4-5-6 (30), Choice (sum) and Yacht (50). It had no upper bonus, and its maximum score was 297.

In 1956 Edwin S. Lowe bought a version of the game, renamed it Yahtzee, trademarked the name and added the upper bonus, Chance and the four-dice Small Straight. Milton Bradley bought Lowe’s company in 1973 and Hasbro bought Milton Bradley in 1984, which is why the modern Yahtzee scorecard is a Hasbro product. Yatzy went the other way: it stayed in the public domain, spread through Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, and kept Yacht’s fixed straights and sum-scored Full House while adding pairs and a bigger bonus. Nobody owns Yatzy, which is why every Nordic publisher sells one and why the sheets vary slightly from box to box. For the wider family tree, see our history of dice.

The Scorecards Side by Side

Here is the full comparison. Yahtzee values are the current Hasbro rules; Yatzy values are the standard sheet used across Scandinavia.

The two maximums are almost identical, which hides how differently the points are distributed. In Yahtzee, 145 of the 375 non-bonus points sit in four fixed-value boxes (Full House, two straights and Yahtzee). In Yatzy only 85 points are fixed, and everything else scales with the faces you roll.

Difference 1: 13 Categories vs 15

Yatzy’s two extra boxes, One Pair and Two Pairs, change the rhythm of the game more than any single scoring value. A pair is the most common result on five dice, so these boxes are almost never wasted, and they act as extra safety valves alongside Chance. A poor turn in Yahtzee usually ends with a zero or a burned Chance box; in Yatzy the same turn scores 10 or 12 in One Pair and the game moves on.

Two Pairs is also where Yatzy players park good-but-not-great rolls. A 6-6-5-5-2 is a 22-point Two Pairs, the best possible, while in Yahtzee that roll is a 24-point Chance at best and a missed Full House at worst. If you have played Dice Poker, the pair boxes will feel familiar: they are the same hands, scored instead of compared.

Difference 2: The Upper Bonus, 35 vs 50

Both games set the bonus threshold at 63, which is three of every number (3 + 6 + 9 + 12 + 15 + 18). The reward differs: 35 points in Yahtzee, 50 in Yatzy. Since the rest of the Yatzy card pays less for combinations, the 50-point bonus is proportionally much bigger. It is worth the same as a Yatzy, more than a Large Straight and a Small Straight combined, and more than any Full House. Yatzy players who ignore the upper section lose; Yahtzee players who ignore it merely score badly.

There is also a variant called Forced Yatzy, in which the 15 boxes must be filled in printed order from Ones down to Yatzy. Because you cannot choose where to score, the bonus threshold drops to 42 (two of each number). Yahtzee has no forced equivalent in the official rules.

Difference 3: Straights, 30/40 vs 15/20

This is the difference that trips up players switching between the games.

• In Yahtzee, a Small Straight is any four consecutive faces (1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5 or 3-4-5-6) and scores 30. A Large Straight is any five in sequence (1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6) and scores 40. A Large Straight always contains a Small Straight, so a 2-3-4-5-6 can go in either box.
• In Yatzy, the straights are fixed sets. Small Straight is exactly 1-2-3-4-5 and scores 15, its dice total. Large Straight is exactly 2-3-4-5-6 and scores 20. A 2-3-4-5-6 cannot be scored as a Small Straight, and a 1-2-3-4-5 cannot be scored as a Large Straight.

The probability consequences are big. On a single roll of five dice, 240 of the 7,776 outcomes are a Yahtzee-style Large Straight (3.1%), and 1,200 (15.4%) contain a Small Straight. In Yatzy each specific straight is 120 of 7,776, or 1.5%. Over a full three-roll turn, going for a Yahtzee Large Straight from an open-ended 2-3-4-5 succeeds about 31% per roll; in Yatzy you are always drawing to one exact number, an 11 in 36 shot over two rolls of a single die (about 31% in total) when four of the five are already in place. Our dice probability guide walks through those calculations.

Difference 4: Full House, 25 vs the Sum

A Yahtzee Full House is 25 points whether it is 1-1-1-2-2 or 6-6-6-5-5. A Yatzy Full House scores the dice, so the same two hands are worth 7 and 28. That single change moves Full House from a “take it whenever it appears” box in Yahtzee to a box you actively try to fill with high faces in Yatzy. Many Yatzy sheets also require the triple and the pair to be different numbers; five 6s is not a Full House.

The same logic applies to Three of a Kind and Four of a Kind. Yahtzee counts all five dice, so 6-6-6-5-4 is 27 in Three of a Kind. Yatzy counts only the matching dice, so the same roll is 18. Yahtzee’s version rewards you for the two spare dice being high; Yatzy’s does not care.

Difference 5: The Yahtzee Bonus and Joker Rule

Roll a second five of a kind in Yahtzee after scoring 50 in the Yahtzee box and you collect a 100-point bonus, then score the dice again under the Joker rule: in the matching upper box if it is open, otherwise in any lower box, where the roll counts as a Full House (25), Small Straight (30) or Large Straight (40) even though it is none of those shapes. That is how a single turn can be worth 140 points and how the theoretical maximum reaches 1,575.

Yatzy has no bonus for a second Yatzy and no Joker. Five 4s after your Yatzy box is filled go in Fours (20), Four of a Kind (16), Three of a Kind (12) or Chance (20), and that is that. Yatzy’s ceiling is fixed at 374, and a typical good game lands well under 300. The absence of the bonus is the main reason Yatzy games are closer: nobody wins by 200 points on one roll.

The Wider Family: Maxi Yatzy, Generala, Yacht, Kismet, Yamb

• Maxi Yatzy is Yatzy with six dice. The sheet adds Three Pairs, Five of a Kind, a Full Straight 1-2-3-4-5-6 (21 points on most sheets, 30 on some), Castle or Villa (two triplets), Tower (four of a kind plus a pair) and Maxi Yatzy for six of a kind at 100 points. The upper bonus is 100 points at 84 (four of each number), and any roll you do not use can be saved and spent in a later turn, which adds a planning layer neither parent game has.
• Generala is the Latin American branch. Five dice, three rolls, and a short card: Ones through Sixes plus Straight (20), Full House (30), Four of a Kind (40), Generala (50 or 60) and, on many sheets, a Double Generala (100 or 120). A Straight, Full House or Four of a Kind made on the first roll (“servida”) earns 5 or 10 extra points, and a Generala on the first roll of a turn wins the game outright.
• Yacht is the 1930s original described above: 12 boxes, no upper bonus, both straights worth 30, Full House scored as the sum, and a maximum of 297.
• Kismet (Lakeside Games, 1964) uses five dice with colored pips: 1 and 6 black, 2 and 5 red, 3 and 4 green. Its Kismet section adds a Flush (35), Two Pair Same Color and Full House Same Color, and pays the sum plus 15, 20, 25 or 50 for Full House, same-color Full House, Four of a Kind and Kismet. Its upper bonus climbs in tiers: 35 at 63, 55 at 71 and 75 at 78.
• Yamb (also Jamb) is the Balkan version and the most demanding. The sheet has four columns filled under different rules: Down (top to bottom in order), Up (bottom to top), Free (any order) and Announce (you must call the box after your first roll and score there whatever happens). Two extra rows, Max and Min, are scored as (Max − Min) multiplied by your Ones score in that column. Full House pays the sum plus 30, Poker (four of a kind) the sum of the four plus 40 and Yamb the sum plus 50, and a Straight is worth 66, 56 or 46 depending on whether you made it on the first, second or third roll. The upper bonus is 30 points once the section reaches 60 (63 on some sheets).

Strategy: How the Rules Change the Right Play

Protect the bonus harder in Yatzy. The 50-point bonus is worth about 13% of a strong Yatzy score, so being on pace (three of each number) matters even more than in Yahtzee, where the 35-point bonus is about 14% of a 250-point game but competes with 30- and 40-point straights for your attention.

Value high faces more in Yatzy. Every combination box except the straights and Yatzy scales with pips. Three 6s are worth 18 in Sixes and 18 in Three of a Kind; three 1s are worth 3 in either. In Yahtzee, low triples at least fill Full House for the same 25 as high ones.

Chase straights less in Yatzy. A Yahtzee Large Straight is 40 points, about 16% of a good score, and the open-ended draw makes it reachable. A Yatzy Large Straight is 20 points and needs one exact set of dice; hunting it from 2-3-4-6 costs more than it returns. Take straights when they arrive; do not build turns around them.

Use the pair boxes as your Chance. In Yatzy, a bad turn should go into One Pair or Two Pairs with the highest faces you have, saving Chance for a genuinely high sum. In Yahtzee, the equivalent role is played by taking a zero in Aces or Twos, a sacrifice that costs almost nothing against bonus pace.

Forget the Joker. Yahtzee players learn to keep the Yahtzee box open as long as possible because the 100-point bonus changes the game. In Yatzy, a late Yatzy is worth exactly 50, and scratching the box in the final turns to protect a bonus is often correct.

Which Game Is Better for Whom?

• Families with young children: Yatzy. Fifteen turns with two pair boxes means fewer zeros, fewer tears and closer finishes. Qwixx is the next step up if the card fills too slowly.
• Score chasers and solo players: Yahtzee. The bonus and Joker rule make personal bests meaningful, and the 254.6-point expected score under perfect play gives you a real benchmark. Our free Yahtzee game keeps your best score on your device.
• Probability students: Yahtzee, narrowly, because the four-dice Small Straight and the sum-of-five Three of a Kind create more interesting keep-or-reroll decisions. If you like that side of the game, Farkle and Ten Thousand turn the same combinations into a pure risk calculation.
• Groups who want an evening, not a game: Maxi Yatzy or Yamb, both of which stretch the format to 20 or more decisions a player.
• Pub tables: neither. Play Ship Captain Crew or Liar’s Dice and save the scorecards for home.

Whichever sheet you use, the Yahtzee score sheet page has printable cards, and the dice game glossary explains the terms both games share.