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How to play farkle

Farkle is a dice game where you roll six dice, set aside the ones that score, and decide after every roll whether to bank your points or push your luck. Roll nothing that scores and you lose everything from that turn. The first player to 10,000 points starts the last round, and the highest score after it wins.

By Emre Özen, updated October 8, 2026. These are the rules our online farkle game uses. They follow Wikipedia's "Farkle" article and the farkle rules from Game On Family, and the scoring table is Game On Family's.

What you need

Six ordinary dice, two or more players, and paper to keep score. That's it. Wikipedia's article and Game On Family both list other names for the same family of games, among them Zilch, Ten Thousand (10000) and Greed. The rules below are the common six-dice game.

Who goes first

Everyone rolls one die. The highest roll goes first, and players who tie for highest roll again. Play then goes clockwise, or simply back and forth with two players.

Your turn, step by step

Roll all six dice.
Set aside at least one scoring die. A 1, a 5, or a combination like three of a kind. You don't have to keep every die that scores, but you must keep at least one.
Choose: bank your turn total (add it to your score, and your turn ends), or roll the dice you didn't set aside to try for more.
Keep going until you bank or farkle. Each roll, you set aside at least one more scoring die.

If every one of your dice has scored, you have hot dice: pick up all six and keep rolling, with your turn total intact. Wikipedia notes there's no limit on how many times that can happen in one turn.

If a roll has nothing that scores, that's a farkle. Your turn ends and you lose the points you'd set aside this turn. Your banked score is safe.

A sample turn

You roll 1, 4, 4, 5, 2, 6. You set aside the 1 (100) and roll the other five. They come up 3, 3, 3, 6, 2: you set aside the three 3s (300) and your turn total is 400. Two dice left. You could bank 400, or roll two dice and risk a farkle, which happens 4 times in 9 with two dice. Once you're on the board, banking is the better play there (with our default 500 opening, 400 isn't enough to bank on your first score). With two dice left, rolling on only pays from a turn total below 300 (the numbers are on our farkle strategy page).

Scoring

Dice	Points
Each 1	100
Each 5	50
Three 1s	1,000
Three 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s or 6s	200, 300, 400, 500, 600
Four of a kind	1,000
Five of a kind	2,000
Six of a kind	3,000
Straight, 1 to 6	1,500
Three pairs	1,500
Four of a kind with a pair	1,500
Two three-of-a-kinds	2,500

Combinations only count within one roll: three 5s rolled across two rolls are three single 5s (150), not 500. When dice can be counted two ways, take the higher total. Our farkle scoring chart has worked examples and a calculator that scores any roll.

Getting on the board

Many players need a minimum in one turn before their first bank counts, usually 500. Until you've banked 500 in a single turn, you can't bank at all: you keep rolling until you reach it or farkle. After that, you can bank any amount. Wikipedia mentions 1,000 as another common opening, and some groups skip it. Our game uses 500 by default and lets you change it.

Winning: the last round

When someone banks their way to 10,000 or more, every other player gets one last turn to beat that score. After the last of those turns, the highest score wins. If a later player only ties, the player who got there first keeps the win, since the others had to beat them.

Game On Family's rules end the game the moment someone reaches 10,000 and call the last round a variation. Both are common. Our game uses the last round and has a setting to turn it off.

Words you'll hear

Farkle: A roll with nothing that scores. You lose that turn's points. Also the name of the game.
Hot dice: When all six dice have scored in one turn. You roll all six again and keep your turn total.
Bank: To stop rolling and add your turn total to your score.
Turn total: The points you've set aside this turn but haven't banked yet.
Set aside: To keep scoring dice out of the next roll. They count toward your turn total.
On the board: You've banked your opening minimum (500 by default), so any later bank counts.

Common variations

Different scores. The straight is 2,500 in Wikipedia's base table, three pairs can be 750, and four or more of a kind can double or add up instead of using set values. The full list is on our scoring chart.
Three farkles in a row. Some groups take points off for a third farkle in a row: 500 according to Wikipedia, 1,000 in the version Game On Family describes.
No last round. The first player to 10,000 wins on the spot.
Five dice. Wikipedia says the original game may have used five dice. There's no three pairs then.
Piggybacking. The next player may take over the dice left from your turn and your points, instead of starting with six fresh dice. If they score, they keep your points too.
Exactly 10,000. In the "welfare" ending you have to hit 10,000 exactly. Going over hands that turn's points to the lowest player.

The first three are settings in our game. The last three need a real table and friends who agree on them.

Ready? Play farkle now against the computer or a friend.

Sources

"Farkle", Wikipedia: the turn, hot dice, farkles, entry scores, the last round to 10,000, the three-farkle penalty of 500, other names and the variations listed above.
Game On Family, "Farkle Rules, Scoring and How to Play" (2023): the roll-off for first turn, the default scoring table, the 500 opening, the 1,000-point three-farkle penalty, and ending the game at 10,000.