Farkle

Farkle, or Farkel, is a dice game similar to or synonymous with 1000/5000/10000, Cosmic Wimpout, Greed, Hot Dice, Squelch, Zilch, or Zonk. It has been marketed commercially since 1996 under the brand name Pocket Farkel by Legendary Games Inc. The game is believed to have arrived on French sailing ships in the 1600s, and has been passed down in families as a folk game ever since. As such, while the basic rules are well-established, there is a wide range of variation in scoring and play.

Equipment

• Dice (six, or five in some variations)
• Paper and a pencil or pen for keeping score
• A dice cup (optional)

History

According to the official Pocket Farkel game documents, scholars believe the game arrived on French sailing ships in the 1600s and has been passed down in families ever since. The game has also been suggested to originate from Iceland through the purported English nobleman Sir Albert Farkle, who is said to have first played it there in the 1300s or 1400s, but this is not considered credible. Another claim is that the game originates in Texas, based on the fact that farkleberries grow there and the game could purportedly be played with dried farkleberries. However, as a folk game passed down through families, the game has a number names, and even if the name stems from farkleberries it could have been acquired later as the game passed through Texas.

Equipment and instructions to play Farkle dating to the 1700s have been found at Fort Chartres, Illinois.

Play

College roommates playing Farkle in their dorm

Farkle is played by two or more players, with each player in succession having a turn at throwing the dice. Each player's turn results in a score and the scores for each player accumulate until they reach or exceed 10,000, although this number varies.

• At the beginning of each turn, the player throws all six dice at once.
• After each throw, one or more scoring dice must be set aside (see sections on scoring below).
• The player may then either end their turn and bank the score accumulated so far or continue to throw the remaining dice.
• If the player has scored all six dice, they have "hot dice" and may or must continue their turn with a new throw of all six dice, adding to the score they have already accumulated. There is no limit to the number of "hot dice" a player may roll in one turn.
• If none of the dice score in any given throw, the player has "farkled" and all points for that turn are lost.
• At the end of the player's turn, the dice are handed to the next player in succession (usually in clockwise rotation, viewing the table from above), and they have their turn.

Once a player has achieved a winning point total, each other player has one last turn to score enough points to surpass that high-score.

Standard scoring

The following scores for single dice or combinations of dice are widely established, in that they are common to all or nearly all of the above-cited descriptions of Farkle scoring. They are found in Playing Grandma's Games by Arnold.

Dice combination	Score
Each	100
Each	50
Three ´s	300
Three ´s	200
Three ´s	300
Three ´s	400
Three ´s	500
Three ´s	600

For example, if a player throws , they could do any of the following:

• score three as 300 and then throw the remaining three dice
• score the single as 100 and then throw the remaining five dice
• score the single as 50 and then throw the remaining five dice
• score three , the single , and the single for a total of 450 and then throw the remaining die
• score three , the single , and the single for a total of 450 and stop, banking 450 points in that turn

This is not an exhaustive list of plays based on that throw, but it covers the most likely ones. If the player continues throwing, as in any of the above cases except the last, they risk farkling and thus losing all accumulated points. On the other hand, if they score five dice and have only one die to throw, they have a 1 in 3 chance of scoring a single or a single , and then having scored all six dice they will have "hot dice" and can throw all six dice again to further increase their score.

Each scoring combination must be achieved in a single throw. For example, if a player has already set aside two individual ´s and then throws a third with the four dice remaining, they do not have a triplet of ´s for a score of 1000 but merely three individual ´s for a score of 300.

Scoring variations

Since farkle is a folk game, variant rules are used in different playing communities. While the standard rules described above are widely used, even they are not universal. For example, the commercially marketed game of Pocket Farkel differs in that three ´s are scored as 300 rather than 1000. In addition, some players score one or more combinations of dice beyond the standard ones. Those variations include the following.

• A roll with no scoring dice (such as ) is scored as 500 - sometimes called a farkle.
• Three pairs (such as ) is scored as 500, 600, 750, 1000, or 1500.
• A straight () is scored as 1000, 1200, 1500, or 2500. A short straight ( or ) is scored as 500.
• A full house (three-of-a-kind and a pair) is scored as the three-of-a-kind value plus 250, for instance = 550, = 650, = 750, = 1250.
• Four, five, and six of a kind are scored in one of three ways: adding, doubling, or set value:
  • Adding. For each additional matching die above three of a kind, the three of a kind score is added: = 200, = 200 + 200 (400), = 200 + 200 + 200 (600) and = 200 + 200 + 200 + 200 (800).
  • Doubling. For each additional matching die above three of a kind, the score is doubled: = 200, = 200 × 2 (400), = 200 × 2 × 2 (800) and = 200 × 2 × 2 × 2 (1600).
  • Set value. Four of a kind is scored as 1000 or 2000, five of a kind is scored as 2000 or 4000, and six of a kind is scored as 3000, 6000 or 10000.

Dice value	3 of a kind	Adding			Doubling			Set value
		4 of a kind	5 of a kind	6 of a kind	4 of a kind	5 of a kind	6 of a kind	4 of a kind	5 of a kind	6 of a kind
Two	200	400	600	800	400	800	1600	1000 or 2000	2000 or 4000	3000, 6000 or 10000
One (low)	300	600	900	1200	600	1200	2400
Three	300	600	900	1200	600	1200	2400
Four	400	800	1200	1600	800	1600	3200
Five	500	1000	1500	2000	1000	2000	4000
Six	600	1200	1800	2400	1200	2400	4800
One (high)	1000	2000	3000	4000	2000	4000	8000

Like the standard combinations, any of these variant combinations must be achieved in a single throw.

These are the variations listed in the above-cited descriptions of Farkle scoring, but further variations presumably exist. Since it is a folk game, players are free to agree upon whatever scores they choose for whatever combinations they choose to recognize.

Play variations

Some Farkle rules also incorporate one or more of the following variations in the sequence of play.

• Players may be required to achieve a certain threshold score in their opening turn or turns before they can begin scoring. Thresholds of 350, 400, 500, or 1000 are used. At the beginning of a game, each player must continue throwing in their turn until they either farkle or reach the threshold. After having reached the threshold once, they are free to stop throwing in subsequent turns whenever they choose.
• Play is almost always to 10,000, but can be up to 20,000.
• In a variant described as "piggybacking" or "high-stakes", each player after the first can choose to begin their turn either with a fresh set of six dice, or by throwing the dice remaining after the previous player has completed their turn. For example, if a player banks three ´s for a score of 1000, the next player may choose to roll the remaining three dice. If they score at least one die, they score 1000 plus whatever additional score they accumulate. Players may thus assume the greater risk of farkling for the chance of scoring the points already accumulated by the player before them. If a player ends their turn on a "hot dice", the next player may "piggyback" using all six dice.
• Players may be required to make at least one additional throw when they have hot dice, even if they have accumulated a high enough score that they would choose not to risk farkling.
• Three farkles in a row can result in a deduction of 500 or 1000 points from the player's score.
• Another variation is using five dice instead of six. This is sometimes called "Hot Dice" today; the original version of Farkle was also played with five dice. In this version, players cannot score three pairs, and this variation often couples an "instant" win option, where on the first roll of the five dice on any turn, if the player rolls five of a kind, that player instantly wins the game, regardless of the scores to that point.
• An end-of-game variation described as "welfare" requires the winner to score exactly 10,000 points. If a player scores more than 10,000 points, then all points scored in that turn are given to the player with the lowest score.

Probabilities

An optimal strategy for winning a game of Farkle has been determined.

Effects of scoring variations

Scoring additional combinations such as straights and three pairs increases the speed of play by awarding high scores for low probability events that otherwise would score little or nothing (for example, a straight with standard scoring is worth only 150 for the single and single ). To assess the impact of scoring variations, the following table shows the average score on the initial throw of six dice, assuming that all scoring dice are banked and ignoring any additional scores that would be made on a re-roll of hot dice. The first row shows the average score with standard scoring, and the other rows show the increment in that average for each scoring variant that is used in play.

The numbers in the table are calculated based on the following scores for variant combinations:

• Four of a kind scores three times the score of the corresponding triplet.
• Five of a kind scores five times the score of the corresponding triplet.
• Six of a kind scores ten times the score of the corresponding triplet.
• A straight scores 2500.
• Three pairs scores 1500.

Scoring combination	Average score on the initial throw
Standard scoring	302
Four of a kind	+47
Five of a kind	+8
Six of a kind	+0.6
Straight	+37
Three pairs	+52
Total (all combinations)	446.6

The impact of four or five of a kind is substantially similar if they are scored as 1000 and 2000, respectively. If lower scores are awarded for straights or three pairs, the impact on average scoring will be proportionately lower.

The above table somewhat overstates the impact of straight and three pairs on the overall speed of play, as they only score on the initial throw of six dice.

Video game versions

A video game implementation of Farkle can be found in the popular RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

In 2020, a video game version of Farkle was announced as one of the six games included with the Intellivision Amico console. As the console has faced numerous delays, this version remains unreleased.

Related games

• Kismet (dice game)
• Yahtzee