How to Play Dice: Farkle / Ten Thousand Rules of Play

In this post, we'll share how to play one of our favorite dice games using 6 dice: 1,000 / 5,000 / 10,000 (also known as Farkel / Farkle). Farkle can be played with any number of players (2+) and all you need is dice, scratch paper and a pen. 

These are the complete rules of play, plus we'll share a free printable Farkle scoring crib sheet you can print at home. 

Although it has many names and some variations, this is the basic version of the game that we play. More complete rules on the Wikipedia page for Farkle.

The object of the game is to be the first player to score at least 10,000 points, or have the highest score above* 10,000 points (or, as the names indicate, whatever milestone the players agree to at the outset: 1,000, 5,000, etc). 

*More about these two variations under Winning, below.

• We play a variation in which all players are required to achieve a certain threshold score in their opening turn or turns, before they can begin scoring. We have always used a threshold of 500. At the beginning of a game, each player must continue throwing in their turn until they either farkle (see below) or bank a score of at least 500 points. After having reached the threshold once, they are free to stop throwing in subsequent turns whenever they choose.
• At the beginning of each turn, the player throws all 6 dice at once.
• After each throw, the player reviews the dice for scoring and sets aside one or more scoring dice (more on that in a minute), running up a cumulative total for their turn. 
  • One or more scoring dice must be set aside for scoring per roll. 
  • If there is no score possible from the newly-thrown dice, then the player has "farkled" and all cumulative points for their turn are lost.
• Once setting aside the scoring dice from their throw, the player must choose whether to end their turn ("stay") or keep rolling. 
  • If they stay, they bank the score accumulated so far by writing it on the scratch paper. 
  • If they keep rolling, they pick up the non-scoring dice and roll those again in pursuit of a larger score.
• If the player has scored on all six dice, they have "hot dice" and may continue their turn with a new throw of all six dice, continuing to add to their turn's cumulative score. 
  • There is no limit to the number of "hot dice" a player may roll in one turn.
• Whether they have banked a score or farkled, at the end of the player's turn, the dice are handed to the next player.

The most-used, basic scores are:

• A single 5 is 50
• A single 1 is 100
• 3 of a kind (rolled in one throw) are 100x the face value of the number. 
  • For example: (3) 3's are 300, (3) 5's are 500. 
  • However, 1's are special. (3) 1's are 1,000!

So for example, if a player throws a 1 + 1 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 5, they could do any of the following:

• score three 3's as 300 and then throw the remaining three dice
• score the two 1's as 200 (100 x 2) and then throw the remaining four dice
• score the single 5 as 50 and then throw the remaining five dice
• score three 3's, the two 1's, and the single 5 for a total of 550 and then throw all 6 dice again as "hot dice"
• score three 3's, the two 1's, and the single 5 for a total of 550 and stay, banking 550 points in that turn

There are some additional scores for special combinations, and there are a lot of variations about this (see more variations on the Wikipedia page). We play with the following two additional score combinations:

• A full straight (1+ 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6) is scored as 1,500
• Four, five and six of a kind are doubled with each additional matching die. For example: 
  • (3) 3's = 300 points
  • (4) 3's = 300 x 2 (600 points)
  • (5) 3's = 300 x 2 x 2 (1,200 points) 
  • (6) 3's = 300 x 2 x 2 x 2 (2,400 points)

The first player with a banked score of over 10,000 points becomes the winner (or milestone the players agreed to at the outset: 1,000, 5,000, etc).

*NOTE:We play a variation in which, after the first player reaches the milestone, every other player gets one more chance to top that player's score with an additional turn, and whoever ends with the highest score over 10,000 wins the game.

To easily remember these scoring rules, use our free printable "cheat sheet" for game play and personal use. 

It has the basic scoring rules and when printed out at 100%, is the size of a standard business card: