Farkle Strategy: When to Bank and When to Roll

Farkle is a game of luck, but it is not only luck. Every turn you make two choices again and again: which dice to set aside, and whether to roll on or bank. Players who make those choices well win far more often over an evening. The good news is that the right choices follow from a handful of numbers, and you don't need to be a mathematician to use them.

The One Table Worth Remembering

Everything starts with how likely a roll is to score nothing at all. These are the exact chances for our scoring rules:

The pattern is easy to feel: with four or more dice you are fairly safe; with three it starts to bite; with one or two dice you are betting your whole turn on something close to a coin toss, or worse.

When to Bank

A good rule of thumb, worked out from the odds, is to bank once your turn is worth about:

• 300 to 350 or more with 1 or 2 dice left,
• 400 to 500 with 3 dice left,
• about 1,000 with 4 dice left,
• about 3,000 with 5 dice left,
• and with 6 dice (hot dice), almost always roll on.

It may surprise you that one die is not quite as bad as two. If your last die comes up a 1 or a 5, all six dice have scored and you get hot dice, with six fresh dice to roll. That bonus makes a single die worth a gamble when your turn is small.

These numbers are the ones our Normal computer player uses (it works out the exact values for every situation), and they are what the Hint button bases its advice on. Tap Why? beside a computer move and it tells you the chance it was weighing.

Which Dice to Keep

Keep fewer dice when it buys you more rolls

You only have to set aside one scoring die per roll. Say you roll 1, 5, 2, 3, 6, 6. Setting aside both the 1 and the 5 gives 150 points but leaves only four dice. Setting aside just the 1 gives 100 points and leaves five dice, which farkle half as often and are much more likely to throw three of a kind. Early in a turn, the extra die is usually worth more than the 50 points.

But take the big combinations

Three of a kind, a straight, three pairs and two triplets are worth taking whole. A straight or three pairs also uses all six dice, which means hot dice: you bank 1,500 points and get to roll six dice again.

Single 5s are the first thing to leave behind

A 5 is only worth 50. When you have a choice between keeping a 5 and rolling one more die, roll the die, unless your turn is already big enough to bank.

Getting on the Board

Until you have banked once, you need 500 points in one turn. That changes the sums: banking 350 is not allowed, so stopping is no longer an option until you reach the minimum. Early in the game, simply keep the dice that give you the best chance of getting there. Don't feel bad about farkling while chasing the first 500; everyone does.

Hot Dice: Roll Them

With six dice the chance of a farkle is only about 2%, and the average roll of six dice is worth a lot of points. Unless your turn is already enormous, or banking would win the game, always roll hot dice.

Reading the Scoreboard

The bank-or-roll numbers above aim for the most points on average. Near the end of a game, winning matters more than averages:

• Far behind, with someone close to the target? Small banks won't catch them. Play bolder and aim for a big turn of 1,000 or more.
• Close to the target yourself? Banking enough to reach it puts everyone else on their last turn. A few hundred extra points at that moment rarely matter as much as getting there.
• On your last turn in the final round? Banking without getting ahead loses the game, so the only sensible plan is to keep rolling until you are ahead. Our Hard computer player works out exactly which dice give it the best chance of getting there.
• Playing with the three-farkles penalty? After two farkles in a row, a third costs you 1,000 points on top of the lost turn. Bank smaller amounts until the count is cleared.

Common Mistakes

• Keeping every scoring die by habit. It feels safe, but it leaves you fewer dice.
• Rolling two dice for a small gain. With two dice you lose the whole turn almost half the time.
• Stopping on hot dice. Six dice are the safest roll in the game.
• Forgetting the last turn. When someone reaches the target, it is your final chance; play to win, not to finish second.

Practice Makes It Natural

After a few games these numbers become instinct. The easiest way to learn them is to play a few games against the computer with the Hint button: it sets aside the dice it recommends and tells you whether to roll or bank, with the chance of farkling, so you can see the reasoning every time. The full rules explain every scoring combination, and the variations page shows how house rules change the odds. If you enjoy weighing chances like this, Backgammon is another classic where good choices beat luck over time.