Home >> Games & Cards >> Games

Pocket Farkel Instructions

Legend says that Sir Albert Farkle created the dice game that bears his name in Iceland in the 1300s. Historical re-enactors believe Farkle has French origins with sailors' gambling games, and came to America sometime in the 17th Century. Farkle, also known as 10,000, Greed, Hot Dice, Zonk or Dix Mille, is a dice game with vague origins and many small variations. Since 1996, Legendary Games has marketed their own version, Pocket Farkel, with a new spelling and some specific rules. Pocket Farkel is a game for two to eight players and can be played by anyone old enough to do simple arithmetic.

Things You'll Need

Printout of rules
Scoring sheets
Pencil
6 dice (six-sided)
Dice cup

Instructions

- 1
  Roll one die per player to determine who begins the game. Re-roll any ties. The player with the highest roll goes first and takes all six dice.
- 2
  Roll all six dice using the cup. Remove any scoring dice from play.
- 3
  Choose whether you want to roll the remaining dice again or stop rolling and claim your score. If, at any point, you role and do not score, you get a Farkel. Your turn is over and you lose any points you accumulated in your turn. Otherwise, end your turn when you choose and pass the dice on to the next player.
- 4
  Add your points according to the following score rules:
  
  Ones = 100 points
  
  Fives = 50 points
  
  Three ones = 300 points
  
  Three twos = 200 points
  
  Three threes = 300 points
  
  Three fours = 400 points
  
  Three fives = 500 points
  
  Three sixes = 600 points
  
  Four of a kind = 1,000 points
  
  Five of a kind = 2,000 points
  
  Six of a kind = 3,000 points
  
  Straight 1-6 = 1,500 points
  
  Three pair = 1,500 points
  
  Two triplets = 2,500 points
  
  Each die may only be used to score once and must be a scoring die when you set it aside. So a five can be set aside to score 50 points by itself, but you cannot add two more fives from a later roll to claim the 500 points for three fives. You cannot save a single six in hope of getting more sixes later.
- 5
  Play around the table until one player scores 10,000 points. Each player then gets one more turn to beat that player's score. The player with the most points is the winner.

Games