Hubby and I learned how to play the 10,000 dice game before we had kids. It’s a fun and simple game that’s easy to play with a ton of people and makes a great 2 player date night game. Games like that tend to stick around.
In the last few months we’ve been playing games like crazy around here. 10,000 has made a strong come back. Big M even plays by himself (although his score is extremely high for those games… hmmm).
Have you ever played 10,000? It’s also called Farkle. If you haven’t you should give it a try. All you need are 6 dice and the directions. Click here to receive the printable directions..
Big M is 8 and Little M is 6. They both play without much help (we do give Little M a few strategy suggestions, but she makes her own decisions).
I love how much math is involved, even for the players who are not writing out the score.
10,000 dice game directions
6 Dice
Paper for Scoring
Dice Tray (optional)
Object
The player with the highest score above 10,000 points on the final round wins.
How to Play
Decide who goes first by having everyone roll one die. Whoever has the highest number goes first. Play then continues to the left.
The first player rolls all 6 dice.
The player can decide to keep as many scoring dice as he/she chooses, but must keep at least one. (See scoring section). Place the scoring dice off to the side and roll the remaining dice. Again the player may keep as many scoring dice as he/she chooses, but must keep at least one. Place scoring dice off the side and roll remaining dice.
Play continues until:
- Player decides to stop and keep that score OR
- Player doesn’t roll any scoring dice and loses score OR
- Player has kept all 6 dice. In this case player MUST roll all 6 dice again adding to previous score.
Note: You must earn 1,000 to start scoring (meaning you can’t stop with 600). Once you reach a score of 1,000 or more you are “on the board”. Any turn after you are on the board you may keep any score you want (even if it is 100).
The Final Round
When a player reaches 10,000 (or passes 10,000), every other player gets one more roll. Player with highest score wins.
Scoring
1- 100 points
5- 50 points
Three of a kind of 1 – 1000 points
Three of a kind of 2 – 200 points
Three of a kind of 3 – 300 points
Three of a kind of 4 – 400 points
Three of a kind of 5 – 500 points
Three of a kind of 6 – 600 points
For each number over three of a kind you double the amount (example 3 2’s =200, 4 2’s =400, 5 2’s =800, 6 2’s=1,600).
Pairs and Straights. When a player rolls 1,2,3,4,5,6 when rolling all 6 dice this is a Straight. When a player gets 3 sets of pairs when rolling 6 dice this is Pairs. Pairs and Straights are worth 5oo points.
Note: Three of a kind must all be rolled together. Rolling a 1 and then rolling another 1 and another 1 is 300. Rolling 3 1’s at a time is 1000.
PS… I wrote these directions up myself. If there is anything confusing please ask away!
10,000 dice game tray
One of the reasons we love 10,000 so much is that it’s portable. We have played on airplanes, while camping, at baseball games, while waiting at restaurants and in many delivery rooms. What makes it so easy to play anywhere is having a dice tray (we have one that was left over from a terrible game that ended up in the trash).
There is something special about our dice tray because it has an area to put the dice that aren’t being rolled. Since I don’t recommend you buy that yucky game just to get a dice tray, I went in search of a different option for you.
Make your own dice tray
It was really easy (and free) to make this dice tray. I used an old shoe box lid and a piece of thin cardboard (a cereal box would be perfect for this). Cutting a strip long enough to stretch across the box and fold along the sides worked pretty well, but making sure I had another strip to glue to the bottom of the box made it really sturdy. I used a hot glue gun to glue the strip in place. EASY!
Buy a dice tray
Farkel Rolling Tray
Affinity Dice Tray
Have you played 10,000 before? Do you have the same rules?
Get a printable version of these 10,000 game rules.
More Game Ideas
Lego Game… with printable game board
25 family game night ideas
How to Play Mancala
Thank you so much for introducing us to this game. We played it today and had so much fun!!! This is a great game for getting children adding! Thanks again!
YES! We got Farkle for Christmas last year, and everyone loves it! Who knew 6 dice could be so fun? Ok, and who knew 6 dice could photograph so beautifully? Gorgeous shot!
Ha ha. Dice and Lego are easy… they don’t move! Thank you. 😉
I have never heard of this game! Thank you for the great tutorial – I think it will be a hit at my house!
Yay! We love new games. Did your family like it?
It is so funny. I just started playing Farkle for math with my boys (5 and 3) this past weekend, and then read your post this morning. The rules we use are the ones found on the box, but I may need to try your rules for the extra math they could learn. Thank you for the idea for the dice tray!
10,000 dice game — awesome game for the entire family!
Good write up. I just discovered this game via a friend and I am instantly hooked. It is a great game for the mind. After learning the game I came home to see if there was an app and there is one fittingly called farkle addict. have you ever played it? You should review it for your site. You would probably get more hits
I’d be curious to hear what you think
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/farkle-addict-10-000-dice/id436919932?mt=8
And also, you need a strategy guide here. That is what I cam for to see if you played the same way I do. This game could become a popular fad. It is great for teaching math and probabilities. I’ll bet your kids have better math skills because of this. 🙂
Have a great night
If I roll three 5’s, do I score them as both three of a kind (500 points) AND three fives (150)? Or just three of a kind?
You have to pick one, but you choose. Obviously in that case you would want 500. 🙂
Three 5’s are 500 points
When u roll 3-1’s & it comes to 1000 & roll 2more which comes to a total of3000.
What is the score if you roll the last die and its a1?
Is it counted as 1000 or 100?
One thing we do differently is we play with only 5 dice… One of which is always a different color and that one is the most important… “the double dice” so if the red (we always use 4 white and one red) is a one and one white die is a one it’s 1,000. It’s the way I was taught so I’ve never actually played with 6 dice or with straights.
What a fun variation! We may have to give it a different name and try it out. Thanks for sharing!
Love the game 10,000
Been playing it for 25 years.
We play with five dice but six would work too.
Recently been teaching my hunting buddies the game and we came up with the rule that if your total you keep or automatically loose is less than the previous players you have to take a shot of fireball.
Also a rule I heard was if the previous player stops to write total on board you can start off where they stopped and roll the remaining dice they have left.
I was introduced to a game similar to this about 15 years ago by my neighbor who called it “Whammy”she only played with 5 dice though. My husband and his grandmother had played a game they called “the dice game” which had similar rules from what he could remember. The Whammy rules were that 3x 1s were still only 300, and the next person could add on to your score with the remaining dice. For instance if you rolled 3 x6s and a 5 so you stopped with 650pts. The next person could take the remaining dice and try to add on, so if they rolled a 1 or 5 they would have 750 or 700 plus they could roll all the dice again and continue on. We’ve had games where several people built on the person before. This also is a game changer the last round when the agreed upon total has been met and passed. We’ve had a person come from behind to win the whole game by pushing there luck. These games also leave room to discuss ratio or fractions,
Oh! also, you said “whammy” when a person missed rolling points. We also hadn’t done the doubling score
I love this! Thank you for including the rules. 🙂
If the person picked up the remaining dice from the previous player and got a score, they get the score of the previous player plus what they rolled with those remaining dice right? Does the previous player lose the points for that round that they just scored?
What would the score be for 3 4’s and 3 1’s in 1 roll?
So, let’s say I roll 3 4’s on 1st roll. Does rolling another 4 on second roll result in any score? Or does it have to be strictly a 1 or a 5?
Great question! Each roll is tracked on it’s own. So if on the first roll you get 3 4’s a 4 on your next roll would not count. 1 and 5’s are the only rolls that count as singles.
Some older people might know 10,000 as “Oh Hell”.
When you got too greedy and lost, you said “Oh Hell”
Ha ha… that’s funny! I could totally see that.
I was taught to play this game differently.750 to get on board. As for the multiples of the same number the 3 of a kind is the same but nothing for the rest of that same number example 4 of a kind. You have to reach 10,000 exactly to win.
Fun to see different variations… 🙂
if you dont score befor end of game does your bet double? This is for street 10 000.
I used to play this game.This game is completely Whizzo! if you are surrounded by a monotonous environment then this game is highly recommended.