Yahtzee Reroll Suggester
Pick the best dice to keep / reroll based on your current Yahtzee hand.
Overview
The Yahtzee Reroll Suggester analyses your current five-dice hand and recommends which dice to keep and which to reroll for the best expected score. Enter your dice values, the rerolls remaining, and which scorecard slots are still open, and the suggester returns the optimal keep set along with the expected score for each open category.
Yahtzee strategy is deceptively deep because rerolls are limited and you have to declare a scoring category before the round closes. The suggester runs a full expectation calculation against all possible reroll outcomes, factoring in both the current value of your dice and the future-round value of preserving categories like Yahtzee or Large Straight.
How it works
For each possible "keep" subset of the current dice, the suggester enumerates all reroll outcomes and computes the score under each open category, weighting outcomes by their probability. The expected value of the keep choice is the maximum expected category score (since you pick the category after the rerolls). Comparing expected values across keep subsets identifies the best one to commit to.
The probability of each reroll outcome comes from multinomial dice statistics: rolling k dice produces 6^k equiprobable outcomes, and each face count vector is weighted accordingly. The expectation can be computed exactly for one or two rerolls; three-reroll forward planning compounds the analysis to a few thousand cases but is still tractable in real time.
Examples
- Hand
5, 5, 5, 2, 1with two rerolls left and Yahtzee open: keep the three 5s, reroll the 2 and 1 — about 30 percent chance of completing the Yahtzee in two more rolls. - Hand
3, 4, 5, 6, 1with one reroll: keep the 3-4-5-6 (small straight already secured), reroll the 1 for a 1/3 chance of upgrading to the large straight. - Hand
2, 2, 3, 3, 6: keep the two pairs, reroll the 6 in hopes of a full house — 1/3 chance per reroll. - Hand
1, 2, 3, 4, 6: keep the run of four, reroll the 6 for a chance at a large straight on the next roll.
FAQ
Does the suggester account for the upper-section bonus?
Yes — if the upper-section total is close to 63, the suggester boosts the expected value of upper-section categories.
Why does it sometimes recommend keeping a single die?
Because preserving one valuable die (e.g. a 5 for the fives slot) can have higher expected value than rerolling all five if other slots are filled.
Is this allowed in tournament play?
Yahtzee is a casual party game; tournament rules vary. Use the suggester for solo practice or friendly games.
How accurate is the expectation?
For one and two rerolls the expectation is exact. Three-reroll planning approximates by collapsing later decisions.
What about the Yahtzee bonus?
The suggester includes the 100-point Yahtzee bonus if your scorecard already has a Yahtzee.