What is a full house in Yahtzee?
Borrowed straight from poker, the full house is the workhorse of the lower section - common enough to plan for, worth enough to matter.
The definition and the 25 points
Any three-plus-two split counts: three of one face and two of another, in any order. In Yahtzee it always scores 25, whether it's aces over twos or sixes over fives - the value is in the box, not the dice. Rolling two pairs early is the classic setup: keep both pairs, re-roll the odd die, and you're one match away. More dice terms live in the Yahtzee glossary.
When to take it
Because the payout is fixed, a full house is a great mid-game stabilizer - a reliable 25 when the straights aren't cooperating. The judgment call comes with a hand like 5-5-5-3-3: bank the 25 now, or break the house and re-roll the threes at Four of a Kind, the Fives box and a shot at Yahtzee? Early in the game, high triples are usually worth the gamble; late, take the sure points.
Full houses across the family
The same shape earns different money elsewhere. Yatzy scores a full house as the sum of all five dice, so 6-6-6-5-5 is a 28-point prize while a low house barely pays. Generala's Full is a flat 30, and Maxi Yatzy adds six-dice cousins - the Villa (two triples) and the Tower (four of a kind plus a pair). Same poker DNA, different price tags.
Related questions
What is the difference between a small and large straight?
In Yahtzee, a small straight is any four consecutive dice - like 2-3-4-5 - and scores 30 points; a large straight is five in a row - 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6 - and scores 40. Every large straight contains a small one, so the fallback is built in.
What is the difference between Yahtzee and Yatzy?
They're siblings, not twins. Yahtzee has 13 categories with fixed scores for combos - Full House 25, Small Straight 30, Large Straight 40. Yatzy, the public-domain Scandinavian version, has 15 categories including One Pair and Two Pairs, scores its straights at 15 and 20, and its Full House as the sum of the dice.
How do you play Yahtzee?
Each turn you roll five dice up to three times, setting aside any dice you want to keep between rolls. Then you score the result in exactly one of 13 categories on your scorecard - each category can only be used once. After 13 turns the card is full, and the highest total wins.