Linda & I have become regular Farkle players. I had an issue with the math behind the standard rules, so I codified the following variations (better suited, I believe, to the statistics involved…) into: New Rules!

Description
Farkle is a dice game played by two or more players, with each player in succession having a turn at throwing the dice. Each player's turn results in either a score or a "farkle" (not scoring), with the scores for each player accumulating to one winning total of 10,000 (or more) points. It has also been called Zonk, Zilch, 5000, 10000, Wimp Out, Hot Dice, Buzzball, Oh Crap, Greed, and Squelch. Its origins as a folk game are unknown, but it has been marketed commercially since 1982, since 1996 under the brand name Pocket Farkel.

Equipment

• Six (6) Standard (Six Sided) Dice
• A cup for shaking the Dice (optional)
• A flat surface onto which the dice are thrown
• Sheet of paper for keeping score
• A writing utensil

Play
Starting the game:
To determine which player rolls first, all of the players roll a single starting die. The player who rolls the highest die starts the game; players who tie on the highest die re-roll until a single player emerges as the starter.

Individual turns:

• At the beginning of each turn, the player throws all six six-sided dice.
• After each throw, one or more scoring dice must be set aside (see section on scoring below).
• The player may then either end their turn and bank the score accumulated so far, or continue to throw the remaining dice. NOTE: A player is required to "open" each game by scoring 500 (or more) points.
• If the player has scored all six dice, they have "hot dice" and may continue their turn with a new throw of all six dice, adding to the score they have already accumulated.
• If none of the dice score in any given throw, the player has "farkled" and all points for that turn are lost.
• At the end of the player's turn, the dice are handed to the next player in succession (usually in clockwise rotation), and they have their turn.

Winning the game:
Once one player has achieved a winning point total of 10,000 (or more), each other player has one last turn to score enough points to surpass that high-score. The highest scoring player wins the game.

Scoring

Dice Combination	Score	Examples & notes
Fives	50 points
Ones	100 points
Three of a Kind	Ones: 1000 points Others: [Die] × 100 points	3 [1] = 1000; 3 [2] = 200; 3 [3] = 300; 3 [4] = 400; 3 [5] = 500; 3 [6] = 600
Four of a Kind	2 × Three of a Kind points	4 [1] = 2000; 4 [2] = 400; 4 [3] = 600; 4 [4] = 800; 4 [5] = 1000; 4 [6] = 1200
Five of a Kind	2 × Four of a Kind points	5 [1] = 4000; 5 [2] = 800; 5 [3] = 1200; 5 [4] = 1600; 5 [5] = 2000; 5 [6] = 2400
Three Pairs	1500 points
Straight	2000 points
Two Triplets	2500 points
Six of a Kind	Automatic Winner!	… which we have yet to see done naturally! UPDATE: We have see it rolled once now !