Forty-One Dice Game Rules

Forty-One needs six dice and a pile of chips to bet with. A cup keeps the rolls tidy, though the bare table does the job. Two to eight players fit around the game, and anyone who can add up four dice can join.

The name is nothing more than the two dice you have to get hold of during your turn: a 4 and a 1. Finish without one of them and none of what you collected counts.

Going last is worth something here. You roll knowing exactly what has to be beaten, so take turns opening.

Players roll one at a time, and a full turn is six rolls.

Start by throwing all six dice. Pick out one die, no more than one, and put it down in front of you. Throw the other five, and again a single die goes down. The handful shrinks as you go: six dice, then five, four, three, two and finally one.

A die that has been put down stays down. It cannot be thrown again, however badly you want it back two rolls later. When the sixth die lands in front of you, the turn is finished and the cup moves on.

Everybody gets the same six rolls. All you decide is which die you give up each time.

The six dice in front of you have to include a 4 and a 1. With both there, your turn counts. Missing either one, the turn is worth nothing at all, however high the rest have landed.

Neither of those two dice adds anything to your total. They only decide whether you have a total in the first place.

Failing costs extra when a pot is involved. You owe another chip before the next round. That penalty is why most players take the 4 and the 1 as soon as they show up rather than chase sixes first.

Once you have qualified, set the 4 and the 1 aside and add the pips on the four dice that remain. That total is your result for the round.

Say you end up with 4, 4, 1, 6, 3 and 5 in front of you. One 4 and the 1 pay for the ticket, which leaves 4, 6, 3 and 5 for a score of 18. Only the one 4 is spent on qualifying. The second is worth four points like any other die.

The best finish is 4, 1, 6, 6, 6, 6 for 24 points. It turns up in roughly one turn out of seventy when you play it safe. Close to three qualifying turns in four land between 16 and 21, and that is the range the pot is usually won in.

Six rolls can play out like this:

That opening roll is Forty-One in one picture. The 4 and the 1 were both lying there, only one could stay, and the rest of the turn went on hunting for the other.

Roll five was the second-to-last chance. Had neither of those two dice shown a 1, the very last die had to land on one, and that happens once in six times.

Forty-One comes from the pub, and at home chips or matchsticks do the job perfectly well. Leave real money out of it when children are at the table.

Each player antes one chip before the round begins. Everyone rolls in turn, and the highest total takes the lot. Whoever failed to qualify puts an extra chip on top.

A 24 changes the settlement. Every other player doubles their stake before the pot is handed over, so a perfect turn pays twice as well as an ordinary win.

When two or more players tie at the top, the pot stays where it is and the whole table plays the round again. Carry on for as long as you feel like it, and whoever ends up with the biggest pile of chips had the better evening.

These rules follow Forty-One as the bar game is documented: six dice, exactly one die put down after every roll, and a 4 and a 1 required before anything counts. The penalty chip, the double stakes for a 24 and the replayed round after a tie belong to the same version. Played without stakes, those last three rules simply drop away.