How to play Hooligan

Hooligan is an old American bar game played with five dice and a simple sheet giving each player seven rows: ones to sixes plus the hooligan row. It works with two players or more, and a game takes about fifteen minutes.

Traditionally Hooligan is played for a stake, often with the loser buying the next round. At home it works just as well with points or chips.

Each player gets seven turns, one for every row on the sheet. On your turn you roll all five dice and then have two rerolls. After the first roll you call which row you are going for this turn. Dice that fit the row are set aside, the rest are thrown again.

When your rolls are used up, the result is written in the row you called. Each row can only be used once.

The number rows score the count times the number: three fives are worth 15 points, four sixes are worth 24. The hooligan row requires a straight, 1-2-3-4-5, and scores 20 points.

If you miss what you called, you write down whatever you actually have in that row. If nothing fits, it is a zero.

After seven rounds every sheet is full. Each player adds up their rows, and the highest total wins. A full set of sixes is worth 30 points, so the top number rows matter more than the hooligan itself.

House rules vary from bar to bar. Some require the row to be called before the first roll, which makes the game tougher. Others accept 2-3-4-5-6 as a hooligan alongside 1-2-3-4-5, or let players wait until after the second roll before calling.

If you enjoy dice games with calls and score sheets, Yatzy is the big relative, while Yahtzee is the American classic in the same family.

You still have to score in the row you called. If you called sixes and only kept two, you write 12 points. If you called hooligan and the straight never showed up, it is a zero. That is why smart players call based on what the first roll actually shows, not what they are hoping for.

Yes, and at home that is the usual way. Play for points across a few games, or let the loser do the dishes. The game is every bit as fun without money on the table.