How to play Qualify

Qualify is a banking game for 2 to 8 players. You need five dice and a pile of chips. The game is traditionally played for stakes, but chips or points with no value behind them work just as well at home.

Choose one player to hold the bank. The others each put up a stake, and the banker covers every stake up to a limit you agree on beforehand.

Players take turns, and each turn consists of five throws. The first throw uses all five dice. The highest die is set aside, and you throw again with the rest. It continues like that: after every throw the highest die is put aside, and the fifth throw is made with the last die on its own.

At that point all five dice are set aside, and you add up the pips. That total settles the bet against the bank.

The qualifying line is 25 points. If your total is 25 or more, you win: you take your stake back along with the same amount from the banker. If your total is 24 or less, the banker collects your stake.

The highest possible total is 30, five sixes, so you need an average of five per die to make it.

Rotate the bank so everyone holds it for the same number of turns. After an agreed number of rounds, the player left with the most chips wins.

Qualify also works as a pot game with no banker. Everyone puts an equal stake into a pot, and each player throws in turn with the same setup, except you choose which dice to set aside, at least one per throw. The highest total takes the pot. In some places this variant is called High Dice, but it should not be confused with the two-dice banking game High Dice.

You will find the same set-aside mechanic in Threes, where the goal is the exact opposite: the lowest possible total.

Harder than it looks. Even though you always keep the highest die, an average turn lands just under 24 points, right below the line. The bank therefore wins slightly more often than the players, which is the whole business idea. To reach 25 you need fives and sixes early in the turn.