How to play Threes

Threes is played with five dice and suits two players and up. The game is also known as Tripps and is traditionally a stakes game: everyone antes a chip into the pot before the round. The goal is the lowest possible total, and threes are the key: they count zero.

On your turn you roll all five dice. After each roll you must set at least one die aside, of your own choosing. Dice you set aside are locked for the rest of your turn. Then you reroll the rest, continuing until all five dice are set.

A turn therefore takes at most five rolls, and you constantly weigh the same question: lock a low die now, or roll on and hope for threes?

When all five dice are set, add them up:

• Threes count zero.
• Every other die counts face value.

The roll 3-3-1-2-4 is worth 7 points. The perfect result is five threes, worth zero.

Each player takes a turn, and the lowest total wins the round and the pot. On a tie the pot is split, or the tied players roll another round for it. Play until someone has won an agreed number of rounds.

Under the name Tripps, five threes often pay a double pot. A common house rule lets the opener set the cap on rolls, as in Zanzibar. Without stakes the game works fine as a pure low-score game: note the totals per round and crown a winner after five rounds.

It is simply the game's signature, and what gives the choices meaning. Without the zero die the best strategy would always be locking ones, and the game would lose the thrill of chasing the perfect zero roll.