Cacho (dice)

Cacho

A Peruvian dice game similar to Yahtzee.

Object:

To gain the most points

Scoring:

- Each side is worth its face value (ones=1, two's=2, etc)
- Straight in one roll - 25
- Straight in a series of rolls - 20
- Full house (3 of one, 2 of another) in one roll - 35
- Full house in a series of rolls - 30
- Poker (4 of a kind) in one roll - 45
- Poker in a series of rolls - 40
- Five of a kind in a series of rolls - called a "grande"; worth 50 points a max of 2 times per scoreboard, past that it is worth only the sum of the dice
- Five of a kind in one roll - DORMIDA wins the game or 100 points

Scoring on paper:

The scores are noted on a tic-tac-toe cross hatch. The left column (from top to bottom) scores: ones, twos, threes. The center column scores straights, fulls, pokers. The right column scores fours, fives, sixes. Below the crosshatch two boxes denote the spots for GRANDES worth 50 points each (other grandes beyond these can be noted in the respective number spaces).

Play:

Each player has three rolls to gain as many points as possible.

Once the first roll is on the table, the player decides what they will "go for". For example, if a player decides to aim for ones, he selects out all the aces, replaces the other dice in the cup, and rerolls those, and repeats for the third roll.

If a turn is going particularly badly you may return all the dice in the cup and decide to go for something different, but must only use the remaining number of rolls. A player may also choose to return everything to his cup in the hopes of rolling a straight, full or poker in one roll (again, the TOTAL number of rolls a player has is three; if they reach the max number of points (five of a kind, poker in the first roll) before the end of three rolls, they must score and pass the cup to the next player. They can NOT, for example, roll a straight on the first roll, then use their next two turns to go for two's. Only one goal at a time.

At the end of three rolls the player adds up the points and notes it on the crosshatch. Play continues until all spaces in the scoring crosshatch are full. If a player fails to fill any one (for example, if they have simply not had the luck to ever roll a poker, even in a series), the spot must be Xed out and the player does not earn any points for that combination. Finally, when all the spaces of the hatch are full or Xed, scores are tallied and a winner is determined.

Variations to liven it up:

1. During any roll, a player may say "abajo" (underneath) and the reverse side of the dice are scored, not the face-up side (for example the abajo of five's are twos and of threes are fours).

2. A series of three hatches per player can be played at once. They are arranged in a column and the uppermost is worth one Game Point, so the worst rolls can be scored here. The middle one is worth 2 GPs, and the okay rolls are scored here. The best scores are saved for the bottom hatch, which is worth 3 GPs. Each hatch is counted separately and a winner of each hatch is determined. GPs are then added up and the player with the most GPs wins. This offers more flexibility in scoring and is a much longer game.

3. Players can team up. In this version, each player on a team completes their series of three rolls one after the other. The higher/better/more convenient of the two scores is the one noted on the hatch. again, this offers more flexibility in scoring. This and the three hatch game can be combined for a very fun and competitive family game.